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SYNOPSIS:
May contain
spoilers...
Synopsis:
A nostalgic look at Hong Kong in the 1970s, this Hong Kong drama follows Fan and Ming, two friends who spend their days outside a movie theatre selling sugar cane and fish balls. Each falls in love - Ming with a martial arts heroine, and Fan with a girl so mysterious she might be a ghost..
Romantic drama directed by Riley Ip
Starring Charlene Choi, Gillian Chung, Shawn Yu, Anthony Wong, Eric
Kot
In Cantonese, with English subtitles
Running time 100 mins
OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
justonelook.emg.com.hk
[Chinese text]
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HEROIC-CINEMA REVIEW:
This hidden gem is easily one of the best Hong Kong releases for
2002. Get over that appalling bright blue poster that screams
"Twins on summer holiday!", and you'll be well rewarded.
Just One Look is about love, movies, and love of movies.
It's set in the 1970s, and the two main characters spend all their
days out the front of the local theatre. Behind them a succession of
wonderful hand-painted boards advertise the movies of the day, from
blazing kung fu to wuxia to gangster flicks, all 1970s style. The
spirit of the movies infuses the whole affair; in the street, common
guys engage in earnest discussion about which is better, northern or
southern fist style, and everyone wants to learn kung fu. If you'd
ever doubted the impact that Bruce Lee and his peers had an a
generation, this is a great tribute.
The story is one of passion and pursuit - young guys Fan and Ming
are each smitten by two girls who seem to be straight out of the
movies, each played by a member of the pop duo Twins. Heroine
(Charlene Choi) teaches martial arts with her father (Eric Kot), and
Ghost (Gillian Chung) seems to live on an island deserted save for a
Buddhist temple. For a movie billed as starring Twins it's
interesting that the girls have the supporting roles, but the roles
suit them perfectly.
The boys chase their romantic dreams, and their quest is
illustrated by nifty recreations of the movies of the times - the
Fan/Ming/Heroine love triangle is suddenly on screen in Fan's
imagination as a Cheng Pei Pei style wuxia, with disastrous
consequences for onscreen Ming. Fan himself burns for revenge in the
real world for a local hoodlum (Anthony Wong) who he believes killed
his father; but like everything else in this film, there is more
than meets the eye.
Affectionate from the first to last reel, with unflagging
production values and a moving script, this summer surprise is one
to savour for all who truly love Hong Kong movies.
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