By Chris Hyde

June 17, 2003

For her stellar work in The Eye, Angelica Lee received a Best Actress award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Princess D, her other 2002 film, also shows off this rising actress' many talents.

But the smart performance of Ms. Lee isn't the only positive attribute of this entertaining outing, as Anthony Wong Chau-Sang took home his own Golden Horse Award for his supporting role as dance instructor in the film. Overall the film certainly has its flaws, but it ultimately succeeds through the skills of the cast and its genially philosophical nature. Princess D does perhaps aim a bit too high and manages to lose its focus at times, but the narrative is engaging and the characters carry enough weight to make the movie come out on top.

The story concerns a game programmer named Joker (Daniel Wu) who is working on a project that centers on a female avatar. His vision of this central character isn't completely solidified, though he knows that he doesn't wish the virtual icon to be the perfect idealized figure that some of his rival team members would like. While searching for a way to get his vision to coalesce, one night he goes to a local dance club where he meets up with Ling (Angelica Lee), a bartender that he had previously noticed on the street for her striking beauty. In the course of the evening he accidentally gets hopped up with whatever sorts of psychedelics the young woman is peddling from the back of the bar, and in a drugged out haze hallucinates her as the embodiment of the character he seeks.

Unfortunately, his bosses don't like all of his ideas for Princess D, and try to force a compromise with the co-workers who would rather that the character be a more traditionally flawless model. So Joker up and quits, deciding to independently set up shop with some friends and his younger brother (Edison Chan) at their father's dance studio. As they develop the game and Ling works with them to perfect their vision, Joker discovers that Ling’s home life is fractured by all kinds of real world fissures that threaten to erupt at any moment. As their lives become more intertwined, he eventually hopes to help Ling escape the tendrils of crime that threaten her potential, but it's unsure whether or not the young woman will be able to escape being choked by the past that envelops her.

Much of Princess D's narrative revolves around aspects of the virtual/real duality and the sometimes necessary (but oft confusing) idealization that characterizes human beings' interactions with each other. Director Sylvia Chang's most salient moments depict Joker and Ling as they find common ground while forming a relationship, and the filmmaker happily resists the impulse to easy answers throughout the course of the film. What's obvious is that Chang is a director who can coax quality performances from her stable, as nearly everyone puts in a quality turn - even people such as Daniel Wu, whose reputation as a dramatic performer has never been all that great. Unfortunately, not everything about this movie completely comes off in the end. There are some side story moments that delve into the life of the Kid (Joker's little brother) that appear to be largely for comic relief, and they tend to get in the way more than to explicate his character's mien. While these scenes are acted well enough and aren't totally out of place, they seem to not be completely integrated into the rhythm of the tale and their presence slightly upsets the overall pace. Additionally, some of the larger questions that the film raises are left cryptically unanswered, though the director seems to have chosen this approach deliberately to make the audience work at figuring out the meaning of the story. Ultimately, this does little to make the story cohere at the end, though as a means of stylistic modus operandi the selection is understandable.

But while the story here does contain some slight kinks, they end up being forgivable as the talents of the cast allow the film to rise above its narrative shortcomings. Both Wu and Chen are solid in their fraternal roles, remaining eminently watchable throughout the film's length. The Golden Horse that Anthony Wong Chau-Sang took home for his work in Princess D was certainly well deserved, as his sensitive characterization of the boys' dance instructor father is both understated and powerful. The greatest triumphs here, however, come from Angelica Lee's portrayal of the troubled character that is the inspiration for the heroine of Joker's cyberspace game. She succeeds whether the scenes she plays are designed to display her character's strengths or her vulnerabilities, and there are times where her performance is so good that it makes watching this somewhat uneven film completely worthwhile. One such moment is a delicate interstice where she takes a ride on the back of Joker's bicycle just as their tenuous interactions are becoming somewhat romantic in nature; as Ling sets herself free in the simple act of raising her arms to the wind as they roll down the streets of Hong Kong, the vibrant set of her face brightly intimates the depths that lurk within the hardened and defensive person that she has previously been displaying to the world. In the larger scheme of the movie this segment is but a small bit of characterization that might easily be overlooked -- but in the hands of this talented actress and her expressive demeanor these few seconds serve to say more about her character than much that is said throughout the screenplay.

It also doesn't hurt Ms. Lee that this movie is shot by a great cameraman, the estimable Pin Bing Lee. Known for his previous spectacular photography for directors such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wong Kar-Wai, Tran Anh Hung and Tian Zhuangzhuang, the cinematographer does an impressive job lending his professional artistic skills to this production, a more commercial enterprise than many of the recent art house motion pictures he's been involved with. In his hands Angelica Lee appears luminous, her expressive eyes catching the light in a manner that allows her refined faculties to be shown in the best possible way. But it's not only the starlet who benefits from the top-notch photography of the principal cameraman, as the entire production looks crisp and colorful from start to finish thanks to his amazing talents.