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| You know, being the meatheaded action junkie that I am, I didn't think I'd like this one when I rented it one day. But it changed my mind right from the get go. Basically, a Japanese girl named Hitomi travels to HK to escape the mental anguish from a car accident that killed her fiancee Tetsuya (played in brief flashbacks by Leslie Cheung). However, once she comes to HK, she sees a man in black who is the spitting image of her late fiancee. This guy's name is Karbo (also played by Leslie, pretty intensely I might add). Karbo is a hard boiled, driven undercover cop in the middle of a police corruption case involving (surprise surprise) dealings with the mob. Hitomi is infatuated with Karbo, even though he continually shrugs her off, telling her he's not her fiancee. Until the day Karbo is implicated in the corruption case, and is on the run from both the police and the mob. He takes Hitomi on a little boat ride and pretends to be the husband that Hitomi never had. Even if just for a night. Really sad at times, and a really great heartfelt and kinda-naive performance by the Japanese girl who plays Hitomi (don't know her name, but she's a cutie). The only thing I didn't like about the film was about 3/4 of the way through, the story decided to shift almost exclusively to Karbo's side of the story, where he confronts the obligatory inside man who's behind the corruption, and all that. But Karbo and Hitomi have a very realistic looking (albeit reluctant for Karbo) relationship, where Hitomi tries to recapture the love she never got to receive from Tetsuya. Great date movie, with lots of heartfelt romance and unrequited love for all the ladies, and just enough suspense and even a little action to keep the guys awake. Personally, with all the new-wave Raver Triad ghost story Wong Kar-Wai wannabe crapfests out there, this is one new movie that I really loved. Yeah. I said "loved". You want a piece of this?? >=) |
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| Moonlight Express is at its heart a touching love story, and specifically one of karmatic love, tied together by dreamy cinematography and wandering narrative. The story begins unexpectedly with **SPOILER** the death of Hitomi's fiance, and so she travels to Hk like he had promised her to hit selected sites. Unbeknownst to her is a man who looks exactly like her fiance, by the name of Karbo. What happens next is a whirlwhind of dirty police underdealings and a budding love between Hitomi and Karbo. The theme/question is repeatedly raised whether or not Hitomi can love Karbo as his own man, and not just as a substitute for Tetsuoya, and also if Karbo will reduce himself to a replacement. The ending scene is filmed with a glossy, soft camera lens, invoking "dreamy faraway" images, and with the ending scene, **Possible Spoiler** Hitomi asks testingly, "what is your name?" And Karbo's answer is the resolution to the film, merely by stating his name. Analysis of plot aside, the movie's gentle tone is woven with occasional bursts of energy, such as Hitomi's chase scene after Karbo, or Karbo's last stand at the police station. The overall tone of Moonlight Express is that of longing and fulfillment concerning love, and can be summed up in the image of the waves which Hitomi narrates carries Tetsuoya's soul. And this is the lasting impression that ME leaves -- fulfilled experience, but longing for sequel. |
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| Very enjoyable movie, with particularly good performances from Leslie Cheung and Takako Tokiwa. The movie rests squarely upon her shoulders, and she does admirably well. Now for the caveat...I have to agree with a previous reviewer who had harsh words for some of the songs in the movie. It has become a bit of a bore having to mention that a soundtrack should first and foremost serve the film it appears in, rather than intrude so badly that it all but wrecks the flow of the story....rather like a tedious Disney exercise in formulaic fodder. The songs were so grating and obtrusive that one was forced to wonder upon whose lap should the extreme lapse in good taste be placed...because certainly, the rest of the film was a lot more sure footed in execution. Not to be too down on Henry Lai, because the instrumental pieces, particularly the 'main' theme ( Hitomi's theme ), captured a proper balance of sweetness and melancholy...BUT the songs, particularly 'Flame In My Heart', both grated and embarrassed me. It was as if I had to re-live ABBA's 'english-as-a-second-language' amateurish lyrics and diction all over again. AND, as if to add further insult to injury, just as the last bits of the flashback coda fade away, with the wonderful 'music box' theme just adding the right bit of sweetening to the whole scene and our senses lulled into the elegiac moment of their first meeting,we are jolted back into rude reality with the harsh bleatings of the 'song', when by any measure of good taste we should be allowed to savour the final few moments in relative silence. Rather like a bad case of coitus interruptus involving ice cubes , some cold metallic objects and a cattle prod. |
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