Anna Magdalena


Reviewed by: koalabear

November 22, 2004

Rating: four

Directed by Hai Chung-Man

Actors:
Takeshi Kaneshiro (Chan Kar-Fu)
Aaron Kwok (Yau Muk-Yan)
Kelly Chen (Mok Man-Yee)

Why are these movie summaries always so wrong?: "A truly romantic tale about three young people who start out as adversaries and blossom into something else."

I liked this movie. "Better Tomorrow Review" said: "An interesting, gorgeous-looking failure.". I don't agree.

Shy and introspective piano tuner Chan Kar Fu (the gorgeous Takeshi Kaneshiro) lives alone and has a quiet and solitary life.

This is interrupted when ladies' man Yau Muk Yan (a slightly sleazy Aaron Kwok) moves in with him.

Yau Muk Yan claims to be a writer even though he has never written anything, he doesn't work except to bet on the horses, carries all of his belongings around in a crumbling Sunkissed box and has almost no money to his name. Nonetheless, he has a Don Juan-esque way with women and is smooth-talking and definitely a womaniser.

Aloof and gorgeous Mok Man Yee (played by the cool, lovely Kelly Chen) moves into their building and lives upstairs from Kar Fu.

The sensitive Kar Fu falls for her immediately, but unfortunately it is charming, smooth Yau who makes the move and captures the heart of Man Yee while Kar Fu can only look on in sadness.

I know Aaron Kwok is a HK heart-throb which is why they parade him around shirtless, wearing nothing but tight shorts, but I find him quite repulsive to look at. They make his character quite unattractive and his only redeeming quality is that he appears to have a genuine fondness for the introverted Kar Fu.

Kelly is beautiful as usual, but she is always simply a beautiful object to be craved and admired rather than a living, breathing woman.

The film is beautiful to look at. Largely shot in Vietnam, the scenery is amazing and the music is extremely haunting. Part-way through, the movie shifts into a fantasy sequence as Kar Fu, unable to express his feelings in real life, turns to novel-writing to express how he really feels about the lovely Man Yee.

The Anna Magdalena of the title refers to the keyboard piece by J.S. Bach from the Notenb¨¹chlein f¨¹r Anna Magdalena Bach 1725. Loosely based on this piece, the film is divided into four movements being two themes, a duet, and a set of variations. The first three parts set up the relationship between Kwok, Chen, and Kaneshiro's characters. The fourth (Variations) is a fantasy piece.

A lot of people do not like the fourth section, but I think it's rather lovely. On the one hand, we have a painfully lovelorn assistant book editor (Anita Yuen) who is able to understand what Kar Fu has written in his romance novel. Masked, caped and heroic, X and O are a perfect team. The pulp novel is called ¡°The XO Pair¡±, about a pair of orphans named X and O who are two would-be Robin Hoods (played by Kaneshiro and Chan) who attempt to deliver a message of love from a shadowy recluse to a long unrequited love who happens to be called Mok Man-Yee. After they discover that Mok Man Yee is dead, they go through a hysterical sequence where they try to "deliver a tale of love" to other sweethearts, without much success.

In this story, Kar Fu is able to tell Mok Man-Yee that he loves her and it is such a sweet moment.

It is true that I hoped Kar Fu would break out of his shyness to express his feelings, but I think Part 4 served that purpose quite well and made the film much more realistic than it might otherwise have been.


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