I thought the movie was very good, . But I give the performance of Charlie Yeung far more than that. She totally inhabits the character. It's not a performance (and I don't even like using the word "performance") that hits you straight away. It creeps up on you. People have spoken about crying over a beautiful piece of music. That is how Charlie's performance affected me. But it was more after the movie, than during it. But it was tears of joy. It's not powerhouse acting, but a kind of spiritual transcendence. Okay that's probably going overboard, but I'll leave it there. Sometimes that word has to be used. So some other thoughts on the movie. This is the second Chinese /Hong Kong movie (The other might have been a Shaw brothers movie) I've seen where the girl disguises herself as a guy. In the first one, i thought the other characters must be blind not to notice she's a girl. I thought the same about this one. But perhaps it's a convention of these movies. Finally I thought the movie should have ended with her beautiful final words to him. I thought the afterlife scene was totally unnecessary. But thank you Charlie for your gift.
Review of The Lovers
