Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #133254 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-09-29
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Customer Reviews

A moving portrait of a relationship and a moment in history
From the DVD cover: "Jeremy Irons stars as John, a British journalist living in Hong Kong. John has fallen in love with Vivian (Gong Li), a bartender with a jaded past. Vivian is eager to secure her position in Hong Kong society and wants her successful boyfriend Chang to marry her. When Chang proves to be indecisive about their relationship, Vivian turns to John. Giving into their feelings for a brief but passionate affair, they now face inevitable change and unexpected obstacles in this touching and compelling film."

Nothing else I have seen or read captures the poignant and slightly fevered atmosphere of Hong Kong in the months leading up to the 1997 handover. The relationship between John (Irons) and Vivian (Gong Li), and what we learn of Maggie Cheung's character's past relationship (?) with her schooldays English boyfriend, seem to mirror aspects of the political and cultural relationship between the British and Hong Kong Chinese. The ending is deeply moving.

This film is infinitely superior and almost entirely different in terms of plot, and indeed everything else, from Paul Theroux's disappointing novel, Kowloon Tong, that apparently inspired the makers of this film.

Lost time...
This film has a good plot (a romance, in a background of change in an exotic place), a great cast (Jeremy Irons, Li Gong, Maggie Cheung), and a well-known director (Wayne Wang, the director of "The Joy Luck Club"). Notwithstanding that, "Chinese box" falls short of expectations, and can only be defined as a forgettable movie.

In case you are still interested in this film, despite what I have just told you, I will outline the plot for you. The main character is John (Jeremy Irons), a journalist in love with Vivian (Li Gong), a lovely Chinese woman with a shady past that he cannot have. John discovers he is severely ill, and decides to make something in the last few months he has left. He wants to make a documentary regarding Hong Kong, the place where he lives as an expatriate. During his new endeavour, John meets a very troubled young woman (played by Maggie Cheung), and manages to document some of the turmoil that took place in Hong Kong before the Chinese takeover in 1997.

All in all, I regret renting this movie, and I regard the time I spent watching "Chinese Box" as lost. Not recommended.


PS: At least I didn't buy it!