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Isabella (DVD) (2-Disc Edition) (US Version) DVD Region All

Chapman To (Actor) | Isabella Leong (Actor) | Man Lim Chung | Edmond Pang (Director)
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Isabella (DVD) (2-Disc Edition) (US Version)
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Customer Review of "Isabella (DVD) (2-Disc Edition) (US Version)"

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Average Customer Rating for this Edition: Customer Review Rated Bad 8 - 8 out of 10 (1)
Average Customer Rating for All Editions of this Product: Customer Review Rated Bad 7 - 7.7 out of 10 (6)

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Rhoda
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May 11, 2008

This customer review refers to Isabella (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
1 people found the following helpful

 I am lost but nice Customer Review Rated Bad 8 - 8 out of 10
I am lost in this film. Isabella turned out to be a lesbian. How can a pretty girl such as her be a lesbian. And the younger girl fancies her since she was like 12 years old. The story is a little weird but the acting is great.
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Kevin Kennedy
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December 21, 2007
A father and daughter grow up Customer Review Rated Bad 8 - 8 out of 10
For the first half-hour of the atmospheric "Isabella", I was scratching my head, wondering what the heck was happening ... and wondering whether I should continue to invest my time in watching this film. I'm very glad that I stuck with it.

Chapman To plays Shing, a corrupt Macau police officer and a serial womanizer. Isabella Leong plays a teen-aged prostitute named Yan. Shing picks up Yan in a bar and brings her to his home. Yan provides her professional services to Shing, then tells him that she is his daughter.

After this shocking event, the deeply-buried tectonic plates of the lives of Shing and Yan begin to shift. We don't see much evidence of it at first. Shing continues on his womanizing ways and Yan continues to live her irresponsible lifestyle. But changes are afoot and how this film reveals them is a subtle marvel.

Kudos to Chapman To and Isabella Leong for their finely-modulated performances. In the course of a movie of this kind, we want to see the characters grow and change, and To and Leong do a terrific job of showing the maturation of Shing and Yan.

I recommend "Isabella" very highly for a mature audience. By the way, the film has a beautiful soundtrack of Portuguese music. In particular, the title song by fado singer Mariza is gorgeous. If you have not already sampled Mariza's music, then you really should.
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numinair
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October 12, 2007

This customer review refers to Isabella (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
1 people found the following helpful

 Isabella - Big Roles to Come! Customer Review Rated Bad 9 - 9 out of 10
If there is one thing you need to do before watching this film, is to make sure you have one good solid fill of nourishment or some edibles handy. Some kimchi, noodles, pizza, a bag of crisps...anything...to have at hand, as the food intake in this film is more prevalent than in some of the HK restaurant themed movies - and all this could make you hungry watching it. I only hope the film makers didn't starve the actors before commencing with their food scenes, so to get that more realistic and gritty reflection. Gritty this is, too, with the subject matter about a destitute bar prostitute named Yan, played with focus and almost perfection by Isabella Leong, claiming to be the long lost daughter of an ousted and corrupted police man, Shing, performed excellently by Chapman To.

Although partly set in seedy prostitute bars of Macua, a Portuguese settlement in China just before the handover in 1999, "Isabella" more or less portrays an odd tale about forbidden relationships by these two aforementioned needful souls, who are supposedly father and daughter, than a focus on prostitution itself. The pleasure skin is only the back drop to the relationships, and what happens sensually is all left off film (apart from an initial liaison with Yan and Shing), than graphic details expressed in the more darker movies like "Downfall" or Kim Ki Duk's "Bad Guy". This is more about ambivalent feelings regarding a corrupt cop and his relations with the prostitute Yan, after he finds out she his is daughter he thought had been aborted from his liaison with her mother in the past.

This film rates highly, certainly for the quality acting, which is impressive and Isabella Leong really does prove herself to be one of the finest actresses in recent films, and no doubt she cuts the mustard here by her fusion of a downcast soulless prostitute and at times a jovial, but highly strung girl. There is more to Isabella's observational pallet than posing and singing - and acting seems to be her future vocation. Just before I posted this, too, I read on a web site that Isabella L is also half Portuguese and also had quite an hard life upbringing in Macau in her childhood, after her father had died when she was very young - this is quite a hard back ground relating to the punch she gives for this film. Before this, I had only seen her in Oxide Pang's "Diary", by which of her small part in that, I still felt convinced that she should play a more solid and complete role like Yee, as that could be one awesome film to look out for in the future, if/when she does one. (Only supposing here, of course)

This movie is certainly a slow burner and the flow is at quite a moderate and sleazy pace. The camera work and photography is dream like and European ,and the Macau setting produces a sublime fire glow colour, with the contrasting poverty crumbling buildings and the strangely partly affluent characters (Shing sells a Rolex and Yan as a large female utility collection). Contrasts are also made by the ironic and emotional music provided, too! Considering the slow and dark ambiance of this film, quite a number of cameo players also appear, that are generally in more light hearted and standard dramas; Boy'z singer Steven Cheung, Jim Chim as a landlord who boots out Yan's dog Isabella, by Yan not paying the rent, and the food scoffing Anthony Wong, who seems he hasn't eaten for weeks on end. Chapman To is excellent as the culpable police man, and considering that his acting is well proven in comedy roles, he easily shifts into these more demanding roles. I was quite surprised that this was Chapman T's first full role (sorry that sounds like food again), and his focused and fused character here seems far from a debut. I was convinced he must have been in similar character parts before.

Expect a downcast watch with this, however, it is about bleak themes after all. But due to the acting and cathartic sequence of events, it is a top quality movie. Not the most lovable characters in Yan and Shing by their life choices, but an exercise in situations raising awareness to circumstances sometimes unavoidable.
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Jake
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June 26, 2006

This customer review refers to Isabella (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
relaxations Customer Review Rated Bad 10 - 10 out of 10
This movie was great. I should say this movie was piece of art. Nothing like the other movies, it long and the story is good as well
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Sarah
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June 25, 2006

This customer review refers to Isabella (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
OMG Customer Review Rated Bad 3 - 3 out of 10
I thought it was boring.... Chapman did great but Isabella....? My god, the part where she was singing Anita Mui's hit was so hard to watch. ALthought the film was 109 mins long, i felt i spent a whole day watching it. Loved the music but the movie moved in such a SLOW pace.
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rain
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June 11, 2006

This customer review refers to Isabella (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
1 people found the following helpful

 Isabella Customer Review Rated Bad 8 - 8 out of 10
A lovely movie - good character development and the characters are quite likeable. Breakthrough performance from Isabella. Had really low expectation from this movie - but it turned out to be entertaining and a pleasure to watch. Well done.
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