Sometime producer, director and actor Derek Yee Tung-sing is a rare talent with a knack for elevating mainstream commercial themes to a higher plane. His most successful movie as producer-director-screenwriter is C'est La Vie, Mon Cheri, the biggest critical and box-office success of 1993 and a picture which gives the term 'Cantonese soap opera' a good name.
The following year he made Full Throttle, the best of all the racing films to come out in the past decade. But when Yee hands over the director's reins, the results are less satisfactory.
His newest production Till Death Do Us Part attempts to put a new spin on one of the oldest themes in moviedom: the eternal triangle of a man caught between his wife and lover. But the script by Susan Chan Suk-yin, Law Chi-leung, and director Daniel Lee Yan-kong is muddled, and Lee's direction fails to make the characters and situations coalesce into a satisfying whole. The movie's threesome comprises ICAC officer Alex (Alex Fong Chung-sun), wife Bobo (Anita Yuen Wing-yee) and nightclub hostess Belle (Almen Wong Pui-ha).
As far as Bobo is concerned, hers is the perfect life. She is devoted to her husband and loves her part-time job as a children's comic book illustrator. Little daughter Cowboy (Wong Man-yee) is doted on by mum and dad. So it comes as a shock when Alex fails to attend Cowboy's birthday party, instead moving in with his voluptuous lover.
The film initially avoids melodrama, to show there are no villains but simply people caught in the vicissitudes of fate and passion. Belle is genuinely in love with Alex, and vice versa. They form one of the sexiest couples to grace the Cantonese screen - the bland and drab Bobo does not stand a chance. Alex feels guilty about the rift and tries to make amends with both wife and daughter, though not to the extent of seeking marriage guidance counselling.
Nearly 40 minutes into the story, the movie changes character with a jolting chain of events. Bobo's best friend May (Astrid Chan Chi-ching), who leads a support group for divorced women, suddenly goes crazy and sensationally hangs herself in front of her friends.
