What Women Want

Chen Daming

The story: Smug adman Sun (Andy Lau) is passed over for a promotion and the post goes to outsider Ly (Gong Li) instead. When he finds himself capable of listening in on women’s thoughts after a freak accident, Sun uses his newfound ability to steal Ly’s ideas. As they start working together more however, they begin to find themselves drawn to each other.

After getting married, singer-actor Andy Lau kept his wife squirreled away and hidden from the public eye. One would hazard a guess that he might not be the most persuasive authority on what women want.

Or maybe it is a piece of shrewd casting since Sun is initially clueless about the thoughts and desires of half the population and only gets clued in through some never-explained, crudely computer-animated process.

That might be giving this remake of the 2000 Hollywood movie, starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, too much credit though.

Forget about gaining insights into gender differences. Chen Daming, who directed the film and adapted the script, barely has a grasp of what makes a good romcom.

The story arc progression from loggerheads to lovebirds is as old as they come, and for sparks to fly when they clash and then mesh, casting is of paramount importance.

Gong Li might be a good actress but here, sheathed in one body-hugging outfit after another, her cool disdain of Sun is more convincing than her lukewarm capitulation. It really boils down to chemistry, and instead of electricity, we get damp squibs.

Chen seems to be more enamoured of Lau than she is by inserting all these gratuitous scenes of him dancing about at home and crooning a ballad at a bar.

Admittedly, watching Lau slip into women’s clothes as he tries to get in touch with his feminine side has its novelty value, though the bigger shocker might be seeing him in an age-appropriate role complete with ex-wife and teenage daughter. What women, and men, want would be Lau’s secret for looking eternally youthful.

(ST)