The Personals follows Ms. Wu as she attempts to deal with the pain of losing her lover (who happens to be married to another woman), by going on random dates. This 1996 movie from Hong Kong does an amazing job of bombarding the viewer with constantly interesting characters. The movie literally follows her scene by scene as she goes on one blind-date after another.
She meets these men by putting an ad out in a newspaper, as she is looking for a husband. The responses… are sometimes funny. Sometimes disturbing.
One guy has a foot fetish and tries to get her to wear shoes he brings in a suitcase
Another guy tries to get her to become a prostitute as his job is a pimp
Another guy asks her to marry him in the first 5 min, and then cries openly in the restaurant how lonely he is
another guy brings his mom to the date, as he can’t decide by himself anything
another guy worries only about how much money she makes and if she can support him
another guy brings his dad to the date… and informs her that DAD is actually looking to get married… as mommy is in another country.
Another guy is a famous actor trying to “study†for a dating movie he’s going to be starring in.
And so on.
The movie is full of surprises… in particular one…. One man…. Who is blind, recognizes her voice… on the date… as Ms. Du … his old Optician. NOT Ms. Wu. In fact, it turns out… Ms. Wu is MRS. WU! The wife of the man she loved. She has been using this name in order to feel she is indeed with him…. All of a sudden… the crazy guys out there she met… seem NOT so crazy… compared to her… masquerading as another person just to make herself feel better. To take things a step further into weird… she keeps calling the Wu household every night and leaving messages of “updates†on her prowess as she tries to get over him…. Even though it has been nearly a year since their breakup.
This movie is well done, and does a great job to show the cultural differences and similarities between western and eastern way of thinking.
