Hong Kong director Pang Ho-Cheung()'s new film Isabella () marks a dramatic shift from his acclaimed sense of black humour, as the film tells a story that not only touches with its sentimental plot, but also with its haunting score.

On February 19, Isabella, the only Chinese-language movie represented at the Berlin International Film Festival this year, was awarded the Silver Bear prize for the best score, becoming the first Chinese movie to win a prize since 1982 when China first took part in the festival.

The award has also distinguished Peter Kam() as the first composer to capture a major international film award in the one hundred year history of Hong Kong cinema.

"I am really excited and haven't calmed down until now," said Kam after returning from Berlin. An experienced composer, Kam revealed that his breakthrough use of Portuguese music differs from the usual practice of using Chinese tunes, and probably influenced the committee's decision.

The freshness of the movie is not merely marked by the music, as audiences will also be able to find identifiable changes of the labels of director and actor. "I have endless interest in the emotional connections among people, but have paid too much attention to relations between men and women in the past. It (Isabella) is an attempt for me to portray the love between a father and his daughter," said the director. "Compared with my previous works full of black humour, this movie can be seen as 'very un-Pang Ho-Cheung'," he added.

Along with the director's style change, it was the first chance for actor, Chapman To, to play a lead role in a movie, which he also produced. With a false moustache and a new seriousness, To successfully shatter his long-accepted image as a buffoon-like supporting act, with the role of a father awakened by his sense of responsibility for his daughter.

Set in Macau, 48 days before the island returned to China in 1999, To plays police officer, Ma Zhencheng, who blunders into the life of a mysterious young girl Zhang Bixin (Isabella Leong) while he is depressed about his temporary suspension after offending his supervisor.

Thinking the girl might be one of the women he had an affair with before, Ma is astonished to discover that Zhang is his daughter by his first lover.

Jolted by this sudden change to fatherhood, Ma takes up the responsibility a father should have for his daughter, who is homeless because she hasn't paid her rent. The father and daughter team then set about looking for Isabella, Zhang's dog that went missing after her eviction.

The entangled plots, touching music plus the cinematography made the low-budget production a hit at the festival.

The movie is scheduled for screening in the mainland and Hong Kong at the end of April.

(China Daily 03/17/2006 page6)