After his success with Sunshine Cops, Stephen Fung is back with 'The Poet', a Hong Kong movie based on the life of Chinese poet Gu Cheng. Nicknamed 'The John Lennon of China' by the youth of his generation, he was considered one of the most brilliant poets of his time. Tragically however, the currents of his life mirrored that of his poetry. Or should it be the other way around?

'The Poet' was produced and directed by Casey Chan a.k.a. Chen Li Ying. The screenplay was written by Tin-Chi Lau and it stars Stephen Fung Tak Lung (Bishonen, Gen-X Cops), Theresa Lee and Ayoko Morino.

The movie opens with a scene showing Gu Cheng (Stephen Fung) being prevented from seeing his son, Sam, by the elementary school's security guards. As we wonder why a father has been separated from his son, the movie jumps to Gu Cheng's childhood life. We are shown scenes of humiliation and degradation where he and his father, a poet as well, are being terrorized by Mao's Red Guards. It was a turbulent period in China's history to live in, during which artists, poets and other intellectuals were persecuted by Chairman Mao's Revolutionary Red Guards for alleged counter-revolutionary activities.

The movie continues with the meeting between him and Reimi (Theresa Lee), his girlfriend and eventual wife. Ayoko Morino then jumps into the picture as Ching-Er, a student of the University of Beijing who falls madly in love with him and who becomes his mistress.

All right!!! That's enough of the plot already, or I'm going to spoil the picture for you. Suffice to say, the story brings us from China to Germany to New Zealand and the plot only gets more and more interesting as we slowly gain insights into the happy yet tragic life of Gu Cheng.

The movie is interesting enough, showing the difficulties of immigrant Chinese trying to fit into western society and the clash between Asian values and western culture compounded by language barriers. A commendable effort by director Casey Chan, especially when it isn't always easy to tell the story of someone's life in a 100 minute movie format. The plot moves along nicely with many an interesting part to keep the viewer watching, the interaction between the three lead cast i.e. Stephen Fung, Theresa Lee, Ayoko Morino is simply great, breathtaking scenes of New Zealand's pristine natural environment are thrown in and the dialogue is nicely crafted.

Stephen Fung's acting still looks a bit stiff but he still carries the brilliant but irascible character of Gu Cheng off nicely. When I managed to interview him last year, he told me that his ambition was to become as good an actor as Hong Kong stars Anthony Wong and Francis Ng. Well, Stephen, you still have some way to go, but hang in there. As for Theresa Lee, she's done well here as we can definitely connect with her character's metamorphosis from a starry-eyed lovestruck girl to a mature, caring woman and mother.

Overall, 'The Poet' is a nice enough watch with strong emotional overtones, drama and tragedy. If you're interested in the life of one of China's most popular poets, 'The Poet' has done well here in summarizing it in a 100 minute movie.