Mountains Meet. Starring Deborah Lee, Wong Wun-see and Pauline Yeung Po-ling. Directed by Lawrence Ah Mon. A Category II picture on the Regal circuit. Flirting Scholar Starring Chiau Sing-chi and Gong Li. Directed by Lee Lik-chi. A Category II picture on the Newport and Empire circuits.
LAST summer's sleeper '92 The Legendary La Rose Noire spawned a mini-trend: nostalgic spoofs of 60s-era Cantonese movies.
There have been many to follow in the Black Rose's footsteps and with Even Mountains Meet, one that matches the ''original'' in originality.
Like its predecessor, it possesses a disjointed script and some slow patches. But these are more than outweighed by a sharp sense of camp, making the picture a special delight to fans of an era when mini-skirts, beehives, and a-go-go ruled Hongkong's screens.
I never could figure out the significance of the phrase ''when mountains meet''. The Chinese title, which loosely translates as ''Thunderclap in a Clear Sky, Part II, the Conclusion'', is a jestful parody of the old black-and-white and Eastmancolor days. Which pretty much describes the movie as a whole.
The plot is a skewed amalgamation of late late show cliches, set largely in a spooky mansion. The dwelling doubles as a time capsule for its two eccentric residents: Ding Ling-ling (Deborah Lee), the queen of the Hongkong screen until her abrupt retirement a quarter of a century ago; and her personal secretary, Mo Ching-ching (Wong Wun-see, who also starred in '92 The Legendary, La Rose Noire.