Ming Ming (2006)

Zhou Xun is one of the two or three most popular young chinese actresses, the other being Zhang Ziyi and perhaps Zhao Wei. I saw her in a big supporting role in THE BANQUET and then, getting curious about her, in her earlier film A WEST LAKE MOMENT. The latter, a bitter-sweet contemplation about the modern chinese youth, made me a fan of Zhou Xun and so I was eager to see her new movie MING MING.
After watching it, I'm still very much in awe of her as an actress, but the film wasn't sadly not as godd as I had hoped.
Xun plays a double role as Ming Ming - a fabulous martial artist and clever crook - and as Nana, her unwitting look-alike. Ming Ming is a black clad, black haired crook who fell in love with the mysterious D (Daniel Wu). He promises his undying love (or something like this) for 5 Mio. Dollars and a trip to Harbin. Well, Ming Ming gets that money from her gangster boss Cat, who is more or less willing to give it to her. But then she also robs a mysterious locked wooden box, and Cat is desperate to get it back. Ming Ming flees and gives the money to her admirer Ah Tu (Tony Yang) with the instructions to go to Shanghai, where she expects to find D. On his flight Tu meets a girl, he thinks is Ming Ming, even so her hair is red. This is Nana who is flabbergasted at first, but she doesn't confess to Tu that she isn't Ming Ming, for she realizes, that the girl she is mistaken for, is following D. and D is also Nana's lover.
While Nana and Tu travel to Shanghai, followed by Cat's henchmen, Ming Ming stays in the shadows, observes the proceedings and helps secretly, when the gangsters get to near to the fleeing couple.
MING MING is a potpourri of a different genres, styles and intentions. The first twenty minutes of the movie, including a long fight scene between Ming Ming and Cat's gang, is overly stylized and annoyed my with its pretentiosness enormously. Fortunately, director Susie Au gets a lot more down to earth later in the film, and there are a lot of fine moments between Nana and Tu. Despite the title, it is mostly their story that the movie narrates. And here Zhou Xun shows her strength as an actress. The scenes with Ming Ming and with the elusive D are important for the plot but struck me mostly as a sort of macguffin. They are a sort of main motive that is equally overly pretentious filmed and themed, so that the story of Nana and Tu can enfold.
This all may sound a bit vague, but i don't want to get to deep into the plot, that contains one or two mysteries and revelations I won't spoil. In the whole the movie is only partly successful. Is has a nice road movie element with good character parts for Xun (as Nana) and Toiny Yang. Then there is a very pretentious and nearly ludicrous plotline about D and Ming Ming, that is filled with losts of wire- and CGI-fu, hectic cutting and some weird visual ideas. Well, it is Susie Au's first movie and she obviously enjoys playing with all her new bright toys. Xun's role as Ming Ming consists mainly of brooding in the semi-dark, looking cool and do some crazy fights - nothing to stretch her artistic muscles overly. The same can be said about Daniel Wu. Someone called Wu Hong Kong's Keanu Reeves, and that comparison (even if it sounds a little harsh) isn't so bad: Both are very handsome and their good looks often stands in the way of good roles and even good performances. But Daniel Wu has, in my opinion, made more effort - and with better results - to get past his beefcake image. In this movie, however, he isn't more than just okay in a role that is not much more than decorative.