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Isabella

Starring: Chapman To Man-chat, Isabella Leong Lok-sze, Anthony Wong Chau-sang

Director: Edmond Pang Ho-cheung

Category: IIA (Cantonese)

The potential for sensationalism is present in this gritty drama whose opening reels depict a schoolgirl having sex with a man who might or might not be her father. That writer-director-producer Edmond Pang succeeds in telling an affecting tale of the bonds that tie two troubled souls is all the more remarkable in the casting of a neophyte known primarily for her pretty face and a veteran whose performances have rarely shown such emotional depths.

Pang has a reputation as the most innovative of Hong Kong's new generation of filmmakers, with his witty observations of diverse aspects of the battle of the sexes in comedy-dramas such as You Shoot, I Shoot (2001) and Beyond Our Ken (2004). Isabella, set in a crime-ridden Macau during the run-up to the colony's return to China in 1999, represents a departure in its rough milieu, violence and comparative lack of humour.

The enigmatic characterisations of the initial scenes are such a departure that they lead one to suspect that Pang has turned pretentiously arty and is trying to reinvent himself as a new Wong Kar-wai.

But as the characters come into sharper focus, Pang's story (developed into script form by the director with Kearen Pang Sau-wai, Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung and Jimmy Wan Chi-man) asserts its dominance over Charlie Lam Chi-kin's cinematography, Man Lim-chung's art direction and Peter Kam Pui-tat's Portuguese-tinged music. What emerges is a touching portrait of 17-year-old Yan (Isabella Leong) and her relationship with Shing (Chapman To), a corrupt cop and womaniser who was the great love of Yan's recently deceased mother.

The meaning of the title, incidentally, is a pleasant surprise, and also a key to understanding a facet of Yan's character.

The question of whether or not they are father and daughter becomes increasingly unimportant as the two bond, sharing each other's burdens both figuratively and literally (as in a poignant-yet-humorous sequence of the duo dragging the girl's heavy bags across Macau's cobblestone streets). The city becomes far more than a pictorial backdrop, the time and place being vital elements in the interpersonal drama binding the man and girl.

The film's effectiveness depends on its two leads, and they don't disappoint. To's previous performances run the gamut from cringe-inducing to genuinely affecting (most notably in Infernal Affairs). That To (who is a co-producer) manages to endow the amoral, thuggish Shing with an unsentimental pathos is a tribute to him and his director.

Leong, a model-turned-singer/actress whose roles include far-from-demanding turns in Bug Me Not! and The Eye: Infinity (both 2005), still gets by on her looks. The camera loves her, and Pang has tailored the role to fit the personality of a teenager whose seductive surface belies the naive waif within.

Isabella opens today

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