Wayne Wang's you-are-there coverage of the final days of British colonial rule in Hong Kong, a story of crushingly heavy symbolism: there's the dying Englishman (Jeremy Irons), the beautiful kept woman from the mainland (Gong Li), the scarred local with an illusional past and a cloudy future (Maggie Cheung). Part document, part mush, the movie is something of a patchwork. There are some nice patches (Ruben Blades as an onlooking American photojournalist has a couple of them, philosophizing on love songs and love, and then giving a wistful rendition of the splendid Freddy Fender theme song from Tony Richardson's The Border), but really very few. And the woozy camerawork is a constant annoyance. (1998) — Duncan Shepherd
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