Asian Film Review: 'Crossing Hennessy' (月滿軒尼詩)

Sorry its taken me a while to write this up! 

One of the two opening films of the HKIFF two weeks back was Ivy Ho's ' Crossing Hennessy' (月滿軒尼詩),  you can see the red carpet photos here on the HKIFF blog.

Basic premise of this film is that Jacky and Tang Wei are introduced through a matchmaker,  but both actually are interested in someone so don't take the set-up date seriously.  By accident they end up striking up a friendship.   Andy On plays Tang Wei's boyfriend with anger management issues,  Maggie Cheung Hoi-yee plays Jacky's career oriented ex who he's still involved with.  The parents/aunts/uncles do a good job in their supporting role. 

You can kind of guess where things are going with these types of movies,  its just a matter of how you get there.   I give it a 5/10.  Its a bit too low key for me to really recommend, but its by no means bad.  But it is hard to get emotionally invested in the characters and situations. 

Frankly I didn't find much chemistry between 30 year old Tang (who looks more like she's under 25) and the 48 year old Jacky.     I hope when I'm 48 people are still trying to hook me up with girls who are 18+ years younger than me. :-P

The film does some nice showcasing of HK's neighborhoods (both sides of Hennessy Rd in this case),  I think it will help create a romanticized image of Wanchai in the HK movie fans overseas.  (just like the way 'Young and Dangerous' did for Causeway Bay?) :-P

 ps - i think this film was actually made last year, but because of the idiotic backlash against Tang Wei over 'Lust Caution', it looks like it was shelved for a while.