With topline talent both in front of and behind the camera and a tone similar to a Western relationships comedy, Anna Magdalena is an engaging, slowly infectious item typical of Hong Kong production house UFO. But this helming bow by established production designer Yee Chung-man depends on audience familiarity with the stars and local genres, signalling few overseas trips outside East Asia.
Based around a well-known melody from Bach's The Songbook of Anna Magdalena Bachand divided into four "movements" as the characters romantically entangle, story centers on quiet piano tuner Chan (Takeshi Kaneshiro), spaced-out writer Yau (Aaron Kwok), who stays at his apartment, and a feisty girl upstairs, Mok (singer Kelly Chan). Yau falls in love with Mok, Chan secretly carries a torch for her, and the ending is rarely in doubt.
Several well-known faces pop up in small roles (Leslie Cheung as a publisher, Anita Yuen as his lovelorn assistant, Jacky Cheung as a cop), and the in-jokes (especially in a take-off on fantasy movies like The Heroic Trio) fall thick and fast.
Derek Elley