New York Asian Film Festival 2024 (July 12-22 FLC) REVIEWS

[Chris Knipp]

CHOW KAM WING: FOR ALICE (2024)

Some old tunes played again

Some old themes here. No harm in that, and this aging actor and fresh young one go for a ride in atmospheric Hong Kong settings. The themes: recently released jailbird lured into one last job. . . neglectful father spending a few idyllic, secret days with unfamiliar offspring. . . loved one revealed to have a serious illness. A Hong Kong touches: loudmouth, mother whose boyfriend has a history of abuse. . . heavy rain. . . jumbled housing. . . cramped flophouse room. . . many cigarettes. . . noodle shops.

Festival literature tells us For Alice "unfolds" in "the faded opulence of Tsim Sha Tsui's Mirador Mansion." Also that we are to see the main action as "an unlikely bond" between "grizzled veteran Tai Bo" (the jailbird) and "rising star Kuku So" and that we are to see him as "a mysterious rescuer." How mysterious he is and how much of a rescuer he becomes isn't so clear, but thanks to the skill and charisma of the two actors, a believable relationship indeed develops through the short hour and twenty minutes of this slow, moody little film.

Whether For Alice lives up to the festival hype - wielding "colorful yet noirish atmospherics with a maestro's command," making "the dank stairwells and flickering fluorescents" conjur up "palpable peril" and lead to a "cathartic finale" others will have to judge. The ghost of Wong Kar-wai haunts any arthouse Hong Kong film for me: impossible to forget how his visuals sang, how the tawdry became instantly sexy abd mysterious. The writing isn't skillful enough to create real mystery here. The "mystery" comes dangerously close to the obvious, a massaging of clichés. But if this is a kind of neo-noir, we always welcome those. Nice try. But hey, don't try bookending a film with a kid playing Beethoven's "Für Elise" anymore, okay?

This seems old hat, but actually Chow Kam Wing has had most of his film career in advertising, and this is his directorial debut. Thee writer Lam Tsz Ki seems to have had most of their experience as an actor.

For Alice給愛麗絲 ("For Alice"), 82 mins., debuted in New York Jul. 13, 2024, and was screened for this review as part of the 2024 NYAFF.
SCHEDULE:
Saturday Jul 13, 3:45pm
Film at Lincoln Center
Intro and Q&A with director Chow Kam Wing, screenwriter Lam Tsz Ki, and cast members Tai Bo and Kuku So