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Joker (Daniel Wu) is a designer for a games
software house, but when a brief comes to him to design the ultimate
cyber-girl, he finds it hard to come up with his ideal cyber-babe.
Until he bumps into a girl named Ling (Angelica Lee), who works
in a nightclub and sells dope. In that instant, Joker sees Ling
as his ideal cyber-girl, especially with her cute looks and slender
body being a perfect match.
With his younger brother Kid (Edison Chen), they
hire Ling to be the model for their own cyber-babe, codenamed Princess
D, after Princess Diana. But soon Joker begins to fall in love with
the mysterious Ling, and gradually understands the domestic situation
she is in (her father is in prison, her mother has a mental problem
due to an accident, and her younger brother has joined the Triads).
Ling also has the burden to pay off her brother's debts.
Wanting to be free herself, Joker finally realises
that his Princess D is the exact form of what Ling wants in life,
and his inspiration is to create a character that is awash with
her problems but set in a post-modern world. The cyber-character
is actually Ling, in Joker's mind, and Princess D's mission is to
be free in a way that Ling wants to be. But has he fallen in love
with his own creation, or does he want Ling to be his own Princess
D?
But however much philosophical you want to be,
it cannot avoid the fact that the film tries to do too much, and
end up with so less. After watching the film, you come away a little
bewildered, wondering what message, if any, it was trying to say.
A love story? A tale of freedom, of yearning to be rid of life's
problems? You somewhat have no idea.
Angelica Lee puts in a brave performance, especially
since this is her first proper film debut, after being spotted by
director Sylvia Chang. However, she still has a bit of problem emoting,
but I think this has been ironed out in her next feature film The
Eye. She does have an innocent look about her, and you can certainly
feel the weight she carries upon her slender shoulders.
It is also good to see Daniel Wu in a non-action
role, and he fits in nicely, although a little comedy would enliven
things up. But this job was passed to Edison Chen, someone I really
dislike, but he surprised me in Princess D, adding much spice and
life into his character.
All in all, Princess D offers plenty of
food for thought, but the message seems a bit blurry, and you don't
truly understand what they are trying to put across. The CGI effects
were used complimentary to the feature, but do they reckon that
our human lives can just be made from a computer, or that we just
aspire to be what we create ourselves? Figure it out yourself.
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