| Pui Yan (Sylvia Chang) goes from being separated from childhood love Man Chi Yeung (Emil Chow) to an arranged marriage with a British based Hong Kong man in order to find a financial solution to her grandmother's sickness. The "marriage" is one of duty, even involving abuse but Pui Yan finds something to save over in England, namely the disabled daughter of her husband, Yip Fan (Anita Yuen). Nursing her back to health, Pui Yan returns to Hong Kong to fight for a place in the distinguished Pui cigarette manufacturing family and marriage with lawyer Ko Chun (Winston Chao) solves this. She climbs the corporate ladder while she also sets up Yip Fan with Man Chi Yeung who is now a doctor. He gets her thoroughly walking again while Pui Yan loses herself in the world of corporations to a deadly degree...
The driving force of I Want To Go On Living, Sylvia Chang co-wrote this beautifully shot (Jingle Ma was the director of photography) and fairly epic character story that rarely seems to stop taking turns in its story. When we think it's a simple, life affirming story, the switch to Hong Kong again provides us with more intelligent material. Even though it's not overly felt, the leads bring their honed screen presences and director Raymond Lee maintains focus on the material, creating another noticeable blimp in his underrated filmography (that also includes A Killer's Blues and Blue Lightning). |
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