In their production or their stories, the dramatic comedies made in Hong Kong, are not distinguished particularly from what is done elsewhere. Beyond the commonplaces and scenaristic facilities, the great forces of the successes of the kind resides above all in the energy released by the actors and in particular the actresses. In spite of irrational plannings (the actors of Hong Kong can turn tens of films a year), these beautiful girls manages to make you forget the weaknesses of the scenario or the production of these movies in which they appear. The great actress who asserted herself in the kind these last years is without any doubt Anita Yuen. She knows several success but besides she incarnes better than any other the Chinese young woman of the Nineties, such as at least the cinema shows it to us.

After some not very memorable appearances in very diversified films, C'est la vie mon chéri (1993) is her first success. In this melodrama, she played the role of a young musician victim of a cancer who would give again the taste of living to Lau Ching-wan . The couple could seem atypical, but it works. The young woman imposes a character all in frankness, able to pass from the laughter to the tears in one moment. For her nothing seems impossible and she affirms her faith in the existence with a strength such as her optimism becomes communicative.

Merry and mischievous, she has often a childish behavior. Thus in He's a Woman, she's a man (1994) she makes puppets speak to put in scene the problems which worry her. It must be said that in certain films, too much puerility is very unbearable. But the character also preserves the capacity much more appreciable to show amazement and enthusiasm of childhood. In He's a Woman, she's a man , for example, Anita, disguised as a boy to approach Rose her preferred singer , has during a good part of film flabbergasted eyes in front of the world of the pop stars. Her curiosity, her spirit would attract Leslie Cheung, the producer and lover of Rose, very disturbed by this "boy" who brings him news in a finally monotonous existence.

And it is there that the dramatic actress of comedy must use all her talent to express this joy of living and this capacity of amazement. On the screen, Anita is thus basically smart and noisy. Obviously the showing off is never very far and becomes even in Chinese Feast (1995) the stake of a caricatural higher bid. Thus the scene where her character tries to cover with her voice the taking off of the planes symbolizes the spectacular side, even invading of the character. In this context, the men appear more passive. For Lau Ching- wan or Leslie Cheung in above mentioned films, they do not have to force their talent since their partner plays for two!

This merry nature is the single tool of the seduction of this idealized girl. Whereas Wu Xia Pian swim in sensuality, being filled with fatal women, the dramatic comedy carefully avoids tackling sex. Admittedly, Anita made love with Lau Ching-wan in C'est la vie mon cheri , but the seduction is not in any case sexual. The girls played by Anita and the others appear like reassuring beings for the man who doubts. Neither prostitute, nor mother, they live platonic loves.

However, one doesn't believe that these girls do not have any concern in the existence. All have their problem, whose stake will provide the frame of the intrigue. Thus, victim of a cancer in C'est la vie mon cheri , Anita must fight against the disease. In Tri-star (1996), she played the role of a prostitute, (without customer so), without money. This girl hides behind her good mood a vulnerable side, which makes her more pleasant, her partner devoting itself to help her.

Several actresses, following the example of Anita Yuen, played this kind of girls. Let us quote Charlie Young in The Lovers (1994) or Love In The Time Of Twilight (1995), Faye Wong in Chungking Express or Hsu Chi in When I Look Upon The Star (1998). True stereotype of the modern Chinese woman, some directors ended up wondering themselves about this model offered by the cinema to the spectators. Tsui Hark denounces the Western side of the model in Chinese Feast . Even if he appreciates the emancipation, the director, disfiguring Anita under make-up and colors of extravagant hair, shows that by borrowing the way of life of the Westerners this young woman looks like nothing any more since she is quartered between two cultures which she doesn't assimilate.

More radical, Daniel Lee confronts this character of fairy tale with the hard reality of the divorce in Till Death Do Us Parts (1998). This time the character of Anita can only sink in the pit, her dreams of eternal love being impossible. Therefore even if this character is pleasant, it is only one character of cinema which is not in any case ready to face the real world.

So we are prevented, this stereotype is only one dream, a phantasm of cinema. But when it looks like Anita Yuen or Charlie Young, the spectator agrees to dream during 1:30 before returning to a well less merry reality. After all it is also one of the job of the cinema.

 

Laurent HENRY (November 99)