Cecilia Yip Movies

Master Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang directs this look at three people looking for human connection. Hsiao-kang (Tsai regular Lee Kang-sheng) is a young man who sells watches from a briefcase in front of Taipei's train station. When his father (Mio Tien) suddenly dies at the beginning of the film, it sends Hsiao-kang and his mother, Lu, on two radically different trajectories. His grieving mother becomes obsessed with the return of her dead husband's spirit. Hsiao-kang starts to urinate into plastic bags and bottles rather than risk bumping into his father's ghost in the middle of the night. Around that same time, Hsiao-kang encounters an aggressive, though beautiful, lass named Shiang-chyi (Chen Shiang-chyi) who is travelling in a couple of days to Paris. Entranced by the girl, he reluctantly sells her his own watch even though he believes that item has some connection to his father. The encounter leaves with Hsiao-kang with a fixation that Paris is in another time. Soon, he is changing each and every clock he can find back seven hours to Parisian time, forging an obscure connection to Shiang-chyi. Shiang-chyi herself finds Paris to be little different from Taipei in terms of alienation and isolation. Though she has run ins with several people, including an irate Frenchman in the middle of a lover's tiff and none other than Jean-Pierre Leaud in a cemetery, she only finds some comfort when she meets a woman from Hong Kong (Cecila Yip) who generously shares her hotel room with her. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This fast paced Hong Kong action film is the second in a three part trilogy loosely based on actual facts told to filmmaker Kirk Wong by a former policeman. The story takes place on a small island near Hong Kong, Cheung Chai where Tung and his lover are hiding. The two shady characters, Tung and Cindy, are hoping to make it to the mainland, but they cannot as the island has been closed off by the eccentric policeman Lee. Lee catches Tung, but loses him when Cindy springs him. They have a major confrontation in the streets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Jacob Cheung Chi-leung directs this family drama featuring former child star Petrina Fung Bo-bo. Fung plays May, a single mother who feels like she gave up her future to raise her daughter, Pearl (Cecila Yip), only to have their relationship sour once the child grew up. Out of spite against her mother, Pearl leaves for America and marries Allen (Lowell Lo) whom she never introduced to her mother. Years later, Pearl returns to her hometown with her young son, Derek (Alexander Roels), in tow, hoping to mend the long-standing rift between mother and daughter. Soon Pearl tries to set up her mother with a good-natured swim coach with a heart problem (Richard Ng). This film cleaned up in the Hong Kong Film Awards -- scoring prizes for Best Picture, Best Script, and Best Supporting Actress for Yip. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Pop star Leslie Cheung stars in this maudlin melodrama as Louie, a spoiled pop star, who, at the film's outset, sleeps with beautiful dancer Anita (Anita Mui Yim-fong). The next morning, Anita tells Louie of her dream of becoming a singer. That night, Louie invites Anita on-stage and soon a star is born. Though clearly Anita has fallen hard for him, Louie is more interested in the leggy Julia (Joey Wang Tsu-hsien). When he learns that the eye of his apple is dating his dad, Louie cancels his concert and flees the country for Paris. There he shacks up with comely Vietnamese refugee Yuan Yu-shih (Cecilia Yip Tong), who suffers from a mysterious war wound. Though working happily as a restaurant dishwasher with his new love, Louie soon finds his previous life calling him back when Anita pays him a visit. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This melodrama is one of many that have embraced the period setting of Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation of World War II. Chow Yun-Fat, in an award-winning performance, plays a poor worker at a small rice shop. He befriends a rickshaw driver (Alex Mann) who falls in love with the shop owner's daughter. When the shop owner forbids the couple to marry, the trio decides to runaway to mainland China. However, their plan is interrupted by the Japanese invasion, and their friendship and loyalty is put to the test in the events that follow. Similar to films like Casablanca, Hong Kong 1941 is a good example of how Hong Kong cinema has made much use of this period and the theme of love in a desperate time. However, the film also depicts the brutality that occurred during the occupation, and the portrayal of the Japanese invasion force in this film reflects a deep resentment that parallels the representations of the German Nazis in Western film.
~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide