Love In Disguise

Wang Lee Hom

He can write songs, he can sing and he has improved in his acting from the espionage thriller Lust, Caution (2007) to the period action-comedy Little Big Soldier (2010).

Here, pop idol Wang Lee Hom takes the next step and directs himself. Unfortunately, Love In Disguise is just one long self-indulgent exercise. This interminable cringe fest makes fellow popster Jay Chou’s directorial debut, Secret (2007), look like a cinematic masterpiece.

Wang’s alter-ego in the film is Du Minghan, a pop idol who mixes R&B grooves with traditional Chinese instruments and calls it “chinked-out music”. What a stretch.

Du falls for a music student Song Xiaoqing (China rising star Liu Yifei) because he sees CGI butterflies when she plays the guzheng (Chinese zither). He then disguises himself as a country bumpkin and gets into the music school where she is studying. He realises that she has a crush on another student Mu Fan (Qiao Zhenyu) and tries to help her get his attention.

Let the wincing begin.

The movie is at pains to point out, more than once, there is nothing as vulgar as romantic or sexual attraction between Du and Song. Rather, their bond is a matter of finding one’s soulmate. Even that half-hearted explanation does not justify the zero chemistry between the two leads.

Wang also seems eager to use the film as a vehicle to rebut criticisms and rumours. For example, there is the self-aggrandising ending about Du/Wang taking Chinese music to a new high. More pointedly, characters question if Du/Wang is gay to which he responds with an outburst of “Bulls**t!” at one point.

Like everything else, the moment strikes an awkward, false note. The only moment of truth comes when Du/Wang says: “I think I messed things up.”

(ST)