Written By

D

Directed by Wai Ka Fai

Wai Ka Fai, longtime scriptwriter for Johnnie To, decides to strike out on his own with "Written By", a messy, confusing, and ultimately forgetable effort that leads me to believe that he should just stick with To in the future.

Ching Wan Lau (who is excellent, as usual) plays a lawyer who dies following a car crash that leaves his youngest daughter blind. His family struggles to deal with his absence and, in an effort to deal with their loss, the daughter begins to write a novel where the family dies and the father survives. This sets in motion a series of "rewrites" of the original tragedfy by both the father and the daughter that leave the viewer in doubt as to what exactly is happening and who is really there.

This stinker is a total mess from start to finish. Wai starts with an interesting (if probably unsustainable) premise but he he quickly throws caution to the wind and lets his narrative runs its nonsensical course without worrying about its credibility. Plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon begin to appear and the film is pretty much a lost cause even before the crappy special effects come into play in the second part of the film.
Fantasia described Wai as the "Charlie Kaufman of Hong Kong" and indeed the similarities are striking. Like Kaufman, Wai is at his best when he sticks to writing and his creativity is reigned in by a more talented director. Without this his work becomes bloated, pretentious, and messy. It's disappointing because Wai is behind some of the absolute best and most intelligent Hong Kong films of the past several decades so there's ample evidence to show that he knows what he's doing. As a director though he just doesn't have it, as "Written By" so clumsily shows.