The Twins Effect (2003) October 4, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Horror, Comedy, Action, Supernatural , trackbackDirector: Dante Lam; Donnie Yen Main cast: Gillian Chung; Charlene Choi; Ekin Cheng; Edison Chen; Anthony Wong Territory: Hong Kong
Duke Dekotes and his band of European vampires come to Hong Kong in search of the unholy grail: a tome called “Day for Night”, which will make him all but invincible to his human prey. Reeve (Ekin Cheng), a vampire hunter, and his new assistant Gypsy (Gillian Chung) set out to stop them. Meanwhile, Reeve’s sister Helen (Charlene Choi) befriends a small cult of “new age” vampires, including their leader Kazaf (Edison Cheng), a move not looked upon favourably by her sibling…
Vampires are the most overused horror monster, and it’s hard to come up with something using them that’s going to be genuinely scary these days (take the recent 30 Days of Night) and Twins Effect adds nothing new to the genre at all. Viewers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will recognise many of the themes and devices of the film, and this often feels like a Hong Kong version of the popular US show but without the unique wit and infectious flippancy. But Buffy’s appeal lay more in the characters and the humour rather than the rather uninventive monsters she and her friends fought on a weekly basis for nine years, and Twins Effect diverts itself from the horror element so often you sometimes forget quite what everyone’s doing.
The film doesn’t quite pan out like you’d imagine it to – for one thing, the Twins don’t actually team up until very late in the movie – and this works in the film’s favour, I feel. The main plotline of the evil vampire Dekotes (Mickey Hardt – not to be confused with the Grateful Dead drummer!) killing princes and becoming all-powerful disappears for so long you really could have done with a refresher by the end of the film. In between the action packed opening where Reeve attacks a battalion of the undead (including Bey Logan – so that’s where he went) and the special effects heavy climax, we get a collection of comedy skits, action set pieces, tense drama and romantic scenes. Some scenes work better than others, but surprisingly none of them are awful.
I once tried to listen to a Twins song, but discovered 15 seconds into it that I hated their music. They sounded pouty even in an upbeat saccharin pop song. Their appearance in an updated TV version of Journey to the West (the title of which escapes me) made me want to throw things at the screen – mainly because they were being pouty. Charlene, the most talented, acting-wise, of the pair is quite pouty in places but otherwise this is an annoyance-free appearance for the Twins. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that they gave stellar performances that brought a tear to my eye, but the fact that I didn’t want them to become vampire fodder is quite a progression. I don’t think anyone will strongly object to me calling Edison Chen vile (gee, I hope he doesn’t get gangsta on my ass for saying so), but he reins in his immense foulness to give quite a passable performance of a “nice” vampire.
These “new age” vampires (headed by Chen and Anthony Wong) are somewhat similar to those in George RR Martin’s novel Fevre Dream in that they have stopped sucking blood from human victims in favour of drinking a bottled variety, but this is not expanded upon in any great detail, which is a pity.
Instead we get a couple of cameos. Jackie Chan appears in two scenes, and seems out of place in both. In the first he’s getting married to Karen Mok, in what the opening titles refer to as a “special friendly appearance” (?), who is a raging alcoholic. In the second, he has a small action scene and a bit of stuntwork (although he’s clearly wired when he climbs a pole, a la Project A). Although a fan of Chan, I feel his appearances kind of detract from the feel of the film as, let’s face it, his presence does tent to overshadow things.
Twins Effect is quite like a visit to the dentist where discover you don’t need any work doing and all of the assistants are pretty. I ended up quite enjoying it, actually.
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