Isabella is a film set in Macau, before the handover to mainland China, the film, directed and starring Chapman To, is a film that revolves around the stories of Shing (Champan To) and Yan (Isabella Leong).
The film begins with Shing, a policeman who is currently suspended corruption in his force, at a bar and he begins to try and advance on Yan. After being shunned initially, Yan reveals to Shing that she is in fact his daughter. Shocked by the change of events, the film becomes an evolution of Shing and Yan’s character’s as they adapt to their new roles as father and daughter.
As a character, watching Shing and Yan develop is very interesting. Initially, Shing seems quite a dark and shady character, and seems that his life revolves around him, and nothings else. However, he doesn’t have a cruel and evil side. In the scene where Yan is evicted from the flat, with that news, Shing isn’t really too fussed with Yan, as she simply didnt pay the landlord rent. However, he was upset that the landlord kicked Yan’s dog out without telling Yan, as Shing sees that at harsh and cruel.
Yan develops in an opposite way to Shing. We initially see Yan living on her own, but as the plot moves, she once again assumes the role of a child to Shing as the two come closer together. She comes across as the person who wears her heart on her sleeve, although to people she doesn’t know, she can be pushy.
In Conclusion, Isabella doesn’t really entice me as a member of the audience. Whether its the genre of the film that didn’t capture my imagination (I’m more of the action or a comedy man), the films characters do keep the audience involved, albeit the basic plotline outside them of finding Yan’s dog does seem a little basic. What I liked however was how Chapman To exposes Macau as the type of place it really is, with Police officers drinking in downtown bars and using status to try and sleep with teenage girls, something that is seen as quite risky in terms of political correctness.
