The first film from Macau to premiere in Udine’s Far East Film Festival. And no, it’s not about gambling and casinos…
Set in 2008 Macau, Lena (Chrissie Chau) is a Chinese immigrant working as a waitress in a restaurant and as a hostess in a bar, hoping to earn enough to be with her daughter and mother in mainland China. On a night where she crosses paths with local authorities and is almost caught working two jobs, she meets Mada (Louis Cheung), a taxi driver who is also an immigrant from China. The two develop a romantic connection but are later confronted by the trauma inflicted by their past relationships.
Despite a lack of convincing circumstances leading Mada and Lena to get to know each other better, the film goes on to tell an intimate story of two lost souls trapped in the densely populated Macau. Perhaps the lack of “justification” for why the two stay with each other after the night they first meet is the filmmaker’s manner of telling us that we don’t really need a plethora of reasons to feel at ease with someone when we know that we have simply come from the same place. In this case, it’s both the physical place (China) and, figuratively, a place of pain and an unresolved past.
Inspired by the works of Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai, the film is reminiscent of his Chungking Express (1994) and Happy Together (1997). A particular scene in the film shows a broken-hearted Mada hiring a prostitute to role-play a lost lover and read what appears to be a list of questions the latter would ask—an even more painful reimaginationof the iconic role-play scene between Mrs. Chan and Chow Mo-wan in In the Mood for Love (2000). Much like the characters in those films, those in Madalena suffer from a creeping sense of loneliness despite being in the midst of a busy metropolis.
Chan, however, distinguishes herself by refraining from being too stylistic in her approach. In fact, one of the film’s flashes of genius is its simplicity and exquisite use of silence that adds depth and dimension to the disconnection and isolation felt by its central characters. The subdued background noise and the faint city lights all stay as a backdrop in the film, creating a portrait of Macau far from its title “The Gambling Capital of the World,” and more inclined to depicting a merciless, realist version of the place. It is through this socio-political lens that we get to see (and live, for an hour and a half) the lives immigrant workers have in Macau—a life almost always dictated by economic struggle.
Mid-film, fate forces Lena to look for ways to earn for her family on the mainland. Mada comes to a point where he suspects Lena of seeing another man for money. Chan uses this as a gateway to both of their pasts, and how past events affect the fragility that is maintained throughout their relationship, forcing their connection to crack.
As a film made in Macau, that diverges from stereotypical Macau stories, Madalena succeeds in mirroring the flaws in society, as well as its humanity and the power and the cunning ways of love. Perhaps the suggestion we’re left with is true and we really can’t heal in the place where we’ve been wounded. But Madalena also tells us to wait for the right time to leave (that place), and to live and love again.