Online Review of ‘All’s Well, Ends Well 2011'

‘All’s Well, Ends Well 2011’ is a love comedy produced by Raymond Wong. Hong Kong people must be very familiar with the ‘All’s Well, Ends Well’ series; and this is the sixth installment in it. There are four pairs of couples in this film: Sammy (Koo-Tin Lok) and Claire (Cheung Pak-Chi); Clerk (Wong Pak-Ming) and Dream (Yan Ni); Arnold (Yen Chi-Tan) and Mona (Lau Kar-Ling); Syd (To Man-Chat) and Victoria (Xiong Dai-Lin). Most of them are the representative actors/actresses of comedy.

This film is about the story between these six characters: they are representing different kind of people who having different problems that are very common nowadays. And the director tried to bring out some positive messages to audiences. The movie used ‘make up’ to represent ‘disguise’. Sammy was a famous make-up artist who lack of sense of security, through acting like a woman and make up to protect himself. He even not dare to tell Claire he love her. Finally, he understood that ‘a good making is not disguise, is self-confident’. Clerk was the typical example of people who thinks that earning money is the most important thing in their life. After an incident, Clerk found that not everything could use money to deal with, and there was many things were more important than money, such as his family. Mona was representing the people who lost themselves but only follow the mainstream to change their identities. What Arnold said, ‘Be yourself!’ is the point that the director want to express.

There are many collective memories in this movie. Such as the scene that Sammy only needed to pick up a packaged sugar from the table which had many orange and white paper cups on it, people will associate to the fast food shop naturally. Also the symbol of ‘All’s Well, Ends Well’ – Aquarium and Lee Heung Kam. Moreover, this film used the characters in Cinderella to explain their roles. Sammy was the mouse: the one who love the princess but choose to be her shadow guardian, hope the prince can give a better to the princess. Claire was the princess: not like the other girls, she was pure and beautiful, an ideal woman. ‘Cinderella’ also indicates that since the prince like her, she could become a rags to riches girl. Syd was the prince: the man who could give the princess a prosperous life. Since this story is very familiar with everyone, so it is very easy to comprehend what the director wants to express. The ending that the princess chose the mouse (true love) but not the prince (money) is also telling the major ideas of this film.

The funny thing is, in this film, the status of women is generally higher than men. From their job (Sammy and Arnold were a make-up artist, the serving target is women), men worked under the woman (Dream), to the family status was also under than women (Arnold’s family members was all women, he needed to remember their flavor and served them). It shows the situation that the social status of women becomes higher nowadays.

There is also an encoding and decoding phenomenon. About the casting, Donnie Yen and Cecelia Cheung are controversial. There are two questions about them: Is Donnie suitable to become a comedian actor? Do the audiences accept Cecelia after the Edison Chen photo scandal? Moreover is a character that very pure?

About Donnie, this film put kung-fu in the scene that he make-up for women, it gained the positive comments from the audiences. Of course there has no problem with his kung-fu; but about his acting, it seems that he is still more suitable to be an action star.

  

This film was the first movie of Cecelia after the scandal. According to the online comments, the voices that support and oppose her were half and half. Since her appraisal was strongly affected by that incident, the gap between the character and her became one of the reasons that people complainted to this movie.

For me, this is still a worth watching movie. Although it is not so funny when compare with the 'All’s Well, Ends Well' in the past, but the ideas that it bring out is meaningful. 

By Lau Ka Yan, Karen (10390238 / 20855765)