(2/2011) Movie Review: I Know What Women Want

3 1/2 Stars

Review By James R. Holland   

This Is The Chinese Remake of “I Know What Women Want.”

For anyone who didn’t see Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt and Marisa Tomei in the 2000 version of “What Women Want” don’t worry. The audience will easily be able to follow the plot on this Chinese version with English subtitles. The only confusion will probably result from the Chinese version having two different names. “I Know A Woman’s Heart” is the Chinese title of the English movie “I Know What Women Want.”

This 116-minute, unrated romantic comedy stars Andy Lau in the Gibson role and Li Gong in the Helen Hunt role. American Kelly Hu returns from her widely viewed role as the sorceress in “The Scorpion King.” In that film she ends up as Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson’s Queen. She has appeared in many other films and television shows but her appearance in “The Scorpion King” certainly caught the attention of the audience and that is probably her most recognizable English film role.

This Chinese remake was directed, written and starred in by Daming Chen. He played the role of Young Sun Meisheng in this film.

The basic plot is that an advertising agency board feels that since the primary customers in China are now female, the company needs to hire a woman Creative Director to help capture the female audience. Li Gong is that “hot shot” female addition to the staff. Andy Lau plays the current chauvinistic playboy executive. He and his friends plot to undermine the new comer’s ideas so that she will be fired.

Andy Lau’s character has an accident while drunk and trying to find his Anima (feminine side) as instructed by his new creative team leader. An electric shock that almost kills him,  leaves him with a strange new ability to read the thoughts of all the women he meets with the exception of his identical twin office assistants who apparently have no thoughts, but certainly are pretty, accommodating and funny.

Naturally, the best-laid plans of men go awry. Love enters the plot and creates all the problems that only love can cause.

This is a charming romantic comedy. The cast and script works well. The only criticisms are probably the result of a tendency of the recent Chinese movie releases to show China only at its very best. Once again, the cities, businesses, cast and everything in the movie is too perfect—certainly more perfect than anything in a Hollywood release.

Since this reviewer has several Chinese born friends who regularly travel back and forth to Mainland China, they assure me that what appears on screen is not the norm. They point out that China includes incredibly wealthy citizens and much, much larger numbers of the very poor that barely make enough to survive. They said the so-called middle class that has time to club and party at exotic night spots are often the relatives of Chinese citizens who are working in the USA and other western nations.

Those workers live very frugally so they can send most of their earnings back to China to help their families. Much of the so-called Chinese Middle class doesn’t even work, but lives well on the income sent from the west to help family’s members still in China. My friends wanted to be certain that the audience was fully aware that they are watching a lot of propaganda in any movies made in Red China. This movie is very amusing, but the scenes it takes place in are not the norm, but what the government wants to western world to think about China’s industrial success and standard of living under Communism.

This is still a charming romantic comedy.

James R. Holland is a film editor, producer, and author–most recently of Adventure Photographer (A Bit of Boston Books/ 2009).  He reviews movies exclusively for Basil & Spice.  Visit James R. Holland’s Writer’s Page.

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