To be
fair, I don’t watch a ton of mainstream romantic comedies, and to be even
fairer, I’ve seen almost none made in Hong Kong. But I feel like, even by cheesy rom-com
standards, this isn’t a good movie. By
turns schmaltzy and raunchy, with a goofy contrived plot that coasts on the
charms of its lead actors, Love Me, Love
My Money is not for me.
Richard
Ma, incredibly wealthy but notoriously stingy, is used to waiting for the other
shoe to drop in relationships. He knows
that, eventually, the women he dates “only want one thing”: his money.
However, a chance meeting with a beautiful young stock broker named Choi
coincides with Richard’s latest ex taking some serious monetary revenge on
him. With his furniture given away and
his credit cards reported stolen, Richard is temporarily penniless, leading
Choi to assume that’s his normal state of affairs. She offers to pay him for his help in her own
relationship woes – posing as her boyfriend to get her father’s preferred
suitor off her back – and it’s only a matter of time before, despite the lie
hanging over all their interactions, Richard and Choi start falling for each
other. This isn’t bound to get messy or
anything, right?
Very
paint-by-numbers, with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer (I lost track of how
many ludicrously-tight-fisted cost-cutting measures Richard takes,
professionally and personally, in the first ten minutes alone.) It’s silly, predictable, and feels awfully
over-the-top to me. Also, while I don’t
generally mind the sexual hijinks (here in the U.S., Hollywood rarely allows
Asian actors, especially men, to be sexual beings,) but there are a few places
where it goes way too far; in particular, there are a couple of really
distasteful rape jokes that I hated, and which seem so out-of-place in such a
frothy comedy.
I
wouldn’t say it’s all dire. What good is
to be had can be found in Tony Leung Chiu-wai as Richard and Qi Shu (who I’m
not familiar with) as Choi. Though neither
part is at all demanding, both actors sell their chemistry amid all the
misunderstandings and whacky complications.
They have an amusing, slightly-combative back-and-forth, and in the
film’s quieter moments, we see the makings of a nice connection between
them. Shu’s Choi is vivacious and
engaging, very much the sort of woman who might be able to knock some sense
into Richard.
Richard
himself is nothing to write home about, and as I said, his assorted character
flaws are greatly over-written. Still,
in spite of him being such a “bastard” (there’s a running gag about how his
Chinese name sounds very close to the Canto word for “bastard,” and so women
are continually “calling him by his Chinese name,”) Leung still infuses his
performance with enough charisma that you hope for him to get his act together
rather than for Choi to run for the hills.
I didn’t laugh much at this movie, but when I did, it was usually at one
of his lines or reaction shots. (Side
note: I love the few occasions when I’ve
heard Leung speak English in his films, and this movie gives us a bit of
that. For whatever reason, he sounds so
different than he does in his English-speaking interviews, and that tickles
me.)
Recommend?
In
General
– I wouldn’t. It’s possible that I’m just
not the audience the film is looking for, but even for its genre, I suspect
it’s not very good.
Tony
Leung Chiu-wai
– Not necessarily. If you want the
satisfaction/eye candy of seeing Leung in a role that, in Hollywood, probably
would’ve been played by someone like Matthew McConaughey, go ahead. I’m hoping, though, to find better examples
of him in this sort of movie before I’m finished.
Warnings
Sexual
content (including a few tasteless rape jokes,) language, slapstick violence, and
drinking/smoking.
No comments:
Post a Comment