Daisy雏菊英文介绍

PanAsia lives with Daisy. This ballyhooed Korean film screams quality from the

get-go. Not only does it star the inestimable Sassy Girl herself, Jeon Ji-Hyun,

but it's got a story from My Sassy Girl mastermind Kwak Jae-Yong, plus it

features a killer duo of actors in Jung Woo-Sung and Lee Sung-Jae. The

crossover occurs with Hong Kong director Andrew Lau, who's been on an

insane streak since he made the Infernal Affairs series and Initial D. The

Amsterdam location and genre-friendly hitman-with-a-heart storyline only

intensify any notion of this being a must-see Asian film. Better check those

expectations pronto; the actors are fine and the film looks great, but that's as

good as it gets.

Jeon Ji-Hyun is Hye-Young, a young painter who works at her

grandfather's antique shop in Amsterdam, and makes some money on the side

sketching portraits for tourists. She ends up falling in love with Jeong-Woo

(Lee Sung-Jae), who she mistakenly believes to be the guy who sends her

daisies on a weekly basis. Jeong-Woo is actually an Interpol agent specializing

in Asian criminals, and not a daisy- delivering romantic, though his growing

affection for Hye-Young makes it hard to come clean. Jeong-Woo also must

eventually face off against the real daisy guy: Park-Yi (Jung Woo-Sung), a

soulful hitman who has pined for Hye- Young ever since he spied her painting

daisies in the countryside. Through myriad manufactured circumstances, the

two men meet and become rivals over love and the law. Meanwhile,

Hye-Young cries in the background, clueless as to who her promised daisy

guy really is.

If you're looking for good filmmaking, you just might join Hye-Young in

her tears. While possessing stunning production values and some fine

performances, Daisy goes to hell pretty damn quick thanks to superficial

direction, obvious voiceover, and events that are mind-blowing in their sheer

stupidity. The film starts promisingly enough. The characters are introduced

effectively, and the first action sequence is kinetic and exciting. The actors are

charismatic and likable, especially Lee Sung-Jae, who gives his third-wheel

cop character both humanity and heart. And the location and cinematography

are aces. As a music video - or a tourism commercial for Amsterdam - Daisy is

supreme stuff. There may not be a better-looking movie this year.

The problem is that's all on the surface. Outwardly, Daisy presents

quality, but the interior of the film is startlingly routine and even laughable. First

of all, nothing is left to the viewer's imagination. Lau and his screenwriters spell

everything out with copious voiceover, such that the film starts to feel like it's

being recited rather than told. Also, the film is mind-numblingly serious. Daisy

recalls HK flicks like The Killer and Fulltime Killer with its

cliché

s, but unlike those films - which possessed dark wit or an enthralling

cinematic verve - Daisy possesses absolutely no sense of humor, and its style

is exceedingly artificial. Everything is played for such heart-rending emotional