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Perhaps best known in
this part of the world for her roles in IRON MONKEY, THE EAST IS RED,
and ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA IV & V, Jean Wang Ching-ying has
a second career at which she has attained greater heights: fashion
model. This video program succeeds when simply showcasing the remarkably
beautiful Taiwan native in a number of exotic and stylized settings.
Unfortunately, like many of these productions, it eventually descends
into outright silliness. Why do the creators of these things think
that anyone really cares about context in a video pictorial, especially
one that runs barely a half hour?
Chapter 1 is a collection of still
images from segments seen later on and are also featured in the program's
photobook tie-in. Chapter 2 (the bizarrely named "The Goblin
on Stage") shows Jean Wang on the catwalk, behind the scenes
of said fashion show, and on the locations that will be coming up.
Next is "Looking for the Missing Tarot," which sets up the
slender storyline: Wang has decided to "take off her high heel
shoes" and venture out into the wilds of Thailand in search of
adventure. She encounters a tarot card reader in a small village,
which prompts her to achieve the title objective, as she is "wishing
to seek absoluteness and positivity in life." The viewer is then
presented with a row of five Tarot cards; choosing one determines
the next vignette. The best finds Wang (vamping in a blonde wig and
short shorts) pursued by police after apparently murdering a guy that
tried to force himself upon her. Other segments offer beach frolicking,
elephant riding, Wang modeling European period gowns, and then being
chosen as a possible sacrificial victim by some torch-bearing lunatics.
Finally, the DVD concludes with "Answering Machine of the Moods"
(?), which offers a few minutes of Wang talking about the making of
the program, with some Greek Chorus comments from her model friends.
The ending of this silly scenario
is telegraphed almost at the very beginning and, sorry to report that,
in spite of the title, Wang is never genuinely naked at any point.
Still, fans probably wont mind too much as she is on-camera
about 98% of the time and looks breathtaking more often than not.
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The menu can be viewed in Chinese,
English or Japanese; the language you choose also determines the voice
over narration you receive. On the chapters with dialogue, you can jump
between those languages or call up subtitles in them. The audio is sufficiently
dynamic (though the English track has some dropouts), while the video
(a mix of 16mm and Betacam) features all of the tonal and contrast manipulation
one expects from this sort of program. It could probably be a bit sharper
but, overall, there is little to complain about. While the discs
layout is generally good, it certainly could have used a "Play
All" option and you must go back to the menu to jump between chapters.
The Fejui logo occasionally pops up in the top left corner of the image,
but it is usually offscreen before becoming too much of a distraction. |
This
DVD is available at: |
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Images in this review courtesy
of Fejui Media Corporation. To read captions, hover mouse over image.
Click
here for more information about The Hong Kong Filmography
Copyright
© John Charles 2000 - 2004. All Rights Reserved.
E-mail: mail@dighkmovies.com
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DVD Specifications
- Taiwan Release
- NTSC – Region 0
- Fejui Media Corporation #AVC36303
- Dolby Digital 2.0
- Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and English
Language
- Subtitles (Optional): English, Traditional
Chinese, Japanese
- 4 Chapters
- 4:3 Fullscreen
- 31 Minutes
Ratings & Consumer Information
- Not Available
- Contains mild eroticism
FILM REVIEW RATINGS KEY:
- 10 A Masterpiece
- 9 Excellent
- 8 Highly Recommended
- 7 Very Good
- 6 Recommended
- 5 Marginal Recommendation
- 4 Not Recommended
- 3 Poor
- 2 Definitely Not Recommended
- 1 Dreadful
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