Growing up in a household where the main form of entertainment was going to the movies every week I was bound to see quite a variety of films, no matter if I wanted to see them or not. One such film that I was exposed to was the Mel Gibson/Helen Hunt romantic comedy, What Women Want. At the time I thought it was a fun little rom-com due to the nature of the story. Well, apparently the Chinese enjoyed the feature so much that they decided to remake the film with some of their biggest stars, Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs) and Gong Li (Memoirs of a Geisha), and kept the same title too.
What Women Want is about a chauvinistic advertising executive named Zigang Sun (Andy Lau) who one would consider a womanizer, a terrible father, a bad husband, son, pretty much the works. On the day when he is expecting to receive a promotion, the CEO decides to bring in fresh blood in the form of Yilong Li (Gong Li), a female from a rival ad agency. While upset, Zigang will not allow her to best him in his office and so when she asks the men to tap into their female side, Zigang performs the necessary tasks and then has an accident that allows him to hear women’s thoughts. Both a blessing and a curse, Zigang is able to use his power to become a master of women and advance his career, the only problem is that he begins to fall for Yilong which obviously has its own consequences.
Maybe it’s because I’m an American but the Chinese version of What Women Want didn’t have the same impact as the US version did on me. It is very Chinese in the way the film is set up and executed, like when you have Andy Lau singing a jazz song in the middle of the film or the use of much cleaner humor. Was it entertaining? Definitely. Was it funny? Not really. It’s my love of the concept and desire to see how it would be executed that drew me to Daming Chen’s reimaging of the popular Hollywood blockbuster.
I thought the acting was pretty good. Much of it is in the style of your stereotypical romantic comedies so if you can deal with that then you should have no problem watching it. I actually liked Gong Li much more than Helen Hunt in the feature because one, she’s more attractive, and two, she wasn’t very uptight like Helen’s character. Andy Lau is always a joy to watch and it is nice to watch him take on a lighthearted role instead of just thrillers, crime dramas and action films. The various actors and actresses in supporting roles were average.
Unfortunately there isn’t anything to review on the dvd itself. The disc contains only the feature and the option to have English or Mandarin subtitles appear on the screen. So I would recommend renting the movie if you have the opportunity because purchasing it won’t really do much for your collection.
Overall, What Women Want is your standard remake with the added bonus of a new cultural perspective. You’re able to learn a bit about the Chinese perspective on the subject matter and while it may be similar, there are still some differences worth noting. While it may be your stereotypical rom-com, I still found it to be more enjoyable then a lot of the crap that is made stateside.
Rating: Pure rom-com fluff that allows men live their dream (5.5/10)
What Women Want is now available on DVD from China Lion. You can order it from New Video here.
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