Asian Beauty Appreciation

Isabella (Yi sa bui lai) is a 2006 Hong Kong film written and directed by Ho-Cheung Pang. It takes place in Macau and stars the beautiful Isabella Leong and Chapman To. The film begins abruptly with Chen-Shing Ma (Chapman To) attempting to pick up Bik-Yan Cheung (Leong) in some dark corner of a bustling club. It quickly cycles through a series of images including Bik-Yan smoking a cigarette down an unknown hallway, a close-up of a defeated Chen-Shing hunkered against a slot machine, and an ant’s eye view between some unfamiliar buildings before the title card appears.

The shots feel disjointed but not only do they give an idea of what is to come but they showcase the talented eye of cinematographer Charlie Lam and his excellent framing. The music is also introduced here with artsy guitar strumming and piano playing. Now while the score won best film music at the Berlin International Film Festival, I feel that it grows repetitious later as it never changes in tempo.

The story truly begins at this point with a stoic and at times inanimate Bik-Yan on the trail of Chen-Shing. The editing choices in this section found me floundering in confusion with the scene beginning with Bik-Yan confronting Chen-Shing in a bar, presumably due to infidelity, and bashing a glass into his head. But it quickly cuts to Chen-Shing performing the same act to a cowering man in the same bar but at a previous time.

This flashback is not the first but it does set up a series of confusing time jumps in the film. While the cinematography is strong, the editing done by Wenders Li leaves the film scattered and disconnected. And while the film has jumped back before the incident between the two main characters, it also presents a genesis between them as they have a one night stand. The film shows no sex scene nor nudity, only a cut to the morning after with the naked back of Leong. At first you suspect her to be a prostitute as she rifles through Chen-Shing’s wallet, but she eventually leaves without any payment.

At this point, a B story begins with a series of small paragraphs that detail the inner workings of Chen-Shing’s police work. I don’t know if it was the director’s choice to display this part of the story this way or if it was due to either lack of budget or time, but they never really fit with the film and they take you away from the drama. I could understand doing this due to lack of time for the film runs 109 minutes, but I think through better editing, these sequences could have been filmed and added.

Finally the film gets back to the scene at the bar when Bik-Yan bashes the glass into Chen-Shing’s head and the subsequent hospital visit where she makes a startling revelation: she is his daughter. Now this raised a rather disturbing question in my head: if she new this was her father then why did she allow him to take her to bed?

Even Shing asks her this question down the line and she bitingly returns with, You screw around with so many women, you were bound to get around to your daughter. With this answer you can almost interpret it as an act of revenge for abandoning her mother.

Either that or she sees it as the only way to connect with her father as she witnesses a multitude of prostitutes leaving his apartment on a routine basis. She also asks for a reparation of $3,000 which seems low for the amount of distress she must have suffered, but it turns out it’s merely to cover her unpaid rent.

The mother, Isabella recently died of lung cancer and young Bik-Yan cannot live on her own. She is also desperate to retrieve her dog, also named Isabella, which is trapped in her place. The dilemma involving her dog is what inevitably strikes up a camaraderie between the two. Now while the whole purpose of the film was to connect these two characters, the way it happens just feels out of left field, not natural or plausible at all.

Though the characters are now connected, they are still very much divided. There are many scenes of the two simply sitting next to each other without a thing to say. The scenes play long and let the uncomfortable tension mount. This section of the film also sees Yan move in with Shing.

This act allows the two to take a part in each other’s lives and at times change them. The most important change comes when Shing is confronted with a life-changing decision that may leave him estranged from his daughter once more. Whether he decides to return to his disheartening ways or grow and become a cemented part of Yan’s life is his major conflict in the story.

While the artsy feel of the film is welcome at some points with the imaginative and adept cinematography, others are not, such as the puzzling editing choices that leave the film as more of a collection of shots rather than a cohesive flow and the cliche score which ends up dull and worn by the end of the film.

The acting and story are decent but take a back seat to the high concept of the shots and the disjointed feel that the editing gives off.

The movie is available for rent on Netflix and purchase on Amazon.

The dvd includes Cantonese and Mandarin audio with traditional and simplified Chinese subtitles as well as English. Special features include three separate commentaries from Chapman To & Isabella Leong, director Ho-Cheung Pang, and director of photography Charlie Lam. Unfortunately, none of which include accompanying English subtitles.

Isabella Leong on SLF