Wonder Women

Starring: Gigi Leung Wing-kei, Fiona Sit Hoi-kei, George Lam Chi-cheung

Director: Barbara Wong Chun-chun

Category: IIA (Cantonese)

The apolitical nature of Hong Kong movie scenarios is both a bane and a blessing. The downside is the major issues confronting us during the decades preceding and following the handover have rarely been dealt with in a meaningful manner. The upside is the lack of the kind of PC propaganda that is a centrepiece of Wonder Women. Not only ideologically facile, the feature falls short of presenting riveting character studies of its heroines and their experiences during the past 10 years.

The original story by Leung Fung-yee might have held promise, but when transferred to script the tale of businesswoman Joy Shing (Gigi Leung, right) is a mawkish melodrama loaded with product placements and political shoe-shining.

An executive in a big corporation, Joy is ostensibly a superwoman adept at juggling a flourishing career and, on the home front, a doting husband (George Lam) and infant son. But despite the feminist trappings, Joy is an embodiment of Confucian ideals, submitting to the will of the men in her life, whether raped by her spouse, unjustly terminated by a chief executive (Nie Yuan), or cheated out of millions by a trusted neighbour (Hui Siu-hung). It's simply not in Joy's nature to fight back, preferring to move ahead rather than dwell on the past. But since she seems to have learned little from what has passed, her ultimate triumph comes across as less than plausible.