Chow Yun-Fat
love desire mad tide
Their Private Lives
movie poster image
principal cast:
nbsp;nbsp;Chow Yun-Fat
nbsp;nbsp;Chen Hsi Lien
nbsp;nbsp;Liao Yung Hsiang
This is a surprisingly good movie. I say "surprisingly" because of
both the era and the somewhat sensational subject matter. Released
in January of 1978, this film predates the Hong Kong New Wave which
put new value on plot and characterization. Playing perhaps a bit like an
adult soap opera, that is easy to understand since this is a staple
soap opera subject. The fact that it supposedly recreates a
melodrama played out in real life doesn't change that; infidelity,
spiteful spouses and the gleeful cheer of the press at the
discovery of flaws in popular idols is not exactly new, but this
film actually goes beyond a simple retelling of the story and gives
the viewer a sense of how it must feel to be the different personalities
involved.
The plot centers around the romance of desperation between Chiang
Ai Ling and Ko Ming Chung. Popular television actors, they are
both beautiful people with somewhat ugly lives. Ai Ling teeters
between her desire to become a famous actress and her guilt over
neglecting her traditional duties as a wife; the scene in which
she kneels to slip on her husband's shoes while defending her career
against his vicious condescension sums up the tension of
her position.
Ming Chung is only a half-step above gigolo; he married Pei Ming
Chu for her money but gives her little in return. An uncontrollable
flirt and spendthrift, he blames his wife for his loss of self-worth.
When his infatuation with Ai Ling begins he visits a prostitute
and indulges himself with her, fantasizing about Ai Ling; later when
Ming Chu seeks his favors he rebuffs her with a roll of
his eyes and a snort of derision. Silently accepting his disinterest,
Ming Chu crawls back in her own bed, not daring to say a word. As Ming
Chung's romance with Ai Ling
grows hotter, his marriage grows correspondingly colder until even
the lovesick Ming Chu begins to see that her money can no longer
hold him.
Stealing furtive hours in tufted red-velvet love hotels or in
the seats of the car Ming Chung received as a gift from his wife,
Ai Ling seems to understand intuitively that Ming Chung
is not the romantic lover that the television audience, and he himself,
seems to believe, but she risks her marriage, her career and her
future to become his mistress.
After being photographed in a passionate kiss by two reporters from a
scandal sheet, life becomes difficult for the pair though they deny
they are involved; Ming Chung's wife hires a pair of detectives
to follow them, and they are inevitably discovered. The scenes of
the confrontation between Ming Chu, Ming Chung and Ai Ling - surrounded
by the flashing cameras of reporters and friends of the outraged
wife screeching to cut Ai Ling's hair as punishment - are realistic
in a nightmarish way. Ming Chung cowers in a corner, his arms thrown
up to shield his face, as Ming Chu glares coldly at Ai Ling kneeling
before her begging for mercy. A grotesque twist on earlier events
in which Ming Chu had begged Ai Ling to end her suspected affair with
Ming Chung, the hollow triumph of Ming Chu is sad and showcases
the tragedy of the entire sordid scene. The Chinese title of the film,
"Love Desire Mad Tide", is much
more evocative than the English one and sums up the film rather well; whether the love
of Pe Ming Chu for her husband or the desire of Ko Ming Chung for his mistress, both are
'mad tides' which threaten to destroy all the participants.
Chow Yun-Fat's part in this film in intriguing. After seeing so
many of his roles in which he plays the wronged party, or at least
the heartbroken one, it's fascinating to see him play the part of
a selfish wanton. Unlike the thoughtless Kwong-Ping in The Last
Affair he would play years later, Chung Ming is a liar and a
manipulator of women. If this portrayal is indeed based on a
true story, that makes it all the more tragic.
It is interesting to speculate from what source CYF's characterization
of the despicable Ming Chung springs. To give a credible performance, an actor
must have some idea of what it is he is portraying. Just as you cannot ask even
the most accomplished visual artist to depict an accurate image of a thing he has never seen,
neither can an actor simply conjure up a character as mean-spirited and shallow as
this out of nothing. To try to do so results in simple caricature. Ming Chung is far more than
that; as CYF portrays him on the screen, he's a genuinely repulsive creature residing
in a shell of human beauty.
CYF recounted many years (and films) later his experience of making John Woo's The
Killer and some of the effort it required. One scene in particular, in
which his character must sit in silent agony as he waits for the opportunity to kill
the friend who betrayed him, is mentioned. To conjure up the emotion necessary to
play this scene (without relying on dialogue to explain the character's feelings),
CYF re-lived the painful memory of a similar betrayal in his own past. Though it's certainly
not outside the realm of possibility that CYF had encountered a person as thoroughly
rotten as Ming Chung in the HK entertainment circle, one can only
hope that it's just a combination of scandal sheets from the past and an actor's
understanding of the psyche that led to his excellent performance.
Unlike most of Goldig's films, though this one is scored by Frankie Chan as usual
the touch is much more refined. During the romance between Ming Chung and Ai Ling
a very delicate piano theme plays, rather wistfully. There is the usual dramatic
highlight crescendo for each of the dramatic scenes, but that's par
for the course in any film of the time, really. (With all that zooming between closeups
of the principals, it would almost seem strange for such flourishes to be absent.)
Leaving the obvious exploitative aspects of the film aside, this is probably the best
of CYF's stint with the Goldig Studio. That's not exactly high praise, but taken in context
of what the film is, when it was made and for whom, again the only word I can use
is "surprising" when thinking of its quality.
I have no idea in what state this film was originally released. I have seen three
different cuts of the film so far. The first version was released on videotape in the
early 1980s in Cantonese (subtitled in traditional Chinese and English) and had quite a few scenes
sliced out so that hard-core sex
scenes could be added without extending the runtime. (Just for the record, the pornographic
scenes do not feature CYF; though the male's face is never shown, his body is so completely
different from CYF's own that it is almost laughably obvious it isn't mom's boy from Lamma Island.)
The sex scenes in this one have been spliced in without any concern for continuity or
believeability; Ming Chung and Ai Ling might be about to make love in a silent, darkened
room one moment, and then
in a flash we're taken directly to close-ups of various body parts
in a well-lit room with the same monotonous pop music playing in a
loop. Unfortunately, they're not even good porn inserts,
but as monotonous and repetitive as the soundtrack. (By pornographic, I don't
mean depictions of sex - just body parts mechanically grinding away at one another. About
as interesting as watching pistons go up and down in a car engine.) Oh well, that's what
'fast forward' is for. The cover of this release is the same as the movie poster (see image link
above).
The second version does not contain these pornographic scenes and only the briefest hints of nudity.
The copy I have is from
Korea, dubbed into Mandarin (subbed in Korean only). The scenes cut from the version
mentioned above are intact, though not vital they do add some character development. The
original opening song is also intact (the one which plays over Ai Ling's introduction); that
was missing from the Cantonese porno version.
The third version, a bilingual (Cantonese/Mandarin) one, is slightly different from both of the above; the hard-core closeups are gone
but some pretty harmless nudity is intact (female only, of course). This is the VCD which
was released by WideSight in 2004 (WSVCD01237) and is advertised on the slipcase as being subtitled in Chinese
and English but isn't subtitled at all. I suspect this is the original cut which played in cinemas. There is
more nudity in this one, but of the 'soaping up in the shower' variety. Oddly enough, a sub-plot
about a pearl earring (lasting only two scenes) is found in this version and not in the others. Again,
nothing that really makes or breaks the story but it does shed some light on Ming Chu's suspicions
of her faithless spouse and the way she tries to confront him.
A word about the cover of the WideSight version: it's a mish-mash of sepia-toned scenes from the
original movie poster and, irritatingly enough, a picture of CYF which looks to have been taken post-Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon. (The "China version", which I suspect is the version reviewed here
minus any nudity, has an even sillier cover, with a picture of CYF posing for Esquire magazine
in the foreground, and a still from Peace Hotel in the background!) It brings to mind
the even-more-irritating re-release of Head Hunter under the title The Killer In Love with
a still from The Replacement Killers as the cover. While Head Hunter isn't a bad
movie, the intent of these anachronistic artworks seem to be confusing fans looking for long-lost
titles. Bad distrubutors! No biscuit.
Their Private Lives image gallery
nbsp;nbsp;
early films index
nbsp;nbsp;
HKH index
email the page maintainer