Isabella (2006) Directed by Pang Ho Cheung  Music: Peter Kam   Starring Isabella Leong, Chapman To, Anthony Wong    Official Site           Trailer  Release Date: April 2006

 

Synopsis: During the chaotic, crime-ridden months before Portugal handed Macau back to China in 1999, a rogue cop named Shing (Chapman To), already under suspicion of corruption, brings home an underage hooker picked up in a sleazy bar. Then the girl, Yan (Isabella Leong), hits him with a huge whammy: She claims to be his daughter by a long-ago lover, who recently died. Thus begins two people's odyssey, tracked through the shadowy, decaying back alleys of Macau, toward a relationship neither is certain is desirable.

Movie Tidbits: It’s the summer of 1999: the summer before Macau’s sovereignty reverts back to China. In this excruciatingly hot summer, Shing feels the heat, not from the weather, but from the tight spot he’s trapped in. He’s a cop on suspension, facing charges of collaborating with the triad in smuggling cigarettes. Without his gun and badge, he feels like a civilian. Or perhaps worse, he feels naked and helpless.

 

His Portuguese superior, who is part of the scam, is too busy packing up and collecting the profits to care what will become of Shing. Shing is left stranded in a spot that has been intended for him all along. His only hope is to silence the defendant-turned-state-witness, Curry, whose testimony will put the last nail in his coffin.

 

While his life is falling apart, something else crashes into his life in the shape and form of an elfin creature by the name of Yan. Taking her for granted as one of his countless nameless and faceless one-night stands, he tries to smooth-talk her into bed. But Yan blurts out a name that becomes the biggest turn-off imaginable. A name from his long forgotten past.

 

At the age of 16 he impregnated his girlfriend Hua and gave her money for an abortion. Unable to deal with the situation, he walked out on her at the hospital and out of her life for good. Shing now realizes that Hua did not go through with the abortion but died of lung cancer the year before. Since her mother’s death, Yan has been locked out of her apartment and needs a place to stay while her dog Isabella has been thrown out onto the streets. While Yan asks nothing of Shing as a father, Shing feels obligated to help her find Isabella, which is not only the name of the strayed dog, but that of a ghost of his distant past: Isabella was also the name Hua used at the age of 16.

 

As Shing tries to cope with his new role as a father, his bachelor life inevitably falls apart as Yan’s presence puts an end to his many one-night stands. Slowly getting to know each other, they soon find the solace they had long been searching for.

 

Will the newfound father and daughter, who have given up hope along the way, be able to find the true vocation of their lives?

Cast List 

Isabella Leong

Chapman To

Anthony Wong

Derek Tsang

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About the Music: Local composer Peter Kam has won the Silver Bear for Best Film Music at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival, for his work on Isabella.

 

Peter Kam's win had added significance. "There hasn't been a Hong Kong film winning a music award at an international film festival," Pang Ho Cheung (Director) proudly noted before adding, perhaps it will make "filmmakers pay more attention to film scores - investors didn't put much money into this aspect of filmmaking in the past."

 

In an interview, Kam said the story of Isabella took place in Macau. So when he composed music for the film, he put lots of Portuguese music elements, which are quite different from those for other Hong Kong-made movies.

He thanked film director Edmond Pang Ho Cheung for letting him compose the music, and also attributed the success to his own given genius of music. He said that he hoped film producers, especially those international ones, would give Hong Kong musicians more opportunities to compose music for Hong Kong-related movies.

The 44-year-old Kam studied music in the United States and has already won several Hong Kong Film Awards in the past few years. His music for the films Fly Me to Polaris and Lost in Time won the Best Original Film Score of the 19th and 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards, while his music for the film Perhaps Love won a nomination for the Best Original Film Score and Best Original Film Song of the 25th Hong Kong Film Awards.

 

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Isabella Trailer

 

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