Tonight Nobody Goes Home

        Jin tian bu hui jia

        Taiwan, 1996
         
        director: Sylvia Chang
        screenplay: Sylvia Chang and Lee Khan
        cinematography: Chang Ta-lung
        music: Richard Yuen
        editor: Mei Fung
        designer: Fong Ying
        producer: Hsu Li-kong, Chung Hu-Ping (exec.)
        Central Motion Picture Corporation

        website: http://www.movie.com.tw/pp.htm (chinese-capable browser)

        cast:

        Gua Ah-Leh ... Mrs. Chan
        Sihung Lung (Lang Hsiung) ... Mr. Chan
        Yang Kuei-mei ... Qin Zhen
        Winston Chao Wen-hsuan ... Siming
        Alex To Tak Wai ... Long-long
        Liu Joyin (Rene Lau Yuek-Ying) ... Xiaoqi
        Jordan Chan Siu Chun ... Changgang
        Phoebe Chang Chih-chieh ... Lei-lei
        Liao Wei-Wen ... Xiaoyun
        also starring: Wong Hsueh-O, Danny Dun, Liu Te-kai, Kuan Kuan, Hsiao Ai, Chao Tzu-chiang

        Reviewed at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival by Shelly Kraicer
        A funny, lightweight comedy from Sylvia Chang. The cast is the highlight here: perhaps better than the material deserves. Winston Chao is very dashing (as usual) as a greedy materialist (he thinks electronic hula-hoop dancers are just the thing to bring the crowds into his nightclub); Rene Liu is very cute (as usual) as a bank teller worried about her engagement to a totally goofy Jordan Chan; Alex To is surprisingly convincing as a male gigolo (who gets to sing two horrible, corny songs: why do we deserve such punishment?). Sihung Lung plays a restless 60-year old dentist for broad comedy (showing a different side from his starring roles in Ang Lee's films); Yang Kwei-mei (who was brilliant in "Vive l'amour) has fun as the youthful kindergarten owner who catches his roving eye. Gua Ah-leh is at the movie's centre: she shines as Lung's wife, who finds she has a thing or two to learn from the gigolo after Lung blithely leaves her.

        Less sentimental than Chang's "I Want to Go On Living", but it still doesn't go much deeper than a sitcom. Run-of-the mill cinematography, except for some weird editing tricks which didn't seem totally necessary.

        A fine snack, but not very filling.
         

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        Shelly Kraicer
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