Ming Ming by Susie Au Shuet Yi (2007)
9 July 2007You can tell that Susie Au is a music video director, because this movie is visually stunning, though the point or many of the happenings are never quite explained, and the one that is, doesn’t really seem to be the focus of the film. Really the film sits on the shoulders of the lead actress in her dual roles, Zhou Xun, and she is cute, and interesting to watch, though the film does fall a bit flat at the end, since most of the plot is never explained. Still it is worth watching just for the style and visuals. The DVD is region 3 though, so you will need an all region player to watch it.
The film starts off with a fight by a modern jiang hu fighter D (Daniel Wu) who is being watched by a local mob boss Brother Cat (Jeff Chang), and his favorite follower Ming Ming (Zhou Yun), a modern martial arts princess, dressed in black, who fights with beads from her scarf that she fires like bullets. Ming Ming quickly seduces D, and in the tub in between sex, they talk, and he tells her that she looks just like someone he knows, and that the only thing he wants in life is $5 Million and to go to Harbin, so she vows to do it. Ming Ming gets $5 Million from Brother Cat, and also steals a wooden box, with something important to Cat in it, so she can give them to D, and she runs, with Cat’s man Mousey (Chan Bo Yuen) in pursuit. Ming MIng runs with the money and runs into Tu (Tony Yang) a man who runs, and tells him to meet her at the dock, but on the way he runs into Nana (also Zhou Yun) who he mistakes for Ming Ming, though she has orange died hair and clothing, and is not a martial artist. He takes her and the money to a astrologist, where Nan learns that D is in Shanghai, and since she is in love with him (and the one that D knew) she wants to go, so when Tu hijacks her, she decides to pretend as Ming Ming in her pursuit of D. And Ming Ming heads to Shanghai to find D as well, and give him the money and the box.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
D is searching for his mother in Shanghai, and Nana and Tu are searching for him. As is Ming Ming, but she makes a deal with Cat to get another $5 million, in exchange for the box, but instead she promises to open it with D in Harbin, and is planning on taking the money from Cat or actually Mousey, which she does, but she reads the letter, and ends up giving the box to Tu to return to Cat. Nana and Tu run with the box and run into D, who only wants the box, and he knocks out Tu and Nana faints. Ming Ming has meanwhile been drugged by something in the money, and Brother Cat has gotten the contents of the box back, which is a letter from D’s mother to him when she ran away her father and had a sex change operation, becoming Brother Cat.
So Nana leaves with Tu, and Ming Ming leaves for Harbin and other cold places, leaving Brother Cat behind.
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Visually stunning, though the martial arts are heavily stylized because Zhou Yun obviously does not know any martial arts, but it works here, and is fun to watch, though not entirely satisfying.
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