Dai sam yuen (1996)

Dai sam yuen: Directed by Hark Tsui. With Leslie Cheung, Anita Yuen, Ching Wan Lau, Catherine Yan Hung. A priest hears a prostitute’s confession, a tale which has a 200,000 HK$ debt as its centerpiece. The prostitute accidentally leaves behind an envelope with her address in the confessional. Concealing his true occupation, the priest rents another room in her apartment and begins to straighten out her life. But then the prostitute starts to fall in love with the priest…

“This movie would have been better if they had made it about a fictional actress based on Monroe instead of about Monroe herself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Goddess, filmed during Monroeu0026#39;s lifetime (around the time this movie is set, in fact) couldnu0026#39;t have used her name, and itu0026#39;s much the better for that constraint. The Goddess doesnu0026#39;t constantly force us to compare Kim Stanleyu0026#39;s fantastic performance with the real Marilyn Monroe, because it doesnu0026#39;t constantly CALL her Marilyn Monroe. My Week with Marilyn doesnu0026#39;t give us that freedom, the freedom to appreciate Michelle Williamsu0026#39;s performance on its own merits rather than as an impersonation of a much more charismatic and distinctive star than she is herself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eViewers more familiar with Williams than with Monroe can rave about this performance, because theyu0026#39;re not comparing it to anything. To them, Monroe is just a dizzy blonde standing over a subway grate with her skirt billowing up around her, and Williams plays THAT role as well as anyone else could. But she canu0026#39;t for one second deceive anybody who has experienced Monroe (seeing her is only part of the delight) in more than one scene from one movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHalf of Monroeu0026#39;s power as a performer is in her face, one of the most beautiful and naturally expressive faces God ever made, and thatu0026#39;s why NO actress can EVER successfully play her. No one else has that face.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUsing a fictitious name would also have relieved them of having to portray the insufferably shallow and narcissistic Laurence Olivier, the most overrated actor who ever lived. I realize that they based this movie on Colin Clarku0026#39;s highly dubious and self-aggrandizing u0026quot;memoirsu0026quot; of his brief contact with Monroe, and therefore had some justification for their choices, but that was a mistake.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne of many mistakes. Worst: the stupid screenplay, which treated Clarku0026#39;s adolescent fantasy as truth and made it even more ludicrous than it already was. Second: the hackneyed direction that makes a story about interesting and real people seem as false as a soap opera. Third: the miscasting of every role in the movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlthough the most egregiously miscast are Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller, Dominic Cooper as Milton Greene, and plodding Julia Ormond as ethereal Vivien Leigh, NONE of the actors convincingly portray the real persons they are supposed to be. Even Judi Dench is maudlin and icky as the decidedly UN-maudlin and UN-icky Sybil Torndike. I suppose Branagh is sufficiently pretentious and boring as Olivier, but the movie would have been better without that character.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe one good thing about this movie is that it calls attention to Marilyn Monroe. If it had motivated even one person whou0026#39;d never done so to watch her movies, it would have been worthwhile.”