Always On My Mind, with Michael Hui Kwoon-mun, Josephine Siao Fong-fong, Tang Yat-kwun, and Chan Siu-ha. Directed by Jacob Cheung Chi-leung. On Golden Harvest circuit. Cohabitation, with Chan Kai-tai, David Ng Tai-wai, Lee Yuen-wah, and Law Wai-kuen. Directed by Cheung Siu-lun. On Mandarin circuit.
IF one were to make a catalogue of topics ripe for satire in late 20th-century Hong Kong, the state of television journalism and the all-consuming quest for gold would certainly rate high on the list. In fact, the reality often seems like a self-parody. Thus, it was a surprise that Always On My Mind could be so off the mark.
Despite some sterling comedy performances by Michael Hui Kwoon-mun and Josephine Siao Fong-fong, as a veteran newscaster and his wife, the characters and situations are so contrived, so devoid of logical motivation, that the comic antics fall flat. Hui is Cheung Yau-wai, a respected TV journalist who seems to have a healthy respect for the news. But once he finds out he has only three months to live, Cheung decides to cash in by exploiting the news of his imminent death to the utmost. With the collaboration of his greedy boss, who is convinced ratings will rocket with a dying anchorman, Cheung often digresses from the news to lecture the audience with his own subjective observations. He also takes advantage of numerous commercial opportunities, including movie roles and product endorsements, that come his way.
The script never adequately answers how a man, initially depicted as passionate about his job and imbued with professional ethics, could make such a radical about-face. At the same time, it's hard to accept the manner in which Cheung deceives his family - not only by hiding the truth of his illness but encouraging them to throw their moral values out the window.
Wife Ah Yin (Josephine Siao Fong-fong) goes along with what she believes to be Cheung's scam in order to rake in that extra cash. She also encourages her three children to support her lies. Of course, anything can happen in satire. But you have to set up the situations in such a way that they possess a logic of their own. And this is something that never occurs in Always On My Mind.
Instead of being amusing, as were those Japanese money-worshippers in The Yen Family, Cheung and his family come across as unlikeable and unpalatable. The script's basic premise simply doesn't make sense on a gut emotional level. The husband and wife whomwe meet in the early part of the movie don't seem the types to go through with such a harebrained scheme, a plan that has so many holes that it doesn't hold up to cursory scrutiny.
