When Hong Kong romance movies got weird: Saviour of the Soul, Anna Magdalena and Isabella

Hong Kong romances are often melodramatic, and in the 1990s, increasingly geared towards teenagers. However, some filmmakers were still experimenting with the genre. We look at three outliers: a surreal science fiction romance, a love story that morphs into a fantasy and a film about a presumed incestuous relationship. Saviour of the Soul (1991) This postmodern sci-fi romance, loosely based on the popular Japanese manga City Hunter, is a thoroughbred romance at its core. Set in a futuristic-looking Hong Kong, Saviour of the Soul stars Andy Lau Tak-wah as the sword-wielding assassin Ching, who falls for one of two identical sisters, both played by Anita Mui Yim-fong. When sister one’s fiancé (Kenny Bee) kills a powerful criminal, his acolyte Silver Fox (a hammy Aaron Kwok Fu-shing) exacts his revenge. Sister one disappears, and the lovelorn Ching searches for her, much to the chagrin of sister two. But the return of the vengeful Silver Fox threatens their already difficult romance. The screenplay co-written by Wong Kar-wai and Jeff Lau Chun-wai features many Wong-style monologues in which the characters express their romantic hopes and desires. But the film also unspools at a frantic pace, with directors Corey Yuen Kwai and David Lai Dai-wai trying to rein in the chaos that threatens to break out at any moment. The action is innovative: the main sword fight between Lau and Kwok is an old-fashioned wuxia battle shot with 1990s kineticism, while another scene features Lau fighting Kwok while trapped inside a mirror. This visual creativity, courtesy of Peter Pau Tak-hei’s camera work and Yee Chung-man’s art direction, was praised by critics like Post reviewer Paul Fonoroff as a “live-action comic strip”. Saviour of the Soul was the first production from Lau’s company Teamwork Motion Pictures, and the romantically obsessed, audacious hero he played marked a change of image for the star. But Mui got all the praise, with many noting her impressive ability to create two distinct characters in a dual role and her rare skill in providing both the film’s action and its comic relief. Anna Magdalena (1998) This directorial debut by art director Yee Chung-man is a distinctly unusual romance. Structured in four “movements” like a work of classical music, the film begins as a typical romantic drama and ends as a phantasmagorical flight of the imagination. Although the fantasy sequence – which takes up a third of the running time – feels disconnected from the rest of the storyline, the emotions expressed are a perfect fit for the finale, and it looks gorgeous. Written by Ivy Ho (Comrades, Almost a Love Story), the script features Takeshi Kaneshiro as a piano tuner who lives in a flat below Kelly Chen Wai-lam’s pianist. When Aaron Kwok’s broke would-be novelist moves in with Kaneshiro, he falls in love with her, but is instantly rejected. The piano tuner also quietly falls for her. The first two thirds play out like a bromance, as the two men bond over their romantic failures. But the last part, which was shot in Hanoi, Vietnam, morphs into a fantasy novel-within-a-film, in which love is given greater rein. Yee’s infusion of dreamy melancholy and heightened romanticism into the narrative lingers with many viewers. Yet for others, such as Post critic Fonoroff, the “ersatz emoting” was just too much. “All the beautiful packaging that Hong Kong cinema has to offer cannot disguise the patent phoniness that infests Anna Magdalena,” he wrote. Isabella (2006) Pang Ho-cheung’s provocative film was a hit with local critics at the time, as serious art-house fare has long been a relative rarity in Hong Kong cinema. It tells the story of a slovenly Macau policeman, Shing (Chapman To Man-chat), who picks up a schoolgirl prostitute, Yan (Isabella Leong Lok-sze), and later discovers she may be his daughter. The film performed well at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for best film music. It was a new direction for Pang, who had made his name with offbeat entertainers like Men Suddenly in Black, but Isabella’s underperformance at the box office saw him quickly return to his characteristic quirky style. Thiscarefully etched, character-driven story explores what happens next: as the two protagonists learn more about each other, a genuine familial love grows between them, and their lives become more stable and hopefulas a result. Pang wanted to make a film about Macau as it prepared for the return to Chinese administration in 1999, so he set the drama during the run-up, using To’s corrupt police officer and the changing police department to reflect the era. To, who also co-produced, earned critical praise for his performance, endowing the amoral, thuggish Shing with an unsentimental pathos. To told Clarence Tsui in a Post interview that preparing for the part entailed much self-reflection and deep thinking after years of playing caricatures. “I think a damaged personality counts more than technique,” he said of playing Shing. Leong also impressed in the role of the girl, as she had previously only appeared in fluffy teenage fare. “The camera loves her,” noted Fonoroff, “and Pang has tailored the role to fit the personality of a teenager whose seductive surface belies the naive waif within.” In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook

When Hong Kong romance movies got weird: Saviour of the Soul, Anna Magdalena and Isabella

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Sci-fi story Saviour of the Soul, fantasy tale Anna Magdalena and the provocative Isabella went outside the norm for Hong Kong romances

Saviour of the Soul (1991)

Sci-fi story Saviour of the Soul, fantasy tale Anna Magdalena and the provocative Isabella went outside the norm for Hong Kong romances