Isabella - a 2006 HK masterpiece?

Nominated for the 2006 Golden Bear, this is a terrific movie about a policeman who is suspended pending hearings of corruption, and his relationship with a young woman who claims to be his daughter. The background is 1999 Macao, which was about to be turned over to China. While there is a definite Wong Kar Wai feel to the film, in terms of impromptu character acting and dialogue, and the slow but deliberate pace, it is very different. For one thing, there is a lot of deception, not only by the characters, but by the director as well. Ho-Cheung Pang sets up a lot of scenes that are meant to be interpreted one way, then later in the film through flashbacks or dialogue turns out to be something else. For instance, it appears that the policeman Shing(Chapman To, in his finest performance to date), after binge drinking and womanizing at a local club, brings home a woman for sex. The following morning, he wakes up and is told by the woman that she is his daughter Isabella (played by Isabella Leong, in her movie debut). Turns out she was outside while another woman was doing all the work, then slipped in after that woman had left. The movie develops into a very well developed study of their relationship, thought the lines of father and daughter are not made clear. Isabella becomes his girlfriend, not to his face, but in dealing with the other women in his life, meeting each one and cutting them off by saying she's his girl. A potential boyfriend for Isabella is thwarted the same way. Shing, on the other hand, reflects on his failed opportunity to take responsibility when, in a flashback, he goes to the clinic with Isabella's mother who is pregnant. She goes in, he is supposed to wait, but he gets cold feet and leaves. Over the course of the movie he begins to take responsibility, especially for the consequence of his actions as a policeman, and be a father. However, Isabella is not whom she seems to be, knowingly or not. A fine drama, some great performances and good directing. It's great to see that Hong Kong cinema can still deliver top quality films, as opposed to the big budget period pieces or crime dramas that have been mined to death recently.