Review | Dearest Anita film review: love-in for Anita Mui fans traces late Canto-pop singer’s positive influences
- The film, based on real events, shows how much fans of the Hong Kong singer loved her, and how much she loved them back
- Its clumsy plot turns and melodramatic acting are partly offset by the sincerity of the film, the idea for which an Anita Mui fan club came up with
2.5/5 stars
The legacy of the late Canto-pop diva Anita Mui Yim-fong lives on with this unabashed love-in of a movie. It recounts several supposedly fact-based stories of how much Mui treasured her fans, as well as how, some 10 years after her death in 2003, they were still passionately conserving the gifts they had previously given their idol.
Led by Sonija Kwok Sin-nei’s fan club leader, the fans systematically go through the items thrown out from Mui’s fabled store room – where she purportedly kept every souvenir fans had given her – and return each of those gifts to their original senders. You read that right: not only do Mui’s fans love their idol, but they also love the fact that they love her so much.
The most poignant story is that of Myolie Wu Hang-yee’s character, who knew Mui before she was famous when they were both fans of Japanese singer Hideki Saijo but becomes estranged from the singer when she hits the big time.