crossroad: woman at 33 (1981) / plot summary: leslie cheung falls in love with his elder brother's ex-girlfriend. their age difference becomes a huge burden.
this film notably features martial arts actress cheng pei pei (who i don't know much about tbh, but i think she was already pretty famous by this point?); she plays an older, middle-aged divorcée who becomes interested in a younger guy named michael (played by leslie). first of all, the title of this film is woman at 33. since when is 33 considered old? based on the way cpp's character talks about herself, you'd think that she was probably at least 40-45. i don't know any 33 year olds who consider themselves to be old news..
the film begins with a rather dreary restaurant scene between jenny and her husband. they sit in silence for a long time, until jenny tries to pour herself some tea and awkwardly spills it by accident. her husband then tells her that he'll agree to sign the divorce papers. it's a bit of a strange scene, because it seems like jenny's the one who initiated the divorce, but she appears panicked after he agrees to the divorce.
is it just me or are close-ups really creepy? personally i feel like close-ups are overused in films nowadays, but here it was done well
next, jenny is shown at a sauna with her friend. actually, she's just in her bathroom - jenny seems to be pretty well off and she has a big fancy bathroom in her house. jenny's friend bluntly asks her if she knows who her soon-to-be ex-husband is having an affair with, and remarks the other woman is probably younger than jenny. damn..
what kind of cream are you using? that's.. a lot
jenny calls her mom that night and leaves her a tearful voicemail. everything has been pretty dark and moody up until this point. but the next day, jenny wakes up to realize that she has the whole bed to herself. she stretches and walks over to her huge window to watch the sun rise. new beginnings are on the horizon for jenny!
wow!
jenny then goes to work at the ballet school she owns and runs. after she finishes teaching a class, she asks the girls to call her by her maiden surname, and smiles when they do so.
this is so sweet!
as jenny is speaking to one of the girls, a figure appears in the background; it's the piano tuner. i wonder who he could be.. hm.. jenny looks over and recognizes him. "momo!!!"
it turns out that jenny used to tutor momo in math when they were younger, and apparently she also used to date his older brother back in the day. said brother is now a doctor living in hawaii and is married to a japanese woman (i think this information is supposed to be significant but i'm not really sure why). jenny appears a little upset at the news about momo's brother, but she's also intrigued by momo himself, who appears to be all grown up now.
wow cheng pei pei has amazing hair *-*
my heart skipped a beat when leslie showed up. he's so beautfiugjkhsj
jenny invites momo to her place to tune her own piano as well. momo, whose proper name is michael, shares that he finished his four-year studies at the new england conservatory in boston, and thanks jenny for being the one who encouraged him to pursue that route. how nice!
the hand on his shoulder.. jenny..
in the following scene, jenny is at a sauna with her friend (i want a sauna buddy.. or a sheet mask buddy! i've gotten super into sheet masks lately). honestly i'm really enjoying the pace of the film, it's very relaxed and composed. anyways, jenny's friend apparently also recently broke up with her boyfriend, and she muses about why men don't want to love them. jenny stares at the wall and is probably thinking about michael the entire time.
later, the father of one of jenny's students offers to take her out for dinner. the date starts off well enough, but jenny ends up drinking too much, and her date has to basically drag and carry her home. this whole situation is really weird.. the guy brings jenny into her bedroom and tries to kiss her, but jenny turns away dramatically. ominous string music begins to play, and jenny runs outside and vomits. very tense!
jenny lives in one of these villa-type houses. so jealous..
there seems to be no resolution to this scene. i think they may have accidentally cut a scene or something because in the next shot, jenny arrives home wearing the same outfit she wore at the date with the guy, but she's suddenly sober. she discovers flowers on her doorstep from michael, and smiles.
the next day, michael sees jenny on the street and chases after her. he breathlessly says hi to jenny, pretending like they just happened to bump into each other, and they go to a noodle shop for lunch. the dynamic is awkward - michael keeps staring at jenny and asks her if she received the flowers he sent her, indicating that he wants her to acknowledge that their interaction is romantic. but jenny appears to be unsure about how to approach all of this. she deflects and asks him about his work, and michael says that he does film score compositions, but it doesn't pay very well. he then asks if she can call him michael instead of momo. this is weird.
really casual..
you will always be momo to me
after their lunch date, jenny's friend calls her on the phone and they have a rather revealing conversation that casts doubt onto michael's motivations for getting into a relationship with jenny. in fact, julian stringer's essay about leslie as an "autosexual star" actually references this scene..
you know what that means.. if an Academic writes about it then it's basically true
jenny doesn't seem to doubt michael at all, though. in fact, they go on another date - this time to see the film adaptation of nijinsky, a russian ballet. michael shows up in a suit and it's so awkward. he's trying so hard act grown up. get out of there, jenny! he's very cute but this isn't right!!!
tbh, by this point i'm getting similar vibes from michael as i did with nic from the hit taiwanese romance drama in time with you (2011). in that drama, nic was the main character's younger love interest who turned out to be gay and was actually manipulating the main character all along into thinking that he was into her, when in fact he just wanted to get on good terms with her so that he could get a promotion (or something like that). it's a questionable plotline, but i have a feeling something similar is happening here. except it's even weirder because jenny is clearly like at least 10 years older than michael, and michael is literally like a child.
CRINGE
*calls julian*
to make things worse, michael's friends show up at the theater, fresh from playing a round of badminton. they spot michael and go over to talk to the two of them. i could barely watch this scene, it was so embarrassing. michael's friends are young and immature (well, to be fair, they're just kids who don't know anything about russian ballets). finally, jenny realizes how uncomfortable and weird it is for her to be on a date with michael, and she rushes away in the middle of their conversation.
like kids on chinese new year
in the final scene of the film, we see jenny returning home from work the next night. it's raining, and michael runs up to her, standing in the rain outside her door. michael confronts her about why she ran away at the movie theater last night, and frustrated, asks: "am i so young? can't i go on a date with you?" jenny replies that there's no right or wrong in this situation, it's just impossible for them to be together. michael doesn't understand, and tells jenny that she shouldn't let the world decide what's right or wrong for them. he hands her a cassette of his songs and says, "you can decide whether you're living for others or yourself. and my name is michael, not momo". ooh. then he leaves.
i've never seen leslie in a puffy jacket until now.. i'm pleased..
at home, jenny sits in the dark in her living room and listens to michael's cassette (it's the song 缘分有几多!). tears silently fall from her face. it's a bittersweet scene! oh jenny! you did the right thing though.
well this was a nice little film.. it started off a bit slowly, and ended on a rather opaque note (did jenny do the right thing? what was michael really up to? is he gay?? what will jenny do next?), but overall i feel like it was very realistic and i liked that it depicted an "older" woman struggling to figure out what to do with her life.
one of the extras for the dvd shows an interview with cheng pei pei where she talks about her experience working with leslie for this film. she mentions that she thought leslie was very beautiful, yet she could see that he was frustrated with the lack of recognition for his acting and music at that point of his career. but he was nevertheless fully confident in his abilities and very proud of himself. cpp also said that leslie was able to turn himself into the character in the film, and gave a very natural performance.
cool! this ended up taking much longer than i expected, even longer than the last review i did.. i still have one more short film (where leslie plays a monk!) and one feature-length film left to review, i think i will probably split those up and do them in the next few days. i like making these posts nonetheless because leslie's early RTHK productions are hard to come by, and i don't think a lot has been written about them, so it feels nice to be able to really go in-depth and share a lot of images and details from these films here!
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