The first film of cinematographer Luo Dong, New York New York was produced by Stanley Kwan and is set in the early-nineties; it tells of the on-again, off-again love between the ambitious head bellboy (Ethan Juan) of a luxury hotel in Shanghai and an equally ambitious young woman (Du Juan), as they cross paths with a shady businessman (Michael Miu) who has plans to start a luxury hotel in New York. It’s hard to be more specific about the film’s plot, because while it’s always quite clear, it’s also spectacularly vacuous and free of tension or emotion. The film always looks pretty, sometimes even quite stylish in its nightly, neon-lit scenes, but it is a relentlessly boring affair, following bland, unlikable characters as they struggle to take uninteresting decisions and carry around ill-defined and uninvolving emotional baggage. Countless forgettable subplots fill out the film, with an occasional voice-over narration laboring to give some sort of tragic sweep to what unfolds languidly onscreen. Ethan Juan and Du Juan make for a strikingly bland couple, their complete lack of charisma or chemistry as actors adding insult to the injury of their poorly-written characters: the former is only remarkable for the stupidity of his decisions (and lack thereof), while the latter is a dead-eyed combination of affected coldness and risible emotional brittleness – there’s an unwittingly hilarious scene where a shrewish rival throws her drink in her face, and she reacts by quaking like the shell-shocked victim of a terrorist attack. What little weight the film possesses is down to veterans Michael Miu and Cecilia Yip, whose strong presence is constantly wasted in favor of the tedious leads. *1/2
NEW YORK NEW YORK (2016) short review
Posted in Film Reviews
Posted by LP Hugo on June 5, 2016
https://asianfilmstrike.com/2016/06/05/new-york-new-york-2016-short-review/
Previous Post
BROTHERS (2016) review
BROTHERS (2016) review
Next Post
THREE (2016) review
THREE (2016) review
Leave a comment
- Follow Asian Film Strike on WordPress.com
Asian Film Strike on Twitter
- Andy Lau is shooting the crime thriller SNEAK, directed by Jason Kwan and co-starring Eddie Peng, Simon Yam, Lam Ka… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 3 days ago
- Teaser poster for Zhang Yimou's upcoming period mystery FULL RIVER RED, starring Jackson Yee, Shen Teng, Zhang Yi,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 days ago
- First posters for Herman Yau's crime thriller CUSTOMS FRONTLINE, starring Nicholas Tse, Jacky Cheung, Karena Lam, F… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 week ago
- Teaser poster & first stills from Alan Mak's thriller INTEGRITY (not to be confused with Alan Mak's unrelated 2019… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 3 weeks ago
- RT @chinaenews: Song Jia poses for photo shoot chinaentertainmentnews.com/2022/05/song-j… https://t.co/6xzKxOmDoj 1 month ago
Top Posts Today
Tags
aaron kwok alex fong chung sun andy lau andy on cynthia khan donnie yen eddie peng eric tsang fan siu-wong fantasy francis ng girls with guns horror jackie chan kara hui lam ka tung lam suet louis koo martial arts moon lee remake sammo hung kam bo simon yam song jia tony leung ka-fai wong jing yuen biao yuen wah yukari oshima yu nanRequest a review