Elixir of Love 《花好月圓》 (2004), Miriam Yeung, Richie Jen, Eric Kot, Alex Fong Lik Sun Options

[Smiley]

Gallery: http://www.asianfanatics.net/gallery/displ...e.php?pos=-6322

Cast: Miriam Yeung | Richie Jen

The story revolves around an ancient kingdom and an emperor with many princes but no princesses. After receiving the happy note that he finally is the father of a princess, he is overjoyed. However, his pleasure does not last long for he has to discover that his daughter was born with a strange disease which causes her to have an offensive smell. Full of despair, he orders that the right man has to be found that can cure his poor child. Richie Jen plays the guy who believes that he has the right perfume to please the emperor, but first of all he has to test his fragrant creation. As luck would have it, he stumbles into a fish-selling maid (Miriam Yeung), which totally changes all his plans …

[m1ss]

i dont like miriam's style in thsi movie..the bangs make her look so, ugly

[KSeven]

lol the story looks funny
ive download it bfore but it was in mandarin doesnt understand

hope its gonna release in canto soon

I watched the movie. It's very funny .... It's good , lah for refreshing ... lots of laugh . Richie and Mirian doesn't look as good becoz Richie plays as poor guy , his clothes is like a beggar, Miriam eventhough as a princess, but she does lots of undercover as the fish lady.

[ttenovy]

Miriam Yeung and Richie Ren in Elixer of Love.

Year: 2004 Director: Riley Yip Kam-Hung Producer: Doris Tse, Jin Zongqiang Writer: Riley Yip Kam-Hung Cast: Richie Ren, Miriam Yeung Chin-Wah, Kenny Bee, Eric Kot Man-Fai, Lam Suet, Zhou Nan, Zhou Liang, Wu Qianqian, Liu Hengyiu, Alex Fong Lik-Sun The Skinny: Totally fluffy and more than a little uneven, Elixir of Love is still an entertaining, beautifully-shot comedy. Miriam Yeung and Richie Ren are an appealing couple, and the film provides more than its fair share of charm, if not actual cinematic quality. Review
by Kozo: More pre-packaged Lunar New Year crap for the masses! Elixir of Love features attractive popstars, a fluffy premise, and oodles of feel-good laughs—a virtual blueprint for standard Lunar New Year fare. Miriam Yeung and Richie Ren are the popstars, the premise is a fairy tale about a princess and a pauper, and the laughs are a patchwork of minor satire, benign physical comedy, and tired bathroom humor. For director Riley Yip (Just One Look, Metade Fumaca), this seems like a real step down. However, Elixir of Love also features wonderful production design, and beautifully-photographed scenery that simply leaps from the screen. The actors themselves are fun too, and generate good screen chemistry. Elixir of Love is far from an ace motion picture experience, but the minor charm and genial tone makes for a suitably fluffy diversion.
Miriam Yeung is the Princess of China, the first female in a long line of royal male offspring, thus making her a precious commidity. However, she stinks. Cursed with something called SARS (Severe Atypical Reeking Syndrome), the Princess' B.O. is enough to send any and all suitors running or to a self-imposed early demise, despite the fact that she's sweet, charming, and looks like Miriam Yeung. At a loss for solutions, the Emperor offers up a contest: to have doctors, mystics and/or assorted quacks show up in an attempt to cure the Princess of her smelliness, the prize for their efforts being the Princess' actual hand in marriage and presumed favored status in the capital. Not surprisingly, many apply.
However, the contest comes down to two possible suitors: a cultured, snobby, RHA (Royal Hospital Authority) approved doctor (Liu Heng), and poor, too-cute aromatherapy expert Kai (Richie Ren). The other doctor has the head royal physician (Kenny Bee) in his corner, and the two conspire to let their success forward the cause of cultured, snobby doctors everywhere. However, neither is as talented or earnest as Kai, whose love of plants and single-minded aromatherapy expertise is all geared to do just one thing: fulfill his lifelong deam of marrying a princess.
Both contestants are given three months to find a solution, so Kai goes in search of smelly people on whom to test his experiments. His nose leads him to the local fish market, where he meets a trio of smelly fish hawkers (including Lam Suet and Eric Kot), as well as their cheery co-worker Heung (also Miriam Yeung, hmmm), who also smells pretty bad. Thanks to instant attraction, Heung offers to become Kai's primary test subject, and soon the two are searching high-and-low to find a way to cure the Princess of what ails her. Kai has no idea that Heung is a dead ringer for the Princess because he's never seen her, and despite showing obvious signs of affection for Kai, Heung never seems to protest that his efforts are supposed to aid another woman. The reason why is because, duh, Heung and the Princess are one and the same, a plot twist which offers zero surprise whatsoever.
However, a twisting narrative did not seem to be writer-director Riley Yip's intention with this film. Clearly, he didn't intend Heung's actual identity to fool anyone, and if someone out there was actually fooled, they should seriously consider a cure for their ADD. If anything, Elixir of Love is merely what it appears to be: an overly-genial, totally harmless piece of fluff, which means there's something in here for everyone. Aside from the requisite popstars, the film also features a mixed-bag combination of bathroom humor (character flatulence gets lots of airtime), minor satire (the RHA and the SARS references), and occasional pratfalls (Heung and Kai first meet when she falls on him with a big fish on her back). Such a slight cinematic exercise is surprising from Yip, whose films have generally been more quirky, and more overtly concerned with Wong Kar-Wai-esque emotions. Elixir of Love seems to eschew that and deliver something else: standard Lunar New Year fare, which in the hands of most directors equals an average, predictable, cloying time at the movies.
Thankfully, Elixir of Love qualifies as slightly more than average Lunar New Year fare, in some part due to the actors. Richie Ren and Miriam Yeung are both charming, likable perfomers who share good screen chemistry, and the storyline of this film does not require extended sequences of histrionic mugging from either. Instead, situations and minor interplay carry the film, meaning we get lots of sequences where Kai and Heung simply spend time in frame together, sans any scenery chewing. This is an especially good thing, because the scenery of Elixir or Love is absolutely beautiful. Production designer Hai Chung-Man and cinematographer Chan Chi-Ying earn their paychecks and then some; Elixir of Love is a pleasure to simply look at, from the costumes to the sets to every inch of greenery which exists in frame. Considering the audience cannot smell the aromas that Kai is supposedly cooking up, giving us bright colors and pretty pictures to look at is an appreciated visual equivalent.
Riley Yip's 2000 film Lavender also explored the subject of aromatherapy, which leads us to ask the question: what about smelling stuff is such a big deal for this guy? Elixir of Love does not provide any answers about Yip's olfactory obsessions, but it does extend his streak of films presenting love as idealized and desired, even if it's fleeting, impossible, or just in memory. Elixir of Love is most especially suited to that theme, as it's a fairy tale. Ergo, the ending is automatically happy, and true love can be found without any sort of "Yeah, right!" exclamations from the cynics in the audience. And really, this is not a movie for cynics or those expecting Comrades, Almost a Love Story. Elixir of Love is easy-to-please audience-oriented moviemaking, and it does the job better than some of its counterparts (i.e., Magic Kitchen and Protégé de la Rose Noire, to name two other 2004 Lunar New Year entries). It's pleasing, likable stuff for undemanding audiences—but Yip hasn't forgotten about his core following entirely. For sharper audiences out there, Yip even throws in a minor Wong Kar-Wai reference to keep them happy. (Kozo 2004) Availability: DVD (Hong Kong)
Region 0 NTSC
Mega Star / Media Asia
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks
Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Removable English and Chinese Subtitles
Trailers, "Making of" featurette, Music Video

http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/elixir_of_love.htm

This post has been edited by ttenovy: Jun 11 2004 7 28 AM

[Jules]

I don't know if I should watch this or not. I like the themesong though...and the sub theme. Both very very cute and catchy. Still...I don't know if I should watch it...

Anbody what to help me?? I looove Miriam but sometimes her movie can be sooo goofy...like Anne in Kungfuland for instance...

[CrushedDreamz]

the movie was ok.....mostly bout a person that tries to get rid of another person's odor...haha

The plot of the movie was kinda weird, but I liked the soundtrack. lol

I guess this could qualify as a romantic comedy, although its more comical than romantic. A good date flik if both can appreciate the silliness of the plot. A lot of slapstick stuff.

[kougetsu]

I didn't think Miriam's hair was too bad. It kinda grows on you through the movie. imo this was a lot better than Anna in Kung Fu Land. That was pretty dumb to me.

Beautifull scenes with a good cast. To bad there was no chemistry between Miriam and Richie. The story itself is what you can expect from a romance comedy, what also didn't work was that the movie was a mix of cantonese and mainland/taiwan actors. The dubbing of some actors was just horrible.

Good movie , funny and interesting

I think that you should watch this movie Jules ( specially if you love Miriam )

[jiggaroy]

saw this a few months ago. this movie is much better than most hk movies i seen so far this year. Its has some pretty funny moments and had some funny one liners. i do recommend it tho, its pretty decent movie.

[shyqt]

its funny, i liked it! i felt bad for miriam in the movie

[B][COLOnoreferalspurple] oh iv seen this movie about 4-5months ago and i fink its great and funny, i like watching miriam but my bf says its not funny and its bad. but i fink its good!!!!

[LNTangel]

i dont like this movie quite much, i think the story is terrible. but miriam is a very good actor!..they showed this movie on the plane to shanghai!...

[kelvin_ck1]

oh no ... is this a romance movie ? not romantic enough ..... don't bring gf to watch this movie

[AzN_PrInCe^^]

I really like this movie !!
the movie is filled with.. Lots of silliness, enjoyable and visually beautiful !
if some of you like Richie Ren's movies..I really do recommend you guys this movie and a another movie called Fly Me To Polaris With Cecilia cheung =)

[o8stokez8o]

i thought this movie was pretty funny. i enjoyed it. then again...i'm usually pretty easily pleased. about the bangs on miriam....never thought she was attractive to begin with. it was good to see kenny in a film again too.

[hataz_Z]

Yea, I thought Miriam looked funny with the bangs, but the movie was ok - definitely better than Anna in KungFuLand. I thought Alex Fong's cameo at the beginning as a suitor was funny. He'd rather jump into river/lake/body of water and die than marry the smelly princess.

[shopaholic]

hm.. i found this movie kinda boring. cute story but just a tad on the slow side but no matter what... miriam is still da best.

[babiegirl214]

The movie is ok but I love the idea of it though!

[neo]

is this a new movie ?? look like a nice show to watch

[wAizz]

How many movies does Miriam act in? It's like every month there comes a new movie with her in it.

[Annie_Jeh]

this movie was kinda weird and unique. it was so sad that she was stinky. whoever heard of a stinky princess.

pretty cute movie, and yes definitely better than anna in kung-fu land. i agree with those that say miriam's bangs were not too flattering. but this movie had some good scenes and i liked the acting of richie and miriam. i liked it when they had to go find the different flowers or herbs and the of them went together. it was cute.

[Teufel66]

This movie will air on TV in Toronto (Omni 2 - Channel 14)
Saturday October 23rd 2004, 9:00pm-11:00pm (Toronto time)

[Teufel66]

I LOVE THIS MOVIE...
Holly crap was it good. Beats "The Lion Roars" by a mile.
Excellent plot, love story, acting.
I loved the part where the guy suicided because he didn't want to marry Miriam. (She smelled bad).
And near the end...was sad when she told her life story.
One of my fav HK movies ...

[monyi]

I find it so-so. Miriam has a really weird hairstyle as a princess. The theme song is cute though. The only funny thing is Alex Fong(the swimmer) saying in the movie: "I don't know how to swim." Haha!

[Kazaf]

This movie is good of course!!
Funny and romantic!
Richie Ren's acting in this movie isnt bad.
He is very cool in the movie also

[ytang]

I didn't like this film. It's a waste of the cast (Miriam and Richie). The storyline was a weak and the funny parts were not that funny by Miriam's standards.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was pretty funny. The farting thing was kinda wierd though. Ummm...were can I download the theme and sub song?

i liked this movie, i liked the music video for it more though. miriam yeung and richie are funny most of the time, probably not their best work though.

[julina]

This movie is good... especially richie ren... he is cute... the way he speak is funny... should watch this movie... and storyline is quite special compare with other movie... enjoy...

this is funny movies... i like watch this... specialy miriam yeung

[melc913]

This movie is pretty funny. Richie and Miriam are so cute in it. I would definately recommend it.

this movie is so funny and cute ! i like the song that they sing in this movie too it had a great plot.

The movie was pretty good but it was boring . Miraim Yeung was energic and funny but the story was poor . The movie was too long ...

The view is very beautiful that I think.
And some parts are very touching.

[KEVINRENSON]

hahah....richie ren....my brother...not many guys out there are last name of ren....but i am....richie ren the man!!!!!!!