Taiwanese native Wang Hsiung Ping (Sylvia Chang) is a struggling actress, moving swiftly between auditions and men without managing to stand on solid ground. Li Feng Jiao (Maggie Cheung) from Hong Kong, a careerwoman who juggles both being a restaurant owner, real estate agent and mentally dealing with her homosexuality. Zhao Hong (Siqin Gaowa) has just married Thomas, an American Born Chinese, and is trying to adjust to her new American lifestyle. She's missing only thing piece to her puzzle. Her mother back in China....

In a slight way, Full Moon In New York predates the Sylvia Chang directed 20 30 40 as it definitely echoes the same template but so many years later after being directed herself, Sylvia didn't xerox Kwan's vision. It's certainly not an original template in any case, even way back in 1989. Stanley Kwan has been given the blueprint by Yan Tai On Ping and Zhong Acheng to tell a story of different Asian women out of their element. It's about confusion and detachment, be it sexual or cultural but ultimately is talks about one very important thing; the celebration of and need to hold on to your roots. Within the Bill Wong lensed New York locations, the character of Zhao Wong is the one that is the most out of tune with her new environment. Having married an American born Chinese, the adjustment hasn't been good to her and really her biggest lifeline, her mother who has suffered a lot at the hands of Chinese history, is what's needed for her to be balanced. Circumstances and unsaid laid down rules seems to point towards the fact that she'll never achieve happiness as a Chinese woman, only an American one. Wang Hsiung Ping and Li Feng Jiao are the veterans of the city, well-adjusted New Yorkers but that's a surface illusion. Inside, they're as confused, alone and afraid that they've lost their ways. Unification is strongly emphasized throughout the film although revelations along the way creates a downbeat flip-flop between character's roots that becomes a mental frustration for Zhao Wong and Wang in particular.

Stanley Kwan is dependable and knows his direction but initially does say that I'm not going to start all over in my portrayal of these characters. He instead calmly, yet loudly throws us right smack in the middle of these women's lives but at crucial points. Therefore he has already challenged himself to hook character-drama enthusiasts into the piece as we move along and despite a relatively short running time, considering the material, Full Moon In New York offers plenty of worthwhile subtext eventually.

Compared to Rouge, Kwan's direction is more along the lines of point and shoot even though Bill Wong's cinematography certainly is well planned out. If you want any flashier direction, go elsewhere! Kwan's only big stylistic boom's comes via music passages where he does help out in telling that we're now experiencing something important but it's not condescending the intended audience. As Full Moon In New York rolls along, expected narrative turns crop up but usually we're very much immersed into the friendship of Zhao, Wang and Li. They're not so much helping out each other thoroughly but their meeting are catalysts for their rediscoveries. Something which is a sharp point made by writers Yan Tai On Ping & Zhong Acheng.

Truth of the matter is, I see flaws in Kwan's storytelling yet he's so darn good at adding weight despite. I'm really referring to the beginning once more where everyone knows everyone except us but also his slight touching upon the past history between the people in the film. Instead of telling life stories back to back, Kwan instead relies on the subtle writing and brings out the same with the actors. The result is the needed weight for either the running time or the moment. Best example being the fling Li has with Josephine Koo's character. Normally, this wouldn't be sufficient but in the hands of Kwan, he makes scattered and slight portrayals big. As a sidenote, Koo's role is very similar to the dynamics of her character in A Fishy Story that also stars Maggie Cheung.

It's an ensemble piece as well with very much terrific and layered performances by Sylvia Chang and Maggie Cheung but my vote goes to Siqin Gaowa who so perfectly embodies the shyness, awkwardness and longing that Zhao Wong constantly goes through. Where was her nomination?!

If you want to be swept away by Full Moon In New York, you can but bear in mind that this is a different beast than Rouge. Stanley Kwan goes even more low-key and the end results are probably underwhelming for most viewers. However for those seeking out genre stuff like this, you will be rewarded. It's all told very quietly while Kwan still heavily emphasizes the importance of unification and never losing touch with who you really are. Not just between the Chinese but for all Asian people. Full Moon In New York is not a homerun but the content is supersolid.

The film opens on Zhao Hong's and Thomas' wedding ceremony. The mood is immediately set. Zhao, just arriving from People Republic of China (PRC) and who can't speak English, feels spaced out, totally dependent on Thomas's translations. He says jokes to his friends and relatives all around and translates them only partially to his bride. Fortunately for Zhao, amongst the guests is Wang...

Li, from her very first scene, shows a fouled temper in contrast to the shy and reserved Zhao Hong. She claims the rent from a Lithuanian artist, Wang's boy-friend who is present too. Li shows signs of authority and harshness. Then, once out in the street, she assaults with great violence a man who bumped into her and didn't apologize...

The three women meet at Li's restaurant. The least that can be said is that this first contact is rather tense ! The Chinese restaurant has roots in Hunan region and Zhao is surprised at finding duck on the menu. Wang explains: "Chinese food for American, cooked by Cantonese"... Li answers coldly: "Chinese food cooked by Chinese in a Chinese restaurant"... "Yes", Wang replies, "Chinese dishes adapted to American taste."... After what Li says aggressively: "No, you are the Chinese dish adapted to American taste !"... Zhao calms them down, asking: "Why argue ? We all are Chinese...". A heavy silence follows... "An angel passed and frightened us", Wang says. And when Zhao looks through the window, trying to see the angel, Wang and Li burst out of laughter. Their friendship can start now...

The first surprise for a Western person is to find how the language problem can divide and keep apart people from a same country, China. Zhao can't speak either Cantonese or English. Wang can't speak Cantonese. Thomas's parents can't speak Mandarin. And if Zhao and Wang both speak Mandarin, they probably don't write it in the same way, the Taiwanese using traditional Chinese and the Mainlander the simplified one... Li alone can use the three languages, Mandarin, Cantonese and English. A problem we'll find again in a more acute way in the excellent "Comrades, Almost a Love Story" ("Tian Mimi", by Peter Chan, 1996, with Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai, review to come soon) in which the Chinese people coming from PRC find themselves as real foreigners in Hong-Kong because of this language barrier (the almost obligatory English being unknown too to most of Mainlanders)...

"FULL MOON IN NEW YORK" gives the viewer three great woman characters to admire. Stanley KWAN remains a big specialist in this matter and was nicknamed because of that the Asian "George Cukor". Already, in ROUGE or CENTRE STAGE, he splendidly painted the portraits of two women of the past (Fleur the courtesan in the first one, the actress Ruan Lingyu in the second). Here, it is about the present time even if past is still well alive. Zhao's parents were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and that was how his father lost his life...

Wang's Taiwanese dad has been living in NY for 20 years, he's a politician still believing that he stands for millions of Chinese. He provides shelter for Bao Di, a Mainlander woman. This one, who keeps torture scars on her wrists, intends to write her memoirs... Thomas's parents want to get rid of their ancestors annals (a kind of a wooden book in which names of the relatives are engraved in at each birth). Zhao feels shocked. During the Cultural Revolution, those annals were forbidden and her mother used to engrave her children's names in the wood of the chairs...

In this present-day New York, the Chinese traditions are still enduring. For instance, a modern woman if ever there is one, Li urges Zhao to let enter the "Chi" which will bring happiness to her new flat by opening all the windows in the middle of the night... One friend of Li's father organizes a meeting between Li and Mr. Chow (usual practice in the whole China, even today). Mr. Chow is a business man who opened the third Chinese restaurant in mid-town ("Why wasn't he the first one ?" the active Li asks before everything, she who believes in the need to take risks)... But Li is strongly attracted by Chow's partner, the not very handsome Kung. She literally throws herself into his arms. Maybe in order to give herself a kind of sexual "normality" and an excuse to break up with her girl-friend, the pretty and elegant, but sad-eyed Stella (Chinese too)...

The three friends are alone in their lives. Zhao finds how big is the cultural gap that keeps her apart from her husband who refuses to make her mother come to live with them in NY... When Wang moves in her friend Wu's place and asks him to share the bed with her "for not letting my landlord sleep on the couch" he answers: "What's in your head ? Pay your rent ?"... And Li finds herself alone after Kung has spurned her advances, having noticing Stella's presence... Then the three women drown their frustration together in alcohol that they swallow while laughing and singing, smiles on their lips and tears in their eyes...

As usual in Stanley KWAN's film, the direction is extremely elegant, fluent, simple, with a beautiful photography. And a sense of modesty too. There is also, of course, the actresses' talent: Maggie Cheung Man-yuk (Li) alternates with her usual panache the many facets of her character, as well as the excellent Sylvia Chang Ai-chia (born in 1953, a talented director too, with a special attractiveness) in the role of Wang. As for Stchingowa (Zhao), she is very credible as the young, disappointed, naive and sweet bride in love...

A very good film to be seen