Summer Holiday (2000)

Director: Jingle Ma Choh Shing

Producer: David Chan, Patricia Cheng

Cast: Sammi Cheng Sau-Man, Richie Ren Xian Qi, Michael Wong, Tan Kheng Seong, Tay Ping Hui, Echo Shen, Katherine Wang

Running Time: 98 min.

Plot: To mend her broken heart, ambitious career woman Summer (Sammi Cheng) flies to a gorgeous Malayasian island in hopes of buying its holiday resort. There she meets Momocho (Richie Ren), who claims to be the resort's owner. Trying every trick she has to win the hotel, Summer begins to forget about the pressures of city life, and finds herself interested in Momocho even more.

ALEXANDER'S REVIEW: Imagine for a second that the biggest stars in American cinema are current/former pop singers and musicians. Imagine this weekend's hit film starring all five members of 'Nsync. Or Aaliyah (oh, wait, she co-starred in "Romeo Must Die"). Or DMX (hm, same film). Or Eminen (oops, his biography is in development). Or Snoop Dogg (damn, he has a movie too). Or Mariah Carey (shit, even she of mental breakdown fame has a movie coming out about a, er, pop star). Or Ice Cube (not bad in "Three Kings" and "Friday"). Or, gasp, Britney Spears (please, God, let her acting debut be opposite Ron Jeremy). Okay, so my argument that singers don't belong in anything other than IMAX concert films like Pink Floyd's "The Wall" is a weak one because hell, some of America's biggest music stars are crossing over into the realm of "acting" and doing a damn decent job at it. Just ask this summer's biggest stud, Mark "Good Vibrations" Wahlburg.

Anyway, it's apparently not a bad thing when musicians become actors unless of course your name happens to be David Bowie or Susanna Hoffs. In fact, some of Hong Kong's biggest movie stars are singers by trade including Faye Wong, Andy Lau, Richie Ren, and Sammi Cheng. Andy Lau is great in "Needing You"; Faye Wong is irresistible in "Chungking Express"; and Richie Ren and Sammi Cheng do mighty fine work in the fluffy romantic comedy "Summer Holidays".

Watching "SH" reminded me of those colorful '60s beach films featuring the ever-present Annette Funicello, Frankie Valle, and some black-clad, beret-wearing, finger-snapping beatnik calling everyone "cat". In fact, the opening sequence in "SH" was either an homage to these films or a blatant rip-off of the genre. Regardless, "SH" is a bright and frivolous film about beautiful people on a beautiful Malaysian beach falling for one another amidst some forced drama involving real estate and Sammi's inability to relate to people. Other stuff happens, sure, but the film is really only about Richie Ren acting goofy and singing every now and then like Elvis in "Blue Hawaii" and Sammi Cheng making goofy faces and looking quite vulnerable, thus appealing, which is what she also did so well in the bright and frivolous but much better romantic comedy "Needing You" (which also featured, incidentally, a pair of pop stars).

"SH" is a cute film that further proves that pop stars can indeed act and look great and sometimes be funny. Die-hard Sammi fans will undoubtedly enjoy this film immensely because it's essentially, again, about Sammi looking cute. It's sometimes touching (nice ending), sometimes frustrating (at 98 minutes it's 20 minutes too long), sometimes funny (Ren is appropriately goofy), and always great to look at (my God, that BEACH!). A breezy way to spend a lazy summer afternoon.

ALEXANDER'S RATING: 7/10