Why Me Sweetie?
Director: Jingle Ma
Cast: Louis Koo, Cherrie Ying, Tats Lau
Synopsis: He’s great looking. She’s gorgeous. They meet in Beijing, China, and it looks like love will blossom. Or will it? This isn’t boy meets girl, boy loses girl. Instead this is boy meets girl, then boy can’t remember girl.
Tagline:
Classification: Romantic Comedy
Release date: April 10, 2003
Running time: 97 minutes
Language: Cantonese or Mandarin with English and Chinese subtitles
Studio website:
Links: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379975
Categories: Comedy, Romance
I wonder if ideas are just floating around in the atmosphere like radio waves waiting to be found. For example, on February 13, 2004 (just in time for Valentine’s Day) a rom/com called 50 First Dates was released in the United States. This followed the April 10th, 2003 release of a rom/com called Why Me Sweetie? (aka Sat Yik Gaai Lui Wong) which was shot in Beijing, China, and released first in Hong Kong.
I am fairly certain that the former did not play theatrically in Asia except for Japan, and that the latter did not get a theatrical release stateside.
But looking at the DVD cover of Why Me Sweetie?, you can see the legend: The film that inspired the Adam Sandler comedy 50 First Dates. Ok, maybe that’s just savvy marketing, or maybe ideas are tuned in, action is taken, and then the idea goes back into the atmosphere and becomes available again for someone else to select at a later date.
50 First Dates starred Adam Sandler in pursuit of Drew Barrymore. She had memory issues, so each time he met her, it was like a first date. Got that? Why Me Sweetie starred Hong Kong heart throbs Louis Koo and Cherrie Ying and it was the same story, only in this case, Koo had the memory problem which they called Selective Memory Disorder.
Since I’d much prefer to look at Cherrie Ying than Adam Sandler, we shall do a review of Why Me Sweetie which was directed by Jingle Ma.
Right out of the box, I’m going to tell you that despite the glossy look to the film itself, and the decided eye-candyness of both Ying and Koo, this is not a great film.
It has its moments, and the images are beautiful. But neither the script nor the performances by the stars are really that good.
A little back story first: Ying’s character, called DingDing, is an ABC (American born Chinese) in Beijing studying acting at a university. Koo’s character is called Dong. He runs a very successful bake shop in town. But he is even more successful at attracting women. And why not? Even if he had a great memory he’d have trouble keeping track of the bevy of women that he’s dated.
But he does have the memory disorder, so he dates you today, and doesn’t recognize you tomorrow. DingDing finds this out the hard way of course. But there’s a Greek Chorus type of character that appears and fills in the details for us. This would be Dr. Chie played by Tats Lau.
He’s known Dong forever, so he gives DingDing and us the lowdown. An old girlfriend tragically died. She happened to look just like DingDing. So the plan will be to get Dong to remember loving the old girl friend to get him to love the new girl friend. Got that?
Yes, it is a rom/com device with all the substance of cellophane, and lack of substance is nothing new for the genre. Okay – we don’t dwell in spoilers here, announced or otherwise, so that’s as far as we’ll go plot wise.
Koo certainly has the looks for romantic leads, and he has a flair for romantic comedies. Ying is so good looking I’d be happy watching her read a newspaper.
But the script works like a pendulum swinging bacl and forth between funny and dramatic. In other words, the problem is that the film doesn’t know what it wants to be, so it attempts both.
And ultimately, this is what makes the film neither a hit nor a miss. You will likely pull the DVD out of the player when it’s over, and feel charmed by Koo and Ying. And the next day, you’ll remember the beauty of the leads in detail but for the film itself – selective memory disorder is likely to kick in.