Chinese Box

"The conversation was so boring, I fell asleep." So states world-weary journalist Jeremy Irons. The feeling is mutual. Recalling The Year of Living Dangerously, this romantic drama is set against the tumult of a pivotal historical event, the transference of power in Hong Kong from the British to the Chinese. Irons is his usual terminally dissipated self as John, an expatriate who learns he is dying. This motivates him to pursue his long unrequited love (the ravishing Gong Li), now a mistress to a powerful Chinese businessman who will not likely marry her because of her checkered past. Hong Kong action star Maggie Cheung hotwires her every scene as a scarred, enigmatic street hustler whom John pleads to interview. Co-written by Paul Theroux and directed by Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club, Smoke) Chinese Box is an optional purchase.DVD Review--September 9, 2003--Lions Gate, 2 discs, 99 min., R, $19.99--Although many of Lions Gate's "Signature" series releases have simply been re-releases in new packaging, this double-disc edition of Wayne Wang's 1997 Chinese Box is notably different. Disc one offers an "unrated" director's cut of the film, an informative Q&A commentary track by Wang and an interviewer, and the 42-minute "Home Movies" documentary (with footage shot by cinematographer Vilko Filac on a pre-shoot trip to Hong Kong). Disc two features Wang's heretofore-unreleased-on-video Life Is Cheap…But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (1989), a satirical film--in which an Asian-American courier goes to Hong Kong to deliver a suitcase and embarks on a series of cultural misadventures--that Wang calls, on the accompanying commentary track, a sort of "prequel" to Chinese Box. Bottom line: while not Wang's best (either film), this is a value-packed DVD release that is well worth considering. (K. Lee Benson)