Isabella (Yi sa bui lai)

[pro-bassoonist]

Out now in Hong Kong via MegaStar. Nominated for Golden Bear and winner of Silver Bear (Best Music) at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2006.

YesAsia:
http://www.yesasia.com/global/isabel...0-en/info.html

Variety:

Four parts mood and one part content, "Isabella" spends a long time saying not very much. Beautifully lensed widescreen elegy to times past and chances lost -- through the slim story of a suspended Macau cop and a lanky young woman who claims to be his daughter -- reps a complete change of pace by Hong Kong director Edmond Pang and plays like Wong Kar-wai-lite. More suited to a sidebar, pic looked out of place in the Berlinale's competition and theatrical business looks to be minimal.

Pang has made his name the past five years with a series of quirky, inventive comedies such as "You Shoot, I Shoot," "Men Suddenly in Black" and "AV." In contrast, "Isabella," the first project of his own company Not Brothers, set up with actor Chapman To, is a conventional mood piece, bereft of Pang's usual genre-bending invention and shot in Hong Kong filmers' favorite musty location, Macau.

The characters are introduced with fancy cross-cutting. It's the sweltering summer of 1999 and, as occasional intertitles remind, it was a crime-filled few months, with authorities cracking down on smuggling and police corruption prior to the Portuguese colony being delivered back to China.

To plays Inspector Ma Chen-shing, a world-weary cop and serial womanizer who's on suspension. In a bar, he picks up Cheung Bik-yan (Isabella Leong), with a line that will come to haunt him: "You remind me of my first girlfriend."

Taciturn, and with the look of a drifter, Cheung remains enigmatic. But some time after they've slept together, she floors Ma with the news that she's his daughter.

Cheung says all she wants is a little money to pay her back rent and rescue her dog, Isabella, who's been locked in the apartment by her landlord. By default, the pair spend a lot of time together, wandering around the picturesque Macau streets and lounging in Ma's tatty apartment -- all of which is set to a repetitive, largely Latin-flavored score.

More often seen in comic or offbeat roles, To is fine as the cop whose life took the wrong track almost from the start. Newcomer Wong, who debuted in "The Eye: Infinity," and recalls a wilder-looking version of actress Cecilia Cheung, is also believable as the waifish, leggy Cheung. Shame neither of them has much of a script to chew on, as they stroll through Man Lim-chung's atmospheric production design and d.p. Charlie Lam's gently pastel lensing.

In an apparent effort to beef up the pic, Anthony Wong cameos as Ma's colorful friend, and other names (Shawn Yue, Josie Ho) clock in briefly.

Camera (color, widescreen), Charlie Lam; editor, Wenders Li; music, Peter Kam; production designer, Man Lim-chung; costume designer, Stephanie Wong; sound (Dolby Digital), Nip Kei-wing, David Wong; associate producers, Shirley Lau, Lorraine Ho; associate executive producer, Han Sanping; assistant director, Luk Kim-ching. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (competing), Feb. 16, 2006. Running time: 109 MIN.

Pro-B