4/5 A father-daughter romance?
  by Matthew Watters (Vietnam)
The first decade of the 21st century hasn't been kind to the Hong Kong film industry, which began the decade after several years at a creative high, only to see fan interest shortly shift to Korean movies and Shanghai and Taiwan TV serials. The output of the Hong Kong industry didn't help matters, with far too many films being braindead vehicles for Canto-pop stars like Twins. A handful of directors have soldiered on, however, with Fruit Chan, Johnnie To and Edmond Pang continuing to make interesting, challenging films. Pang is perhaps best-known for his risque dark comedies like Men Suddenly in Black and AV, and Pang's best work may be Beyond Our Ken, a beautifully produced mind game about two girls who join forces to extract revenge on their philandering boyfriend. So Isabella is a bit of a change-of-pace for Pang, a touching drama about the reunion of a dissolute Macao policeman with the grown daughter he never knew he had. The lush, green-tinted photography and decaying Macao settings are gorgeous, so this is easily Pang's most visually stunning film, and Isabella uses some of the non-chronological narrative devices that made Beyond Our Ken so interesting. It also has flashes of Pang's trademark humour and perversity, with this father-daughter relationship frequently flirting with the incestuous. The film, in fact, ends on an achingly romantic note, as if these two were locked in an unspoken love affair they could never consumate. The narrative remains too simple, in the end, for the film to rank as Pang's best, but this is as good as Hong Kong gets nowadays. Isabella Leong is a perfect blend of long-legged loveliness and teenage slatternliness, and she is quite affecting, while that dumpling character actor Chapman To will probably never again get a role this juicy. He really moves up in Hong Kong acting royalty with this film, alongside the legendary Anthony Wong, who has a small but funny role in Isabella as a fellow cop who is always eating but complaining about the food.