Film: Life Without Principle
Director: Johnnie To
Country: Hong Kong
Life Without Principle is a very watchable look at
the world economic crash through a group of different lives in Hong
Kong, though not one so impactful that it will stay in the memory for
long.
The best story line revolves around
Panther (Lau Ching Wan), an endearingly enthuiastic, semi-competent, gang member. It's a
really good fun performance, and it brings welcome lightness and comedy
to the film. It is Panther's comedy-thriller storyline that provides
the engine to the film, and could probably have worked as a more
developed single story film in itself. It's not that the other
characters' lives aren't interesting stories, but they slow the film's
momentum.
Also central is bank worker Teresa (Denise Ho),
who is caught in a series of moral dilemnas, first under pressure to
sell a risky new investment proposition, then caught with an unexpected
opportunity.
Weaving in and out of this is a
police inspector, just trying to get through the days, but getting
caught up with the consequences of boom and bust.
A comment is made by a character
about how so many people invest or gamble to get something for nothing
and in contrast a desperate character later on describes how he has
worked all his life only to lose everything, and the message is clear -
that morally there was criminal behaviour in legitimate financial
organisations that was not much of a step from that in the gang that
Panther belongs too and it is the ordinary person that suffers. It's
not a groundbreaking point of view, but what the movie does well is that
it isn't the main focus of the film, nor is it being hammered home too
heavily, it is just gently seeps through the different stories.
Not a film that will change your life, but an interesting reflection on one of the main issues of the day.
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