rsoonsa
A good deal of quality is to be found in this romantic melodrama having comedic leanings, relating of a young man and woman who decide to meet in person after a lengthy electronic acquaintance established through an Internet chat room, discovering that a relationship in the physical world is fraught with emotional risk as well as pleasure, and that they have lost all desire to frequent a realm of virtual reality. The packaging for a DVD release is not helpful to viewers but fortunately the film itself makes up for it, offering one outstanding performance by Ma Qian-shan as Flyin Dance, a clumsy translation more accurately interpreted as Lightning Dancing Queen who, by bestowing upon Tsia-Chung (Jordan Chan) her complete love, is able to influence him into releasing long pent-up passion and other emotions, therewith enabling him to generate much needed self-esteem. Zhang Zhen is cast as A-Tai, roommate of Tsia-Chung, a fellow user of the Internet for the purpose of meeting women, although he is seeking subjects as playmates, not for a single soulmate, until he meets Siu Yu (Shu Qi), a high-spirited professional dancer; however, when she hears from Taia-Chung that A-Tai has not achieved satiety in his search for available women, the relationship ends, the narrative thereafter focussing upon the other couple, this being to the good as theirs is the more engrossing story. Director Jin Guo-chao is highly inventive with setups for this well-scripted piece that is replete with visceral truths, and that benefits from well above standard production values, including creative cinematography, montage, and editing, that in combination serve to maintain viewer interest. Dialogue is in Mandarin with dubbing from that language and from Cantonese, with subtitling available in those two tongues as well as in traditional and simplified Chinese, and in English also, the latter case providing but a rough conception of what the characters are saying, yet nonetheless adequate because much of this conversation propelled screenplay is derived from idiomatic sources. Acting honours must go to Ma Qian-shan, who is not even mentioned upon the DVD case, for her sensitive portrayal of a woman hiding a tragic situation from her new lover.
