Modern Cinderella

Nnadia Chan-Fishy Sun
Amanda Lee-Grace
Wayne Lai-Wu Ah Kou

Released in 2002, this is one of the three movie releases Nnadia Chan had for the year, the others being Dizzy Date and Return From the Other World. Situated in Hong Kong and Shanghai, this movie deals with how a girl could move from her seemingly boring and hard-to-handle life into being a confident person and discovering love on the way.

Nnadia in this movie plays a character known as Fishy Sun, also known as Sut Wun Yue. That is a literal translation of a Chinese expression denoting the person as being a very absent minded or useless person on handling situations.

Being that her name had such a meaning, it seemed as though Fishy had her life marked out for her. She had a good steady job and a very nice boyfriend, but on her birthday she is suddenly fired from her job being a secretary for reasons of downsizing the company. Then she is dumped by her boyfriend of eight years. Fishy's old childhood best friend Grace, who seemingly had a great job in Shanghai, comes to visit. Realising Fishy's problems, Grace proposes for Fishy to go up to Shanghai to work in her company.

Despite her poor Mandarin, Fishy agrees and off she goes. Once getting up to Shanghai, the manager of the company hires Fishy thinking that it'll impress other Shanghai people that he's got himself a Hong Kong secretary. On Fishy's first day at work, the manager had her do nothing but sit and stare at him.

I'm sure this is all for comedic purposes, but it proved the concept that if you know how to kiss up to a boss' ass then it's okay for a person to do nothing except to make the person in a higher position than you to feel proud.

But silly things aside, Fishy had during this time, met this man name Wu Kou (Wayne Lai). Everyone calls him Ah Kou and he had a questionable job in the company.

One of the reasons why this movie would be called Modern Cinderella would be that Nnadia plays this plain woman that under a makeover and such becomes what her normal beautiful look would be.

Toward the end of the movie there is a minor mention at the end of the movie that Fishy and Ah Kou has a budding relationship and because of Ah Kou's prodding and encouragement, Fishy changes from being a nothing to a beauty.

There is a play of names through this whole entire movie, as with Fishy's name. Ah Kou's name has something to do with the expression of being a black crow. How something bad would happen when he says something. Fishy had called Ah Kou a jinx when they first met, with Ah Kou saying back to her that she's an absent minded fish, only good for viewing and not much for anything else. As with Grace, normally you would think of being a person of grace and good manners, however Grace's a fortune hunter with a rude manner. A definite comedic mix of meanings in the name play here.

I felt that this movie displayed the maturity and acting capabilities that Nnadia has, from roles like Song Bird to The Spirit of Love. However this movie reminded me a lot of her '92 Mark of Triumph role. But this is one of the better movies that I've watched recently and I heartily recommend it to viewers who would enjoy a light romantic movie.

I though that the couples in this movie were cute. Wayne Lai and Nnadia had certainly changed from their time in TVB's drama, To Love with Love, which was released in 1995. Wayne was cute in a scruffy way.

Nnadia didn't sing in this movie and neither did Amanda, but there was one prominent background song that truly reflected the modernization and sophistication of how China is, with a techno beat that I really did like. That made up the fact that the movie could go by without Nnadia singing, which truly displayed her talents in not just being a singer, but a good actor as well.