Review | The Lyricist Wannabe movie review: Chung Suet-ying tries to break into Hong Kong’s Cantopop scene in My Prince Edward director’s coming-of-age comedy
- Chung Suet-ying stars as a woman who dreams of becoming a Cantopop lyricist – but who time and again comes up against hurdles
- Chung has the ‘everywoman’ quality needed to play the ordinary lead character. The supporting players, while interesting, pale next to her charismatic underdog
4/5 stars
As the film’s English title suggests, viewers should brace themselves not for an inspirational drama but a largely unsentimental portrait of frustrated dreams, as Law’s struggles over the following six years to have her first song lyrics published by a record label appear ceaseless.
While her efforts to enter every songwriting contest and volunteer to work for any Cantopop professional prove mostly futile, the one respondent who does take up her lyrics, played by Tony Wu Tsz-tung, turns out to be an amateur composer still trying hard to have his first song released commercially.
The Lyricist Wannabe repeatedly demonstrates its technical insight into Cantopop lyric-writing. This makes watching Law fail, despite her exploration of the art of harmonising, rhyming and channelling her romantic heartbreak into words, all the more poignant.
As she has shown in the roles she has taken on in the past two years, Chung possesses the natural flair and “everywoman” quality to play the ordinary Law, while making the character’s mundane hustles far more watchable than they would normally be.
The film’s supporting players, while interesting, pale next to Chung’s charismatic underdog. Those include Sabrina Ng Ping as Law’s playful best friend, Eric Kot Man-fai as her adorably annoying father, Yukki Tai as her university boyfriend, and Ansonbean Chan Ngai-san as her creative ally.
In the end, The Lyricist Wannabe is not so much a story about show business as it is about those purposeful outsiders who are barely on the fringes of it. There is real charm in watching a dreamer who falls a thousand times and still gets back up again.
