| Sausalito (2000)
一見鍾情
Director: Andrew Lau
Wai-Keung
Starring: Leon Lai
Ming, Maggie Cheung, Eric Kot Man Fai
A sort of semi-sequel to Comrades, Almost A Love
Story, "Sausalito" features one of Maggie Cheung's best and
least-mannered perfs in years. "Sausalito" is a wafer-thin romancer
between two 30-ish Chinese in California with the flavor of early
Lelouch and buckets of charm.
Ellen (Cheung) is a single-mother cabby; Mike (Cantopop
star Leon Lai) is a computer whiz who owns a cash-strapped dot-com.
Their eyes cross in a bar one day and she later sees him drunk in the
street. Once inside her cab they spontaneously combust.
Film's Chinese title ("Love at First Sight")
removes the necessity for showing any foreplay in the relationship, and
it's only after the first volcanic coupling that the movie really
begins. She's 35, two years older than him, and with a young son and
kind-of career;, he needs cash to get his company out of trouble and
develop a game, Nirvana, that will re-establish his name. They
essentially come from separate worlds, but can't stop seeing each other.
Lau keeps the whole will-they/won't-they souffle
from going flat, largely by sheer technique (music, cutting, occasional
songs, an improvised feel to the photography). But none of it would work
without the cast, especially Cheung. Paired again with Lai for the first
time since Peter Chan's 1996 "Comrades, Almost a Love Story," and sans
fussy makeup, she has a freshness and naturalness here that's funny,
touching and beguiling. Lai mostly stands there and looks good -- which
is what he's best at.
Supports are strong, with veteran Richard Ng
underplaying Mike's gay landlord-come-confidant, comedian Eric Kot
reined back as Mike's business partner and Valerie Chow leonine as a
business bitch on wheels.
DVD:
List Price: US $28.95
Sale
Price: US$9.95
Language:
Cantonese / Mandarin
Subtitle:
English / Traditional Chinese
/ Simplified Chinese
All Regions
(Can be played on any DVD player in the
world)
Rating:
IIB
- "Adult Material;
Parental Guidance Recommended" (roughly equal to an
MPPA rating of "R") Films rated Category IIB
contain large amounts of violence and/or nudity and
sexual situations in addition to possible explicit
language and adult situations.
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