Beyond Our Ken (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region All

Daniel Wu | Gillian Chung | Tao Hung | Jimmy Huang

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Customer Review of "Beyond Our Ken (Hong Kong Version)"

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Average Customer Rating for this Edition: Customer Review Rated Bad 8 - 8.7 out of 10 (7)
Average Customer Rating for All Editions of this Product: Customer Review Rated Bad 8 - 8.7 out of 10 (15)

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numinair
See all my reviews

November 28, 2007

1 people found the following helpful

are Two Disillusioned Fillies! Customer Review Rated Bad 8 - 8 out of 10

This is an interesting film - fun, physiological, gender questioning and in between kitsch and chin stroking thinking, by its deeper aspects. The DVD's cast and crew information credits director Pang Ho Cehung's own personal youth experiences (a bit like Korean director Hong, maybe?), regarding emotional relationships, and you have here an apparent story of betrayal of two women, and of their boyfriend Ken (Daniel Yu). The latter having the regularity and penchant to ditch his partners, followed by a quick web post of their love trysts onto explicit sites. Embarrassment City! So, women are scorned and discus boyfriend trouble (care of Shirley and Chan here), and sum up and evaluate stereotypical philandering male. One with horns, according to the cover, as well. Oh, dear.

Although comments have mentioned this film to be a quite dark movie, and its black artwork DVD cover does give the impression of a grim tale (in fact rock band Black Sabbath would normally have a cover like this) - the only real darker elements here, are the very cynical themes about women, men and relationships. Otherwise, this is a bit of a softie. Still, I was suggestively anticipating a tale of dissed and scorned females on a revenge pact, towards an arrogant and cynical philander - ending in fatal attraction type bloodiness. But this film is far from that idea as you can get. Its more a mixture of dumped girlfriends, sleuthed antics, fun filled and light drama (giggly females included), as Chan and Shirley learn about each others personalities (which seem oddly similar) after Chan (Gillian) an ex-girlfriend of Kens, tires to get help from Ken's present flame (Shirley), to delete Chan's dodgy tryst pictures off his computer. (Not a good combination - compromising positions, digital camera and naughty school boy shenanigans).

The film's theme is certainly a focus on the negative of romantic relationships. In fact Chan and Shirley seem to be the ones sharing more with each other, than with an ideal Ken (and where do men's feelings come into this? Or are they [we] just seen as thicky bystanders or something? Beware: if you're male and watch this movie, you're certainly going to feel short changed. I'm sure the Old English 'B' on the cover stands for something other than merely 'Beyond', regarding Ken's nature). The focus is more on C and S than Ken the Krafty, that is for sure - that pretty well makes this a female character study. Chan and Shirley (who sound like a stand up comedy act by name) end up having more mutual feelings of sympathy and support from each other, than what they ever get from Ken. But that's the hint in the title - that what these women desire in a man is beyond them, and what they seem to want is within each other. In fact in hindsight, a man seems to be an un-desirable here, and C and S seem to have a female infection version of misogyny. The film even suggests that Shirley and Chan could be the same person, as they share the same red hair streaks and mannerisms (and man requirements), but I could be looking too much, I suppose. Its certainly fun filled and humorous with the girls-wanting-to-have-fun spirit! Also quite psychological in concern of what loneliness can mean and the pursuit of happiness, especially in sharing with someone like minded, but who doesn't seem to gel with hopeful expectations. Gillian plays the part of an English teacher, who gets booted out of her teaching job, due to her working colleagues seeing her and Ken's unfortunate web site photo on a computer, and seeks out his present girlfriend Shirley, to help her get the photo deleted off his computer. This happens with story flashbacks as Chan recollects her experiences with Ken to Shirley in a restaurant, and warns her about his erratic nature. This gradually creates a bond ship between the women, as they pursue Ken's apartment to probe for the annoying digital picture.

This film is a bit of an under the bonnet job, and you do need to look further into it. By watching superficially, undertones can be missed and there are twists, turns of events that all come to the fore by its conclusion. Ken isn't quite what he seems. So an intellectual approach helps. You don't need to read Tolstoy's "War and Peace", however, but a perusal of the final text phrase extraction displayed at the film's end credits from this classic tome, should help shed more light on the matter. I wasn't overly okay with it all, though, as it concludes on too high a cynical note; that genders in relationships are reduced to nothing more than unfeeling and self indulgent males, alongside confused and manipulative females. Sigh, its partly true maybe, but this story is obsolete of real reasons of individual actions - the 'whys' and 'therefores', and only plays up to stereotypes and base human nature. But, as this film toys with the idea of loneliness in Chan, by projecting it as an additional psychological movie, it makes it interesting and the two female characters are more complex than you may first think.

Acting is good and Tao Hung is certainly the merited one here (worth seeing her in "Life Show"), but no doubt Gillian again is increasing her repertoire by appearing in constant varied roles, and she features in a bit of a thinker here and not merely another teen driven bubblegum popping film. Gillian, by who she is anyways, is why I like watching her play roles (and Charlene, too) and not because they have to be high ended thespians (which they could be one day!) And on a lighter note, Gill's red hair streak is nice. Very wisps of Ziggystardust! Poor Daniel, though, is given the outcast mode here, but as ever, he is always interesting to watch and varied.

DVD Content: You get an excellent set of additions here. "Making of" and "Director's Commentary" have removable subtitles, including English ones, and so if you want to know more about this film, you do get a full set of translations here. Interesting film - but if you escape the urge to become a Monk or Nun after watching this fun filled glob of cynicism, you are certainly made of sterner stuff than me!