Anna Magdalena (1998)

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is the story of a piano tuner (Takeshi Kaneshiro-Chan Kar-fu) who meets Yan Muk-yan (Aaron Kwok) at a job. By sheer "luck", they meet again and Yan moves in with Chan. A beautiful young lady (Kelly Chen-Mok Man-yee) moves into the same building and both Chan and Yan fall in love with her. If this film was a comedy only about this, their misadventures trying to win Mok's heart, it would be fine because they are all appealing characters. However, this film goes far beyond that. The film is a meditation on love, being together and just a little lust. There are moments of great comic relief, as well as some tender scenes. The title of the film refers to Bach, Anna Magdalena being his wife. That means that the music in the film is wonderful, as the film pretty much is. The film has a tremendous heart, a pleasant departure from romantic comedies that struggle to make ninety minutes and add irrelevant scenes and characters. Everyone in the film is great, its a high water mark for romantic comedy. I highly recommend this film if you like romantic comedy, its definitely worthy of your time.

I dont know why everyone just has bad reviews about this film. I personally really enjoyed this movie and have watched it countless times.The film was very well plotted. Both Actors/Actresses and behind the scene producers need to be praised for what a meaningful story they put together.The ending of the film was one of the most touching scenes I had ever scene when the second musical box opened.People should try to appreciate the film. Try to understand the meaning behind it and then maybe will enjoy the film as much as i do!

This film is unbelievable. I mean, it's unbelievable that this film even left the drawing board. It's unbelievable that three talented actors could even choose to do a film of this quality. Correction. It's not the quality, it's the lack thereof I should be noting.Anna Magdalena is a 'romantic tale' (it says on the back), in which a piano tuner (Takeshi Kaneshiro) bumps into a serial womaniser (Aaron Kwok) who is a no-hoper in his aspirations to become a novelist. The 'piano tuner' decides to offer the 'novelist' a hand by putting him up for a few days. Meanwhile a new resident (Kelly Chen) moves into their apartment block, with piano and all, only that she shows little talent. A 'love triangle' forms.Well, maybe even the clichéd love triangle cannot be an attribute here, as I've seen more chemistry in a bottle of air. The three characters seem as loveless as a defaced stone wall, and the film rarely ever delves further than skin deep. The storyline is virtually nonexistent, and where there is one, there is too much irrelevance to keep the flow running. In particular, the film tries the old tactic of showing the unique quirks of the characters, but in no way do they fit in with the story, nor add anything to what we want to discover.There is nothing in this film that salvages it from me wanting to call it rubbish. It is simply pitiful. I am a big fan of Kaneshiro and Chen, and I did like to a certain extent their outing in Lavender, but Anna Magdalena would be a film I wouldn't want to remember them for. One to leave on the shop shelf.

This movie stars 3 Chinese pop stars, so on the surface, it's like a Chinese equivalent of such American teeny-bopper fare as Dawson's Creek. But of course, it's much better.The story has a more thoughtful and philosophical bent to it, and doesn't have silly and manipulative romantic entanglements like its American counterparts. That is, no one whines about their broken heart very much - but you still feel the pain.Takeshi Kaneshiro is the best of the 3 leads as a lovelorn but reserved loner, and he conveys a lot of emotion while being very subtle. The other 2 actors, Kelly Chan and Aaron Kwok, are fine, too.The all-important novel that Takeshi's character writes fulfills its promise of being an artlessly simple but incredibly sweet love story.I'm increasingly impressed by foreign movies and their ability to convey the complexity of love, while by contrast, most American movies seem to make it much simpler and less realistic. This movie is one such foreign movie.Leslie Cheung & Anita Yuen have small but effective roles as 2 people touched by the novel that Chan Kar-fu (Takeshi) writes.