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Đạo diễn: Diễn viên: Cổ Thiên Lạc
The comparison was inevitable. Both are cute, suddenly bankable female
popstars with successful singing careers, and both have made romantic
comedy their genre of choice. However, Miriam Yeung and Sammi Cheng are
not clones of one another. If anything, their success is just
indicative of another type of duplication: the sudden proliferation of
Needing You clones. Dry Wood Fierce Fire seems to have a lot in
common with that seminal 2000 romantic comedy. It features an offbeat,
slightly strange female lead in Miriam Yeung, and a handsome male lead
in Louis Koo. The two play coworkers in an office setting, and like
Needing You the threat of gossip and office politics is always around.
Furthermore, the two don't have a lot in common at first, but form a
burgeoning friendship due to mutual respect and a few convenient plot
devices. Then a third party (played by Flora Chan) gets in the way, so
our two heroes must admit their feelings or face life without each
other. Or something like that. Yep, just like Needing You.
Alice (Miriam Yeung) works for "Ladies," a female-only magazine.
However, publisher Michelle (Flora Chan) decides to merge "Ladies" with
"Gents", an all-male magazine that employs Ryan (Louis Koo) as one of
the chief editors. As you'd expect, this leads to your standard
male/female office politics, but the quirky quotient is upped thanks to
Alice's status as a fourth-generation Chinese herbologist. That means
Miriam Yeung gets to spend a good third of the film engaging in wacky
cultural shtick, i.e. prescribing herbs at the office, cooking
traditional remedies, and practicing kung-fu all over the place.
Alice's antics around the office provides most of the film's comedy
until the film's real plot comes to light. Here it is: Alice finds Ryan
incredibly attractive, but he's sort of a lout towards her. Still, the
two become friends when Ryan falls for Michelle and vows to win her
love. Alice decides to help Ryan win Michelle, not noticing until it's
too late that her own affection is growing stronger. Then Ryan must
choose between the two women. Who didn't see that coming?
Like all romantic comedies, the fun comes not in the outcome of the
film, but in the journey. In that, Dry Wood Fierce Fire stalls, as the
buildup to the eventual blessed union consists of wacky shtick, some
more wacky shtick, and then even more wacky shtick. Ryan and Alice shop
for furniture but stop to fight with a beggar (Cheung Tat-Ming). They
engage in Three's Company-type antics when Michelle visits Ryan, and
Alice must hide herself in the fridge. They get their hands stuck
together with epoxy, which means we get a short sequence of them
holding hands. The comedy is certainly agreeable and fun, but nothing
new occurs here.
Director Wilson Yip has a track record for terrific handling of
character. That skill is lost here because he's directing a romantic
comedy. When dealing with the horror trappings of Bio-Zombie or the cop
soap opera of Bullets Over Summer, Yip has brought hidden depths to
typically character-free genres. However, the usual romantic comedy
situations at work here are too mechanical to allow for any hidden
depths. There is the occasional moment that accomplishes much more (a
dinner scene between Alice, Ryan and her parents is surprisingly
affecting), but those moments are buried beneath recycled romantic
comedy devices.
Still, the performers shore up the film's laziness. Louis Koo has shown
surprising comedic instinct. In contrast to usual "aw-shucks" romantic
leads Aaron Kwok or Leon Lai, Koo has shown the willingness to lampoon
his own lady-killer image. His performances in this film and La
Brassiere have opened up a whole new range of roles for him.
And, Miriam Yeung is a charming performer despite her limited
repertoire of mouthy, innanely perky characters. Her comparison to
Sammi Cheng is an understandable, but ultimately questionable one.
Superficially, the two resemble one another, but the characters they
play are quite different. Yeung is the quintessential "jade girl", the
girl-next-door who charms thanks to her perky, pure-hearted attitude.
Cheng's characters seem to have more complex emotions, and her acting
style is natural and even deceptively subtle. Yeung is likable, but
Cheng is currently the better actress (though Marry a Rich Man could
make you think otherwise).
This doesn't mean that Yeung is a bad actress. She's actually quite
winning and likable, though one wonders if she can handle anything else
besides mouthy romantic leads. Her career thus far hasn't really
required her to do more than pout, mug and smile. Hopefully a role will
come her way that actually requires her to act. She just might have the
ability to pull it off. Source: http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/dry_wood_fierce_fire.htm
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