Rating: 
Summary: Look Harder; You Have To Think
Review: Somewhere I read--I don't even know if it was in relation to this movie--that if you've never loved a woman you couldn't have, you won't understand this movie. This is a more than reductive introduction. I can begin by saying that this is one of the most thoughful and intelligent movies about the new internationalism that I have seen, but that sounds like a blurb. Irons is a man whose unconsumatable love for his adopted Hong Kong is embodied in his love for Gong Li's character, just as gong Li's character suffers from a love of the west that cannot escape old collonial cliches of bondage and subordination. So that's a pretty concise summary of the "significance" of each character, so what? By using the romantic metaphor, Wang manages to peel away a layer from our true international obsessions (at the heart of which is possession) and gambits. There are no flattering portraits in this movie: the west tries to use Asia for a quick buck, while Asia tries to use the west for a type of legitimacy. Unfortunately, the actions of the west have estranged it from itself (Irons being estranged from his family), while the attempts to embrace the west isolate the Asian from Asia (Gong Li's inability to climb up the Hong Kong social register). This is just a scratch. 1000 words can't do this very well done movie (except for the strangely lo-tech computer graphics title sequence) justice. You have to think. The movie's there, but you have to think.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad overall, but don't expect fireworks.
Review: The Chinese Box is a film that draws parallels between the relationship of Jeremy Irons and Gong Li to that of the Hong Kong handover. It is far from Irons' best performance, and I was dissapointed by Li's miniscule role in the film. Such a wonderful actress could've been given more lines despite her shaky english. Oh, and it was a little slow.Despite all this, the film does manage to draw you in somewhat and you end up caring about what happens to the two character. In the end, it's worth a view... but not twenty dollars.
Rating: 
Summary: A Interesting Failure of a Film!
Review: The idea was there. A film about the change over of Hong Kong from British to PRC rule. The casting was there too. Jeremy Irons, Gong-Li, and Maggie Cheung. This was a film I looked forward to, understood very well, but was ultimately disappointed. The symbolism is great. The dying Jeromy Irons represents British rule. The scarred but always optimistic Maggie Cheung is the people of Hong Kong. Again, this was a clever idea and props to that, but the film often just wanders and drags. Also disappointing was Gong-li. Gong-li is one of the most gifted actresses in China. She is fantastic. However, her poor English really hurts her performance. She has given many powerful performances in her native language and it was painful to watch her struggle in a English film. Gong-li is great and should not rush to make anymore American films. So again the films concept is great but the finished product is a noble failure.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow, but haunting
Review: The three central characters in this film Jeremy Irons (the foreign reporter), Gong Li (the former prostitute), and Maggie Cheung (the scarred street hustler) each represent aspects of the old, Great Britain Hong Kong and new China Hong Kong. I think Gong Li and Maggie Cheung, two great actresses, should have had more screen time. This film was long and slow, lacking the traditional rising action, climax, etc. However, it had a mysterious quality about it that makes it captivating and gave me a worldly feeling. It changes the way you perceive things.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful Awful
Review: This coming from a Jeremy Iron most enthusiastic fan, I couldn't stand this movie. I just couldn't follow. It seems like scraps of what was left on the floor of the editing room. So much more room for improvement and development. This movie is a concept that should have been kept locked up. As for Jeremy, he's capable of better, but there was no supporting cast here. I even wonder if there was a script. What's with the dog on the treadmill? I didn't need to see that over and over again. There are a few more gross scenes--totally unnecessary visual assault on the audience. This 'Chinese box' should be shut, then shot!
Rating:
Summary: Could have been a contender
Review: This is a great love story, but it just doesn't quite make it to rise above average. The story is just a little too tired. However, it is a must see for all Gong Li fans. She is absolutely striking and creates one of the best seduction scenes on film without ever exposing any skin. The main problem is that we just don't get enough of her and as usual, no one as yet has been able to cast a male opposite her with enough strength to really create the great screen love that she needs to make her a superstar. In other words, Irons, while an excellent actor, is more like Leslie Howard, while the viewer longs for Li to find a Clark Gable, "Soldier of Fortune", Bogart or Tyrone Power to rescue her.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent blend of eastern and western melodies
Review: This is the first chinese album I ever purchased.It is still my favorite.My favorite songs are: 1.CHINESE BOx Theme by Dadawa,I love the voacls on this one. 2.Song for a jolly gathering :always cheers me up whn I'm down. 13.CHINESE BOX THEME:This is the extended version,its very lovely at the end.
Rating:
Summary: Culture Shock
Review: Wayne Wang is just an embarrasement to "Chinese" film-makers. The overall story of Chinese Box is a love-story wrapped around the Chinese and English cultural encounter in Hong Kong around 1997, but just like Joy Luck Club, it's so full of stereotyping it's terrifying. I cannot conceive of viewing it as a love story or as a cultural exposition. Throughout the story, characters who are supposed to have led a life of exodus or growing, similar to people I see around me daily, are so bizzare I almost yelled: "they are not real people". Essentially, I find it very hard not to consider the cultural aspect, since Wang spend so much time moving around Hong Kong in a handheld video camera. But his Hong Kong is composed simply of stylish upper class composing mainly of expatriates and then all lower-class folks, as if there was nothing in between. And I mean it, there was nothing. Jeremy Irons' John has close to no HK friends, no social life, and is only interested in Hong Kong as a dump. He lives in a dump, films the dumps, and his only other incarnation is a reporter who writes about the economy? which Wang didn't go sufficiently deeply into. You might say he is just an eccentric person, but there are enough disturbing scenes of the Hong Kong society in this movie that worries me, because ultimately John's journey becomes the reality for people who are not familiar with Hong Kong. I'm very disturbed with such lack of depth as Paul Theorux is also credited for story and he has written a lengthy monograph on Hong Kong. If that's Mr Theorux's Hong Kong, then I'm even more worried. Still, as a Hong Konger, I cannot help taking this subject matter personally. The Hong Kong, and even the overall mood of the changeover, is grossly inaccurate, with incorrect events made solely to terrify the audience, making it a lot less valuable as a "Chinese Box" because it might as well be called "Jupiter Box" and it wouldn't be less funny. The cultural essays are also very disturbing. Gong's character is so paper-thin (not her body shape) you could knock her down with a brush. Here you have a new immigrant who rise in society using her body, and now owns a bar, again with no close associates or connections to talk of. Without that life, which happens in the middle of the story, she could only revert back to becoming a low-life? And in the end of the story she appears in her full glory in a high-class event, unexplained. This flip-flopping does not magics make, just amazement. I have never seen Gong in such an unchallenging role (acting-wise). To argue for the screenplay, I have to say the writer may have simplified her life. But, as someone who knows the Hong Kong society first-hand, first, "the stigma of her past" does not ruin her life -- not in Hong Kong, and, second, there are just too many opportunities in Hong Kong to believe an ex-bar-owner can only lead the life of a prostitue. I am not about to criticise a writer's artistic license. However, this is definitely a cultural bias, no less disturbing then that found in "Joy Luck Club". Because, believe it or not, Chinese women are very strong! You can see that in most of Gong Li's or Wong Kar-wai's movies. The cultural bias goes on and on, with a story around Maggie Cheung whose life is ruined because of a love relationship with a ex-colonial son. That was just so incredible. I don't think I need to go into that because everybody knows that's fairy tale, at least everybody in Hong Kong. Maybe true a long long time ago ... Ultimately, it seems that Wang's characters are typically pick out of Hong Kong melodrama movies in around '50s-'60s, when stereotypical tear-jerkingly sad characters were very successful. But life just isn't that simple, and I thought modern day film-makers are already beyond that. Even judging it merely as a love story, I find it less than interesting, cardboard figures, with a Western moralistic hero falling head over heel for his Chinese doll, who couldn't love him, and then have to. God, that's ... that's ... that's so Wayne Wang, such an embarrassment. And to think he was born in Hong Kong. Maybe -- just maybe, if the movie was set in the '20s or '30s Hong Kong, then it could have been acceptable. One thing is clear, Wang is incapable of making movies about places he's never lived in.
Rating:
Summary: Culture Shock
Review: Wayne Wang is just an embarrasement to "Chinese" film-makers. The overall story of Chinese Box is a love-story wrapped around the Chinese and English cultural encounter in Hong Kong around 1997, but just like Joy Luck Club, it's so full of stereotyping it's terrifying. I cannot conceive of viewing it as a love story or as a cultural exposition. Throughout the story, characters who are supposed to have led a life of exodus or growing, similar to people I see around me daily, are so bizzare I almost yelled: "they are not real people". Essentially, I find it very hard not to consider the cultural aspect, since Wang spend so much time moving around Hong Kong in a handheld video camera. But his Hong Kong is composed simply of stylish upper class composing mainly of expatriates and then all lower-class folks, as if there was nothing in between. And I mean it, there was nothing. Jeremy Irons' John has close to no HK friends, no social life, and is only interested in Hong Kong as a dump. He lives in a dump, films the dumps, and his only other incarnation is a reporter who writes about the economy? which Wang didn't go sufficiently deeply into. You might say he is just an eccentric person, but there are enough disturbing scenes of the Hong Kong society in this movie that worries me, because ultimately John's journey becomes the reality for people who are not familiar with Hong Kong. I'm very disturbed with such lack of depth as Paul Theorux is also credited for story and he has written a lengthy monograph on Hong Kong. If that's Mr Theorux's Hong Kong, then I'm even more worried. Still, as a Hong Konger, I cannot help taking this subject matter personally. The Hong Kong, and even the overall mood of the changeover, is grossly inaccurate, with incorrect events made solely to terrify the audience, making it a lot less valuable as a "Chinese Box" because it might as well be called "Jupiter Box" and it wouldn't be less funny. The cultural essays are also very disturbing. Gong's character is so paper-thin (not her body shape) you could knock her down with a brush. Here you have a new immigrant who rise in society using her body, and now owns a bar, again with no close associates or connections to talk of. Without that life, which happens in the middle of the story, she could only revert back to becoming a low-life? And in the end of the story she appears in her full glory in a high-class event, unexplained. This flip-flopping does not magics make, just amazement. I have never seen Gong in such an unchallenging role (acting-wise). To argue for the screenplay, I have to say the writer may have simplified her life. But, as someone who knows the Hong Kong society first-hand, first, "the stigma of her past" does not ruin her life -- not in Hong Kong, and, second, there are just too many opportunities in Hong Kong to believe an ex-bar-owner can only lead the life of a prostitue. I am not about to criticise a writer's artistic license. However, this is definitely a cultural bias, no less disturbing then that found in "Joy Luck Club". Because, believe it or not, Chinese women are very strong! You can see that in most of Gong Li's or Wong Kar-wai's movies. The cultural bias goes on and on, with a story around Maggie Cheung whose life is ruined because of a love relationship with a ex-colonial son. That was just so incredible. I don't think I need to go into that because everybody knows that's fairy tale, at least everybody in Hong Kong. Maybe true a long long time ago ... Ultimately, it seems that Wang's characters are typically pick out of Hong Kong melodrama movies in around '50s-'60s, when stereotypical tear-jerkingly sad characters were very successful. But life just isn't that simple, and I thought modern day film-makers are already beyond that. Even judging it merely as a love story, I find it less than interesting, cardboard figures, with a Western moralistic hero falling head over heel for his Chinese doll, who couldn't love him, and then have to. God, that's ... that's ... that's so Wayne Wang, such an embarrassment. And to think he was born in Hong Kong. Maybe -- just maybe, if the movie was set in the '20s or '30s Hong Kong, then it could have been acceptable. One thing is clear, Wang is incapable of making movies about places he's never lived in.
Rating:
Summary: Pretentious pretentious pretentious!
Review: What is up with Chinese-American directors? While their cousins across the Pacific--John Woo, Ang Lee--are making masterpieces, Chinese-Americans like Wayne Wang are churning out the most mind-boggling schlock. I can't say enough about the things that annoy me in this movie. How about the arbitrary scenes of cruelty to animals, like of the men in the kitchen hammering at that flopping fish? Or Jeremy Iron's face against the wall as a film projector shines a moving image onto his face (what am I supposed to do, applaud Wang's "creativity" here?). Insipid, tasteful, self-important, and BORING not to mention that Gong-Li's getting majorly porky. Avoid this like yellow fever! (And I still can't get over the fact that great novelist Paul Theroux would be part of this abysmal garbage.)
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