All I was thinking was that film could have been so much better. It spans just about ten years, from the handover of Hong Kong to almost now (2007). The story mostly revolves around 2 women, the career climbing Joy and her assistant Tung. The film chronicles the changes in Hong Kong over this time, especially in the financial end. It even includes a segment about SARS, which is almost heartbreaking. The problem is, the movie is too broad. In those ten or so years, Tung doesn't age at all (lucky her) and has one ultimately bad relationship. Joy, played by the very pretty Gigi Leung, suffers greatly in this film. The film took so long to get to where it ended up. There wasn't enough interaction between the two main characters. There is sadness, anger, suicide all through this film, so the film has an emotional center. The reason why I gave the film six stars is that the last twenty five minutes are very good. If you can get through the film up to then, its worth it. So, while I can't recommend it to everyone, its not bad. It could have, however, been tightened to be just about Joy and Tung, not about their families, business etc. Its a decent film that I wanted to like a lot more.
