 |
| Patricia Ha in Nomad |
Cast: Patricia Ha, Kent Tong, Cecilia Yip, Leslie Cheung, Stuart Ong. Screenplay: Chiu Kang-chien, Joyce Chan, Eddie Fong, Kam Ping-hin, John Chan Koong-chun, Patrick Tam. Cinematography: Peter Ngor Chi-Kwan, David Chung, Bill Wong. Production design: William Chang, John Hau. Film editing: Cheung Kwok-kuen. Music: Violet Lam.
The English title Nomad refers to the yacht owned by the family of Louis (Leslie Cheung), an idle young man who finds himself entangled with a working-class young woman called Tomato (Cecilia Yip), while his cousin, Kathy (Patricia Ha), is toying with the affections of Pong (Kent Tong), who scrapes out a living as a lifeguard and a cab driver. But the Chinese title of Patrick Tam's film, which translates as "Youth on Fire," is more to the point. It starts out as a scattered, sexy movie about the escapades of four Hong Kong twentysomethings with not much more on their minds than what their hormones put there. But then it veers off in another direction with the arrival of Kathy's former boyfriend, Shinsuke (Stuart Ong), a deserter from the Japanese militant organization known as the Red Army. Things do not go well for the hedonistic quartet. The credits list six screenwriters, which is a sign that too many ideas have been tossed into the mix for the viewer to assimilate into a coherent story. But Nomad is undoubtedly provocative on many social, political, and historical levels.
