The lead actor, director and lead actress of Magdalena took part in
a post-screening Q&A at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival
Madalena (Macau-Hong Kong, 2021)
- Emily Chan, director and scriptwriter
- Starring: Louis Cheung, Chrissie Chau
The 18th edition of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival officially began on October 27th with two opening films, both helmed by female filmmakers. Not being a fan (to put it mildly) of Aubrey Lam's Twelve Nights, I wasn't keen to check out her Twelve Days (which is a thematic continuation of her first film, made 21 years ago). So it was an easy decision to opt to view the fest's other opening film: debutante director Emily Chan's set-in-Macau Madalena; this not least since I had mistakenly thought that it was another dramatic effort by another female filmmaker from Macau, Tracy Choi!
Continuing with the confessions: I actually came out of the screening of Madalena thinking that it had indeed been made by the director of Sisterhood, and only realized that it was not the case when I looked up Emily Chan's filmography! One reason is that both films (which, incidentally, are the only two movies from Macau that I've viewed to date) have a similar stylistic "feel" in terms of their being human-scale works which are confident enough to take their time to led the audience get to know their main characters and to tell their stories. For another, they both focus on depicting prosaic parts of Macau which are far from the glitz and money that is associated with it being, at least before the pandemic, the casino capital of the world.
In the case of Madalena, its two protagonists are a taxi driver named Mada (Louis Cheung) and a woman who supplements her waitressing day job with being a "beer girl" at night called Lena (Chrissie Chau). Abandoned by his wife two years ago, Mada still badly pines for her and attempts to literally drink away his sorrows and longings when he's off work. And it's only after a chance meeting with Lena that he starts to feel that life is worth living again; this even though their first meeting hardly gets off to a good start, with her pepper spraying him in the face after mistakenly thinking that he was intent on groping her!
A native speaker of the Chiuchow language (also known as Teochew or Chaozhou) who has learnt Cantonese in order to make money faster in the formerly Portugese-ruled but long-time predominantly Cantonese-speaking enclave, Lena is originally from Mainland China. And although she is in Macau legally, it's illegal for her to work two jobs; hence her trying to steer clear of getting noticed and questioned by the cops. But while she states more than once in the film that she is really only in Macau to make money, planning to return home (and reunite with her young daughter, who is being taken of in the meantime by Lena's mother) as soon as she's made enough to open a restaurant there, the sense is that, after she embarks on a relationship with Mada, she starts to consider that maybe she could make a real life for herself and her daughter with him in Macau.
As we go further into Madalena though, it comes to light that both Mada and Lena have had past relationships which not only inflicted trauma on them but are capable of negatively affecting their perspectives on life along with perceptions of others. And while Mada initially looks like the more tortured and lost soul, Lena it is who may well have the bigger problems that get in her way of her escaping her past and having a second a chance at having a good life.
It is very much to Chrissie Chau's credit that she makes her character not only sympathetic but one whose thinking process is thoroughly understandable -- so much so that, at times, it can feel like the audience can actually see her thought process as her brain clicks into gear. Meanwhile, Louis Cheung's greatest accomplishment may have been to uglify himself and make himself look so utterly ordinary and middle-aged in the film that you would never think that, in real life, he's an entertainer who not only acts but also sings and is a songwriter! And while neither Chau nor Cheung are among the A-list of Hong Kong cinema, they often display more acting chops than many a Hong Kong movie superstar -- including in Madalena.
All in all, I found Madalena to be an involving watch that's quite a bit better than one might expect of a film with a debutante director at its helm and thus a real credit to Emily Chan for having made it. Speaking of credits: coming as it did on the day that Hong Kong passed a film censorship law that doesn't bode well for Hong Kong cinema, it was a bit of a jolt to see the Macau Liason Office as well as police force being thanked in the movie's end credits. In truth, I wouldn't say that this dramatic offering painted all that positive an image of Mainland China as well as Macau. So I guess it holds out some hope that movies that aren't propaganda works can continue be made in both the Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China for some time to come.
My rating for this film: 7.0
No comments:
Post a Comment