JUST ONE LOOK (Hong Kong, 2002)
: : North American Premiere : :



97 minutes, 35mm, in Cantonese with English subtitles
Directed by: Riley Ip
Starring: Shawn Yu, Wong You-nam, Charlene Choi & Gillian Chung ( ),
Anthony Wong, Sam Lee, Eric Kot

If JUST ONE LOOK was an American movie here's what would be different. It would have been hailed in the US as a gently bittersweet film about growing up. Its rapturous worship of old Chinese movies would have earned it comparisons to CINEMA PARADISO. The star performances of Canto-pop idols, , would have been lauded as stunning proof that the bubblegum duo could act. Anthony Wong's performance as a two-bit gangster would have been nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Award, and he would have won. JUST ONE LOOK would have toured independent theaters and run forever. But it's Chinese, so none of this happened.

Set on sleepy Cheung Chau Island in the 70's, this flick oozes nostalgia for a time when every question had an answer, and every guy wanted to be Bruce Lee. Fan (Shawn Yu) sells sugar cane outside the island's movie theater, clinging to the belief that local gangster, Crazy (Anthony Wong), killed his dad years ago. He and his pal, Fishball (Wong You-nam) fall in love with the local kung fu coach's daughter (Charlene Choi) and an orphan living in the nearby Buddhist nunnery (Gillian Chung).

Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi are, of course, super-celebrity pop duo, , and Shawn Yu is a pop star in his own right. But American pop stars have never made an equivocal, bittersweet movie like this before. Nothing works out the way it should in this film, and Fan and Fishball have the lesson rapped into their skulls that it's time to let go of childhood certainties and say hello to a world with no black and white, and where everyone hurts. But there's something to hold onto, even here: the movies. Loaded with footage from classic Chinese cinema of the 60's and 70's, sprinkled with film-fueled fantasies, and carrying an illegally catchy version of the BeeGee's "Melody Fair" sung by , JUST ONE LOOK is awash in the best kind of nostalgia there is: the nostalgia for a brighter, sunnier world that never really existed, except onscreen.

Don't miss out on an understated, undiscovered classic. Two screenings only - and it'll never come this way again.

Who are ? Not twins, not even sisters, these Canto-pop idols came from nowhere three years ago, released five platinum-selling albums and now have their faces on everything from soft toys to condom ads ("Are you man enough to do it twice?"). Science has shown that the average serving of food in Hong Kong contains 20% protein, 15% starch, 5% unsaturated fat, and 60% merchandise.

> The official Twins web site (in Chinese):
www.eegmusic.com/twins/