Crossing Hennessy (2010)

Could have used more rom and more Tang Wei

Despite starring Tang Wei and Jacky Cheung, this ended up being Jacky and Pau Hei Ching’s movie. Tang Wei was criminally underused. Crossing Hennessy was a scrambled ensemble that too often pulled focus from the main couple.

Loy is a 41-year-old man who sleeps until noon and has difficulty with responsibility. His mom owns an appliance store where he fixes equipment and does installs near as I could tell. His aunt dotes on him while his mom berates everyone around her. Queenie, the mom, sets him up for a matchmaking dinner with the woman whose uncle owns a shop across the street. Oi Lin, much like Loy, has no intention of following through with the match. She has a jailbird boyfriend and Loy is seeing his ex-girlfriend. Later, after meeting coincidentally the two find they share an interest in mystery novels. Kismet! Queenie, family friend Uncle Ching, and Loy’s aunt end up in a love triangle of their own.

I watched this film mainly because Tang Wei was starring in it. Before the hour mark she all but disappeared from the screen until the end of the film which was quite disappointing. Her character was given little to do overall. I also struggled to understand what thirty-year-old Oi Lin would see in a forty-year-old man (49-years-old in real life) who had no direction and nothing to offer her but the ability to make her laugh. Jacky Cheung’s acting style is not my cup of tea. I find his mugging for the camera and eyerolling more annoying than cute. It was difficult to understand what lit the attraction between Oi Lin and Loy. Pau Hei Ching as Loy’s mother was continually loud and overbearing with no nuance. I kept waiting for her older sister to finally snap after being continually rundown by the family diva. I only know Danny Lee from old kung fu movies so it was interesting seeing him as the henpecked, dog carrying Uncle Ching. The veterans’ love triangle dominated the second half of the film along with Loy’s challenges while Oi Lin sold toilets offscreen in her uncle’s shop.

Crossing Hennessy had some cute moments but then the film would go in another direction leaving the burgeoning romance on the backburner. Tang Wei’s return to film after being blacklisted (apparently, she did those spicy Lust, Caution scenes all by herself? None of the men suffered any consequences) should have highlighted her acting abilities instead of sidelining her in her own romance. Jacky Cheung’s hangdog, lazy character and verbally abusive mother weren’t interesting enough to carry the film for me.

8 August 2024

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