| Overview: | Hold You Tight is a film to make you quiet. Stanley Kwan explores themes of human sexuality and relationships, and manages to bring out the most endearing and honest performances from all his actors.
This film boasts uncharacteristically strong performances from the three leads. All three are known for more exploitative fare (Fong for action, Tsang for comedy, and Yau for every kind of cheap thrills you can imagine save hard core porn), but they work miracles in this artsy drama piece.
Taiwanese immigrant Jie (Oh) represses his (as yet unknown) desire for Fung Wai (Chan), who's experiencing marital difficulties with his wife of one year, Ah Moon (Yau). Unwittingly getting closer to Fung Wai, Jie enters into a steamy affair with his wife, until she disappears. With her death unknown to him, Jie closely follows a now grief-stricken Fung Wai as he gains a confidant in an openly gay real estate agent (Tsang). Jie eventually hears of her fate and, confused and distraught, flies back to Taiwan. There he meets Rosa (Yau), who, not surprisingly, reminds him of Ah Moon. With her help, Jie finally comprehends/acknowledges his true feelings towards Fung Wai. Apparently, Stanley Kwan's budget wasn't high enough for big names, and the film's much better off for it. Chan Pak Hung is extremely natural on the big screen, as is Chingmy Yau who's very believable as an average young wife. Eric Tsang's character is played with sensitivity. This film also has the most mature and frank (and explicit) approach to it's themes seen in HK cinema.
The cinematography enhances a feeling of realism as Kwan utilizes a stark almost documentary look for much of the film. The narrative flow of the film is disconcerting at times, as the film jumps from character to character and also sequentially out of time, before the story starts to coagulate and make sense.
Kwan is famous for bringing out wonderful performances from his actors–Maggie Cheung in The Actress and Anita Mui in Rouge come to mind–and here Chingmy gives the best performance of her life. Nothing flashy–just pure, honest and real. Perhaps she just had to get away from Wong Jing and have the opportunity.
All in all, it's a remarkable film well worth watching. Easily one of the best films of 1998.
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