Chinese Box: Director's Cut

2/4

Starring: Jeremy Irons, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung, Ruben Blades, Michael Hui

The version being reviewed is unrated.  For the record, the theatrical cut is rated R for Language and Some Sexual Content

How could a movie starring the irreplaceable Jeremy Irons and international superstar Gong Li ever be boring?  I never thought it could be possible, given their considerable talents.  The script is a good place to start.  It's totally generic; there's very little in the way of character depth or interesting dialogue.  It makes attempts at both, but it comes across as a wannabe of something more substantial.  The direction by Wayne Wang is pedestrian.  His approach is clinical and without any personality.  It's a shame really, because considering the talent in front of the camera and the potential of the story, it had the potential to be something truly special.

The film takes place from December 31, 1996 to June 30th, 1997, as Great Britain prepared to hand over control of Hong Kong, which had been a British colony for the past 100 years, to China.  A British journalist living there named John (Irons) is pining over Vivian (Li), a woman he had an affair with and still loves.  She loves him too, or at least he thinks so, but is engaged to a man named Chang (Hui), with whom she rose up from the bottom with.  John has a lot of pent-up feelings for her, but when he discovers that he is dying, he makes one last desperate play for Vivian.  Meanwhile, he's chasing down a street girl named Jean (Cheung) to interview her.

It would be unfair to call "Chinese Box" a bad film because it isn't.  Despite everything, Irons and especially Gong Li keep things watchable.  But it is disappointing.  There are some effective moments here and there, and the two leads have chemistry.  There is, however, always the sense that this could have been so much more.

Jeremy Irons is a gifted British actor with tremendous range, but here he's mostly coasting through.  Irons' performance lacks life and energy save for a few scenes.  Gong Li, on the other hand, is wonderful.  Considered by many across the world to be one of the greatest working actresses (not to mention a personal favorite of mine), Li does a terrific job as Vivian.  The strength of her performance is impressive because not only is this her English-speaking debut, there's little trace of an accent (which was very heavy in "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Miami Vice") and she manages to make a totally absurd scene (where she makes reference to her past) seem credible.  Maggie Cheung is also quite good as the feisty Jean, although her subplot is almost entirely superfluous and not sufficiently wrapped up.  Ruben Blades and Michael Hui provide support, but neither is especially memorable.

Apart from the generic dialogue and approach, there's a fundamental flaw in the way the story is told: there are very few scenes with John and Vivian.  When we first meet them, their affair has already ended, and a brief montage doesn't cut it as a substitute for real character interaction.  "Casablanca" did something similar to much better effect because we spent quite a bit of time with Rick and Ilsa during their affair.  We know what happened before, during and after their brief romance, which was the building block for the rest of the movie to stand on.  That doesn't happen here, so we have no investment in the love story between John and Vivian.  In fact, Vivian is on screen for far too short of the running time (that may be because Gong Li didn't speak English at the time…by her own admission she understands the language, but prefers to learn her lines phonetically.  I'm not sure if this was the case in 1997, though since according to iMDb, she didn't know English when she made "Memoirs of a Geisha" 8 years later).  The same thing afflicts Jean's story.  It's the perfect sort of material for a tearjerker, but the approach is so dull that not even Maggie Cheung's sparkling performance can generate much interest.

Wayne Wang is as much at fault as the script.  For a film that spends so much time extolling the mystery and complexity of Hong Kong, we never get to see the real city.  Going into non-touristy parts of the city doesn't cut it.  In a film like this, the director has to give the city a distinct personality, and while Wang gives it a game try, it doesn't work.  Hong Kong feels completely ordinary.  There are some attempts at symbolism, but they're clumsy and don't make any sense.

In some ways, movies like "Chinese Box" are worse than regular stinkers because it is so easy to see what it could have been.  When they share the screen together, there is chemistry between Irons and Li, and there are some effective moments here and there.  But it just doesn't come together.