Women Who Flirt

After the dramatic style departure of Aberdeen, Pang Ho-Cheung continues exploring new frontiers…

There was much to write when director Pang Ho-cheung abandoned his regular Hong Kong kicks and delved into the familial drama world of Aberdeen in 2014, the end result being a film with all the trademarks of a Pang Ho-cheung film but drastically different from his blown-out comedy style. Women Who Flirt follows in the same vein of Pang deviating from his niche and instead attempting something new, taking the best parts of Love In The Buff and Vulgaria but trimming them down for a Mainland Chinese audience.

Women Who Flirt follows the duo of tomboyish Angie (Zhou Xun) and her best friend Marco (Huang Xiaoming) who get paid to review other companies and provide feedback on improving their service. The script itself is an adaption of the self help book Everyone Loves Tender Woman by Loverman, with collaboration from Love In The Buff’s Luk Yee-Sum and fresh writer Zhang Youyou; however you couldn’t tell from the narrative that this is a traditional Pang film with a distinct lack of his trademark wit, stylish shooting and the punctual ‘Pang-esque’ flavour that all his fans have come to expect.

The film itself is based around the degrading stereotypes of women that men have come to expect (or so we are richly told from the script); with simmering manipulative tones of apology, racy clothing and opportunistic flirting ‘techniques’ that rise the occasional laugh on screen but come across as raw, dated and cringe-worthy in real life. As Angie comes to the realization that her long time friend Marco isn’t reciprocating her love, and instead took her hints to find a girlfriend (in the form of Taiwanese girl Hailey, Tang Sui), Angie enlists her friends in the self proclaimed ‘Barbie Army’ to steal the heart of Marco and “Show Hailey the true spirit of Shanghai girls”.

Women Who Flirt plays out a lot like any traditional rom com on cinema screens recently, with a neatly packaged generic script that could be shot by most mediocre directors. The film promptly lacks the traditional heart and style of Pang, whilst only serving to deliver a middlingly above-par film that will be all but forgettable by the time audiences delve into Lunar New Year, and all the rom com fluff that comes with it.

That’s not to say the film is without it’s good aspects, as Zhou Xun delivers a spunky but cheerful performance in every scene which helps to work through the turgidity of the narrative, stopping every scene involving Tang Sui from becoming overwhelmingly grating. Her cheerful cynicism is a direct contrast to the blunt delivery from Huang Xiaoming, making the romance aspect of the ‘rom com’ not only hard to swallow but also giving the impression of a last minute addition.

There aren’t many bad aspects of Women Who Flirt; it’s just that a collection of mediocre genre tropes alongside a fumbled attempt at humour displays a distinct lack of drive and ambition on the part of Pang Ho-cheung. In the politest terms, Women Who Flirt feels a lot like Love In The Buff. It’s a deliberate cash-in for a Mainland audience with Mainland funding, whilst shirking off all Cheung’s well lauded and loved style to instead settle for a distinctly mediocre delivery. A generic shooting style, an unadventurous script and little of the trademark humour audiences have come to expect from Pang, Women Who Flirt feels more like a first indie adventure from an unknown director with Pang’s name tacked onto the poster.

After the back of the hugely successful release of Aberdeen last year, we now find Pang attempting something new but altogether underwhelmingly boring to deliberately attract Mainland cash. I can’t help but applaud Pang for departing from his typecast yet again and going out of his comfort zone for something new, however it just feels like he belongs best in Hong Kong productions.