Shanghai Knights (2003) September 21, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, Non-Asian, 2000s films , 3 commentsDirector: David Dobkin Main Cast: Jackie Chan; Owen Wilson; Fann Wong; Donnie Yen Territory: USA
An assassin kills Chon Wang’s (Jackie Chan) father, stealing the Imperial seal. When Chon learns of this, he heads directly to New York to collect his share of the loot he had acquired at the end of Shanghai Noon, only to find that Roy O’Bannon (Owen Wilson) has already squandered it and is now a waiter-cum-gigolo. Together with Chon’s sister Lin (Fann Wong), they head off to London in search of the men responsible for the murder and stumble upon a plan of regicide that will affect both England and China.
Firstly, Shanghai Knights is a completely different animal from its predecessor. There are surprisingly few references to the first film and the knowing nods to pop culture icons have become sledgehammer blows. David Dobkin takes over directorial duties from Tom Dey for this outing, and this may be the reason the film’s whole attitude is so different while retaining the same principal stars and the same scriptwriting team.
The action is shifted from the Wild West to Victorian England, much to the film’s detriment, I feel. The England depicted in Shanghai Knights is full of tired clichés – with street urchins, Jack the Ripper, bad teeth and an extremely forced reference to spotted dick that wouldn’t have passed the early stages of a Carry On script. The main problems, though, is the film’s annoying tendency to make every character turn out to be a fictional rendition of a real person and the fact that the film is riddled with anachronisms, geographical anomalies and factual errors. I’m not one for picking faults in films, but these anomalies are so glaringly obvious they can’t be ignored. I’ve since learned, in doing a little research for this review, that these mistakes are all intentional and are intended to be “fun” - which I find a little doubtful. Even so, this makes the film even more annoying in my opinion.
The inclusion of Fann Wong as Chon Wang’s sister is tolerable – she’s very easy on the eye – but the fact that Lucy Liu’s character is dismissed with a single line also seems very strange. Mind you, that’s more explanation than Chon’s wife gets (remember her?). That’s really the problem with this film, I think – it just seems so slapdash and half-baked. There are a couple of good gags in here (one of which is lifted directly from the prequel) and Owen Wilson’s delivery is, as usual, top-notch.
Jackie’s setpieces suffer from the same problem as Shanghai Noon – I feel there is too much here that we’ve seen before in his Hong Kong films. There are a couple of standout moments, as there always are, and the Singing in the Rain reference is something Jackie’s probably been trying to crowbar into one of his films since the eighties. There is, however, a surprising lack of actual fighting from the star. Instead, the action mainly involves Jackie trying not to fight, settling for disarming and/or incapacitating his enemies.
Donnie Yen appears in this film – a fact that surprised me even on second viewing. While the match up of Yen vs Chan is many action fanboy’s wet dream, the result is literally forgettable. However, Aidan Gillen’s comic-book villain Rathbone (in one the film’s countless and pointless references to Sherlock Holmes) is worse.
I don’t know why these US Jackie Chan film franchises insist on fish-out-of-water scenarios all the time. I could have quite happily taken another film in a Wild West setting, and I think there would have been more than sufficient material to be gotten out of the characters. Instead we have a film that feels strangely apart and disconnected from its predecessor. That said, I’d have preferred a third instalment of this over a third Rush Hour film even before I’d seen the result. It seems unlikely, but maybe one day Chan and Wilson will reprise their characters and return the Wild West where they belong.
Shanghai Noon (2000) September 17, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, Non-Asian, 2000s films , 7 commentsDirector: Tom Dey Main Cast: Jackie Chan; Owen Wilson; Lucy Liu Territory: USA
Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Liu) is kidnapped and taken to America. Three Imperial Guards are sent to bring her back. Loyal subject Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) also goes along for the ride, but finds trouble in the shape of not-so-desperate outlaw Roy O’Bannon (Owen Wilson). The two become unlikely partners, however, when O’Bannon learns of the fabulous fortune he can obtain if he helps rescue her.
The fan response to Shanghai Noon on its release in 2000 was a little muted. There was disappointment over an obviously CGI stunt involving a jump between two separated carriages on a train, a couple of recycled gags from Jackie’s Hong Kong movies, and an apparently staged outtake with a locked door. However, you can’t help but look upon the film now, out of context, and think of it as a highlight of his output from the noughties.
Where Rush Hour had Chris Tucker, Shanghai Noon has Owen Wilson. Wilson can be described as the anti-Tucker, with his laconic Texan drawl the antithesis of Tucker’s frenetic motormouth. It’s all subjective, but I would take Wilson over Tucker any time; although people who like deliberately annoying characters may disagree.
The plot will win no awards for originality, and the whole thing is just another fish-out-of-water cop-buddy comedy movie with the action taking place in the old West instead of modern urban America. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, and the script has enough gags to gloss over any deficiencies. While I feel the action scenes in Shanghai Noon aren’t as good as those in Rush Hour, the film hangs together much better and is genuinely funnier (although, again, Tucker fans (if they do actually exist) may disagree). When Chon tells O’Bannon his name, the latter scoffs: “John Wayne? That’s a terrible cowboy name!” and the scenes involving Chan’s scene-stealing horse are a delight.
The sense of fun generated by Shanghai Noon is infectious and the result is a thoroughly enjoyable film.
The Tuxedo (2002) August 23, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 2000s films , 10 commentsDirector: Kevin Donovan Main Cast: Jackie Chan; Jennifer Love Hewitt; Richie Coster; Jason Isaacs Territory: USA
A bottled water organisation stumbles onto the idea of holding the world to ransom by producing water that dehydrates the drinker. Super smooth agent Clark Devlin (Isaacs) is about to step up to the task of halting the operation when he is severely injured in an assassination attempt witnessed by his chauffer Jimmy Tong (Chan). Tong, collecting effects from Devlin’s house, tries his favourite evening attire on for size, only to find the tuxedo bestows fantastic powers on the wearer. Assuming Devlin’s identity, he meets with Devlin’s contact Del Blaine (Love Hewitt) and together they fight to stop the bio-terrorists.
There’s a definite sense of “come back Brett Ratner, all is forgiven” about The Tuxedo, a half-baked attempt at a comedy thriller. Chan was thrilled to work for Spielberg’s DreamWorks studio, but the reality is there are not many positives to be taken from the experience. The tone of the film is set right from the opening shot of a deer urinating into a river – a shot that has no point to it other than to be totally pointless.
Some Chan fans were concerned that Jackie’s family-friendly persona would be damaged by him wearing a “Hooters” sweatshirt and his references to a “wet dream” seem out of place coming from his lips. It’s possible he didn’t understand what he was being asked to do as, like in Rush Hour 3, one out-take has him delivering a risqué line, saying bemusedly afterwards: “must be terrible ‘cos everyone’s smiling”. It’s also surprising how bad his English is in this film. I’m guessing his voice-coach wasn’t up to the job, as Jackie is pretty unintelligible sometimes (although that could just be the scripting) and I’d consider myself quite familiar with his English speaking voice.
For a sidekick, he gets Jennifer Love Hewitt. Now, I must admit I’ve not seen her in anything before and I know next to nothing about her, but I’ve been told her breasts are a pretty big deal, a fact that’s reinforced by several nudge-nudge references throughout the whole movie. Maybe I’m missing the joke - I know this is a PG rated film and I don’t wish to be crude, but I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. Worse, she fails to generate any chemistry where Chan’s concerned, and I wondered that perhaps they didn’t get on behind the scenes. However, the out-takes show she seemed to have had the time of her life with Chan, hardly able to keep a straight face for more than a few seconds at a time.
The story attempts to be a kind of James Bond-esque romp (Jackie even utters the line: “the name’s Tong – James Tong” at one point), but ends up being flat. The storyline about a kind of water that dehydrates as it is being drunk could have come out of a Moore-era Bond tale for sure, and Peter Stormare hams it up as the mad doctor Sims. But the execution of all aspects of the film lets it down. For instance, Tong is told by his new employer not to touch his tuxedo, and Tong seems to be the kind of guy who’ll keep his word (plus there’s a budding mutual respect growing between them). Upon his hospitalisation, Tong goes back to Devlin’s place and immediately tries the damn thing on – no explanation, nothing. While seeing him flail about destroying Devlin’s priceless collection of objet d’art is the highest point of the movie, the fact that he put the tuxedo on in the first place still mystifies me. As well as a totally pointless cameo by James Brown.
With Jackie getting on in years, I suppose we should be thankful if we get a shot of him even tying his shoelaces without using wires or CGI, but there really isn’t a lot here to impress. Apparently, Brad Allen was in amongst the stunt crew, but if he appears on screen, I missed him. Which just goes to show what a wasted opportunity this film was. Avoid.
The Medallion (2003) August 20, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 2000s films , 5 commentsDirector: Gordon Chan Main Cast: Jackie Chan; Lee Evans; Claire Forlani; Julian Sands Territory: Hong Kong
The unholy trinity of star Jackie Chan, director Gordon Chan and action director Sammo Hung return from their less than stellar outing with Thunderbolt for this action comedy with a supernatural flavour.
The plot is extremely simple and highly derivative – I’ll just throw the words “chosen one”, “innocent child” and “bestows immortality”, and you can probably join the dots yourself. In this one, Jackie dies about halfway through and is resurrected as a kind of supernatural superman, battling evil in the form of Snakehead (Sands) and his lackeys (which include a dubbed Anthony Wong).
The audience can breath one huge sigh of relief on one front with this film – the acting here is actually quite passable, with only a couple of wooden moments from henchmen spoiling the show. The largely British cast do a thoroughly decent show, and the addition of John Rhys-Davies lends the production an air of class it probably doesn’t deserve. The film is mostly in English (a few lines here and there are dubbed, but reasonably unobtrusively) and this makes the film an even greater achievement.
However, there are some problems. Lee Evans is a funny comedian, and a fairly decent actor, but his character here is completely all over the place. He heads a crack team of Interpol agents trying to bring Snakehead to justice, and his character switches from hard-arsed professional who takes no crap to bumbling British idiot in a matter of seconds – and usually right back again. The character is sometimes so confusing to watch that you hope the old “identical twin” ploy will reveal that there in fact two Lee Evanses. Jackie has a sidekick in the form of Claire Forlani, who gets to show what she’s got to good effect, and thankfully doesn’t let the side down, acting-wise.
The script (which boasts no less than five writers – including Bey Logan) is also a little scatterbrained, and the humour is entirely hit-and-miss. One routine between Evans and Chan has their characters arguing in front of an office full of people. The horribly contrived innuendo-laden dialogue makes the pair appear like a gay couple having a tiff to the onlookers, and the gag is pushed to breaking point…and beyond. The best line in the film is delivered later on by Chan when looking down at his recently deceased mortal body. He is resurrected, immortal, and disbelieves it’s his body on the slab, saying to Evans: “my nose isn’t that big!”
I have a sneaking suspicion that this film was originally quite a bit longer than the 80-odd minutes we’re given here. Evans’s wife, played by Christy Chung, gets almost nothing to do until, with no explanation, she reveals a kick-ass side to her and a knowledge of Evans’s secret life as an Interpol agent. However, seeing her go into barefoot action mode is quite pleasing, so I’m not complaining too much.
The action scenes are split into two styles, with the early scenes supposed to be more realistic while the latter half is more fantastic and stylised. This doesn’t come off too well, however, as the choreography uses wires quite extensively even when Jackie is still a mere mortal. Unlike a lot of people, I didn’t find the film’s use of CGI too intrusive and I thought some of the effects were quite good. Another popular criticism of the film is Jackie’s reliance on wires, which is sadly a reality we must all face these days. The super-Jackie action scenes are typical of the kind we’re used to these days and are not particularly good or bad, but you can see why Chan fans are crying into their hands at the sight of so many wire-assisted moves.
Although the story isn’t up to scratch (these chosen ones are everywhere these days, aren’t they?), and Sands’ well spoken but predictable villain won’t stay long in the memory, I found The Medallion quite enjoyable this time around. It helps to have low expectations these days when it comes to Jackie Chan movies, and if you go in with the right attitude, it’s entirely possibly you’ll enjoy the experience. The end credit out-takes, which come all too quickly, are indicative of Chan’s move away from “real” action as most of them are dialogue fluffs. The best are those between Forlani and Chan, when she gives him a (genuine) slap across the face and then promptly loses her nerve at having hit the star. Chan, ever the good-natured gent, laughs as he chides: “I got hit for nothing!”
The pairing of Chan and Evans is an inspired one, even if it doesn’t turn out the way I imagine it was intended. I still think they could pull off a great double act, but I doubt we’ll see them together on-screen again. Which is a genuine shame.
The Transporter (2002) July 30, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, Non-Asian, 2000s films , add a commentDirector: Corey Yuen Kwai Main Cast: Jason Statham; Shu Qi; François Berléand Territory: France/USA
Jason Statham stars as Frank Martin, an ex-military hardcase now taking on highly paid jobs transporting illegal goods from one place to another. On one assignment, he breaks one of his own rules to “never open a package”, revealing Lai – a beautiful immigrant woman who quickly becomes attached to Frank when his contact fails to assassinate him after the job. Frank takes revenge on his former employer, and finds out that Lai isn’t exactly what she appears to be.
You’ve got to applaud the truly international nature of The Transporter: a French/American production with an English lead, a Taiwanese supporting actress and a Chinese director. Yuen Kwai is not an obvious choice to direct a film outside his native Hong Kong, and his patchy track record shows in this effort. For example, there are numerous silly continuity errors throughout the film that sometimes makes this production seem very amateurish indeed.
A de-cockneyed Jason Statham (who talks in neutral tones throughout) tries hard to be an action hero, but no amount of quick editing can hide the fact that he has limited skill in the area. Nevertheless, acting-wise, he gives a decent performance given that he’s asked to deliver some extremely questionable dialogue. And who really expects him to be the next Jackie Chan anyway? Alongside him is the lovely Shu Qi, in her first role outside Asia. From what I remember, she couldn’t actually speak English at all at this point in her life, but you wouldn’t know it as she’s pretty intelligible most of the time.
The Transporter is one of those films whose component parts are pretty bad but ends up being quite enjoyable anyway. The plot is highly suspect at every level and as mentioned above, the action is not exactly top-notch. One thing about this does feel like a Hong Kong film, though: the product placement. This film is quite obviously sponsored by Tiger beer as the stuff’s all over the place. What’s more, the film’s soundtrack is poor, and the ending song feels strangely retro, as if it came from an 80’s action movie.
But the French locations help in some way, and the film is beautifully filmed. It also helps that the film is barely 90 minutes long and hardly lets up in that time. This is one where you definitely must disengage the brain before watching, and you might end up enjoying it.
Fatal Contact (2006) July 26, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, 2000s films , 3 commentsDirector: Dennis Law Main Cast: Wu Jing; Miki Yeung; Ronald Cheng; Eddie Cheung Territory: Hong Kong
“I want to…be the next Jet Li” says Kong (Wu Jing) with a smile in this Dennis Law directed actioner. It’s an obvious nod to Wu Jing’s growing popularity and physical similarity to the Jetster. However, Wu Jing should learn from Li’s mistakes and be very careful about the projects he chooses to take on.
That’s not to say Fatal Contact is a poor film; it is, however, a very mixed bag. Wu plays a travelling circus performer with his eye on young Tin (Miki Yeung) and gets caught up in the shady world of illegal boxing. Actually, he gets persuaded into it by Tin, who along with trainer/friend/scrounger Captain (Ronald Cheng) hones the fighter into a fantastic fighting machine.
When Wu dismantles his first opponent in a few seconds, you know things are going to be good. Sure enough, the action scenes throughout the entire movie are brilliantly executed, and for once Wu takes centre stage and is not some seething psychotic villain. Not since the 80s has there been such a spectacle as Wu Jing, and the showcase he puts on in Fatal Contact is as good, if not better, than anything else he’s done in the past. A frantic fight in an underpass at night is shot in a style similar to that of Jackie Chan at his peak and will further endear him to the heart of action film fans worldwide.
However, the glue holding the action scenes together isn’t quite so strong. Ronald Cheng is great as the tight but friendly Captain, and the sight of Ken Lo as a kind of sci-fi pimp will raise a few smiles, I’m sure. There has been some attempt to add depth to the script, but there’s only so much you can do with the concept of a fighter moving from fight to increasingly difficult fight, and most of it disappoints.
His girlfriend is another source of concern. She actually persuades Kong to start fighting for money and eggs him on to take greater and greater risks, which is a complete turnaround from the archetype. While this could be seen as refreshing, in the end it just seems strange. She comes across as a cynical manipulative bitch, even giving a former friend who has fallen upon hard times some tips on how to be a better prostitute. Without giving anything away, this point is addressed, but we as the audience are obviously supposed to get behind her as the unwavering girlfriend of the hero and this just doesn’t feel right from the very start.
Despite his obvious and undeniable skills, Wu Jing is middling as a leading man. It’s not that he’s bad at acting (he’s not), it’s just that he doesn’t yet have much of a screen persona to exploit the way, say, Jackie Chan did with his clowning underdog. Maybe this will develop in time, but in the meantime his scenes of a less active nature are quite forgettable.
Despite the rather long running time, this movie flies by, which is always a good sign. But the film winds up with a very unconvincing climax that feels like Law ran out of time. As it stands, the ending of Fatal Contact is the most disappointing I’ve seen in an action movie for a very long time.
Still, the fight scenes are fantastic, and for many that will be good enough. Personally, I hoped for something a little bit more substantial. Maybe next time…
Lam Suet-o-meter: Low. But he’s right there at the start, almost in the first frame! Mr Lam plays Soo, part of the gang running the illegal boxing racket. Although the second person to deliver a line in the film, he only pops up sporadically. Best moment: he does the old dig-and-sniff ear to nose manoeuvre when he thinks no one’s watching:
The Avenging Fist (2001) July 23, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, Sci-Fi, 2000s films , add a commentDirector: Andrew Lau; Corey Yuen Kwai Main Cast: Wang Lee-Hom; Stephen Fung Tak-Lun; Kristy Yeung; Sammo Hung; Yuen Biao Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Sil Metropole Organisation
The initial hype on Avenging Fist was extremely positive: if you were interested in Hong Kong action movies, this was going to be the biggie. Then, the Tekken license was lost and a few rumours started to break through: this isn’t going to be too good after all.
It turns out that Avenging Fist went from being the Holy Grail of Hong Kong movies to being a complete also-ran. Having now, after owning it on DVD for close to a decade, finally watched it, I can see why it fell flat on its face: despite the great special effects, the film itself is incredibly vacuous. The first impression reaction I had when the movie opened was: “uh-oh, someone’s been watching The Fifth Element”. While some leeway has got to be given to the makers for at least attempting science fiction (a subject quite alien to the territory), the result is still a hodgepodge of dire warnings on the future, a hackneyed “love is stronger than hate” message and wild speculations on how technology is going to be so much different from how we know it now. Sadly, the film’s entire premise is based on the enduring urban myth that we only use 10% of our brain. The remaining 90% of our brain’s capacity, the film tells us, can be unlocked with the help of a Power Glove and can give us fantastic super powers.
Kong (Wang Lee-Hom) is a troubled young man who wants to buy a black market Power Glove and be just like his apparently dead father (Yuen Biao). He has serious physical potential, and his mother (Cecilia Yip) trains him when he’s not out causing trouble with his friends. There is also a pseudo-fascist dictator to be overthrown in the form of Combat 21 (Roy Cheung), who has turned Kong’s father into one of his henchmen. Policeman Dark (Sammo Hung) somehow gets mixed up in all this, despite having a premonition of his own impending death.
When Kong’s mother gives him the dire warning not to use his “power moves” in public, the game is finally up: Avenging Fist is simply an updated kung fu picture using many of the same plot devices as so many 70s actioners. The shiny new coat of CGI simply isn’t enough to disguise the more corny moments and tired storytelling. The action scenes are particularly poor, with lots of motion-blur and special effects added in. With no human element to the fight sequences, it’s damn near impossible to engage with them.
I quite liked Andrew Lau’s other CGI-driven movies, but this one leaves me cold. While it is to be congratulated on trying something new, the results are paradoxically over familiar and this is one movie that must simply be labelled as a failed experiment and forgotten about.
Fatal Move (2008) May 20, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, Thriller, 2000s films , 5 commentsDirector: Dennis Law Cast: Simon Yam; Sammo Hung; Wu Jing; Danny Lee Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: China Star Entertainment Group
Fatal Move is the latest Hong Kong action/triad movie (though with more “triad” than “action”) focussing on the relationships between gangsters, and one particular cell’s dealings with the law and other rival gangs. Veteran action star Sammo Hung comes off an acting career highlight with SPL to play the Big Brother alongside Simon Yam’s deeply flawed Lin Ho Tung and young contender Lok Tin Hung (Wu Jing).
Yes, all three were involved in SPL, and this movie was originally conceived as a prequel to that film. When this became unfeasible, a whole new story was written, but hoping for similar success. Well, there’s one thing that will be making the US distributors rub their hands with glee – this movie already has its dumb two-word US title. No high-falutin’ philosophical gobbledegook about heavenly bodies interacting with each other requiring a tricky 30 second explanation that would make your average action film fan reach for the eject button and his Van Damme collection. That’s unless they decide to call it Kill Zone 2, that is.
The early word on this film was that it was mediocre. Well, let me say categorically that it isn’t – Fatal Move is, in fact, bloody awful. The central core, acting-wise, isn’t too bad. Simon Yam plays a gangster prone to sentimentality and has a pretty sizeable gambling problem, Sammo Hung is getting good at his new lease of life as a Triad boss, and Wu Jing still flips about like a young Yuen Biao with a Manga hairstyle.
The troubles quickly become apparent when Wu Jing starts hacking away at his foes with a sword. It promises to be another great Wu Jing action showcase, but for some reason these huge gouts of CGI blood start pumping out all over the screen. It’s true what they say: if you can tell it’s a CGI shot, then it’s not a good CGI shot - and frankly, these are terrible CGI shots. Worse, it continues this style all of the way through the movie. It’s strange, Hong Kong mastered the blood squib back in the late 60’s (see Chang Cheh’s Have Sword Will Travel for how cinematic sword wounds should look) but these pathetic efforts wouldn’t fool a seven-year-old child. Undaunted, I continued, only to find the plot convoluted, contrived and, worst of all, extremely dull. I’d lost all interest by the hour mark (barely halfway through the movie, I might add) and the film just gets increasingly irritating after that. It’s all about double-crossings, betrayal etc, but not done with an ounce of flair, and the plot lapses into incoherence on a number of occasions.
It’s a mark of desperation when, near the end, two characters duel seemingly just for the sake of it. Certainly there was no brooding antagonism or sign of unrest among the couple that I could see (although I was nodding off at this point) – one just says to the other that he didn’t see the other as the leader and they’re off. It’s like a tacked-on scene that movie executives add on when a production runs into trouble. It is, however, a great addition (CGI blood aside), and if more of these fight scenes were included it might have made the film half entertaining.
Don’t rush into Fatal Move expecting the new SPL. In fact, don’t rush into it at all. Don’t walk, either. Give it a wide birth and pretend it never happened. You’ll only be disappointed if you don’t.
Lam Suet-o-meter: Low. He plays an assistant to Inspector Liu (Danny Lee – who I had actually forgot was in the film, that’s how much of an impression he made). He’s about to be redeployed in the force. Think of him counting down the days to his retirement and you’ll understand where the character’s heading.
PTU (2003) May 18, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Thriller, 2000s films , 3 commentsDirector: Johnnie To Cast: Simon Yam; Lam Suet; Ruby Wong Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Milkyway Image Ltd
When Sergeant Lo (Lam Suet) loses his police pistol after a scuffle with a bunch of TsimShaTsui hoodlums one night, Sergeant Ho (Simon Yam) puts a self-imposed deadline on finding the weapon. Fearing its use in gang warfare, Ho’s team scramble to recover the weapon before dawn, or they will be forced to report the loss to their superiors. When the main suspect turns up murdered, escalating violence between rival gangs becomes inevitable.
Set over one night in TsimShaTsui, PTU (it stands for Police Tactical Unit, by the way) is one of those films that is irresistible to fans of ticking-clock thrillers that feel they’re moving in real time (even though they’re not).
The film is imbued with some very black comedy, sometimes making it feel like a Hong Kong version of After Hours, what with the urban night-time setting, bizarre events and all. One scene at the start perfectly sets up the tone and establishes the pecking order in the film’s society: lead thug Ponytail (Frank Liu) and his gang enter a cafe and sit at their preferred table, displacing a lone eater who was already there. In comes the hated sergeant Lo and chooses the same table, displacing Ponytail and his gang and making them sit elsewhere.
However, at heart PTU is a cop procedure thriller more in line with other Milky Way films such as Eye in the Sky and To’s own Breaking News. Where this film differs, though, is in the intricate plotting – sometimes making the film extremely hard to follow. There are several threads to the story, and if you’re not paying attention, you’re going to get lost – and that’s guaranteed. Several times, something happens or is discussed and seems inconsequential – only to end up being crucial to the film’s outcome.
Even though this film runs below 90 minutes, there does seem some flabbiness in the middle section, and one scene, where Ho’s unit progress stealthily up a staircase, is excruciatingly slow. PTU’s film score consists entirely of what sounds like 80’s guitar power-rock solos – and not very good ones at that. Given To’s previous works, where the music is entirely fitting and tasteful, this seems an entirely bizarre choice. Nevertheless, the urban locations are atmospheric and TsimShaTsui becomes a character in itself, with its strangely deserted streets and shuttered businesses. I’ve no idea what the district is like these days, but it was always said that it was not the kind of area tourists were recommended to be in after darkness, and this comes across very well in the film, and looks akin to the seedier, grittier areas of New York as shown in US productions.
PTU is clever, but I feel it’s perhaps too clever for its own good. There are some characters that seem superfluous, such as Maggie Shaw’s Sergeant Kat, and the pace is at times too slow. But if you’re prepared to concentrate hard there’s certainly a very intelligent film in here.
Lam Suet-o-meter: High. He’s second lead, slightly behind Simon Yam. In fact, he probably grabs more screen time in this than anything else I’ve seen him in. And that’s a lot of films…
Mad Detective (2007) April 14, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Thriller, 2000s films , 2 commentsDirector: Johnnie To; Wai Ka-Fai Cast: Lau Ching-Wan; Andy On; Gordon Lam; Karen Lee Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Milky Way Image Ltd
Eccentric but brilliant police detective Bun (Lau Ching-Wan) is expelled from the force when, upon his chief’s retirement, he impassively cuts off his own ear as a leaving present. But when a series of murders and robberies involving a stolen police handgun becomes too difficult to solve, Inspector Ho (Andy On) persuades Bun to return and give his insight into the case. What Bun finds is that the crimes are related, and that the killer has seven personalities that Bun can see as separate individuals.
The English language title hints at a madcap comedy, especially given the track record of Lau Ching-Wan. I haven’t really seen any of the Johnnie To/Wai Ka-Fai collaborations (I switched off the awful My Left Eye Sees Ghosts after about twenty minutes of “comic” screaming) but Mad Detective is definitely not a comedy and Lau Ching Wan is definitely not comic in this role. Indeed, at times, he looks like he’s never done comedy in his life.
Mad Detective is at the outset another detective story, albeit one that feels less noir-ish than has become fashionable. We see Bun solve a case by being thrown down a series of staircases while locked in a suitcase, then his apparent breakdown at his superior’s retirement party. Then we see two police officers trying to capture a thief. After that, it starts to get a little difficult. Well, to be honest, things simply stop making sense.
I don’t want to give too much away and spoil the “gimmick” of the film too much, but Bun has a couple of really remarkable and original abilities. The foremost is the ability to see facets of people’s personalities as separate entities, all with their own appearance (and not necessarily the same sex as the host). This is extremely confusing at first, but when the penny drops, it’s quite an exciting idea. Bun comes into contact with Chi-Wai, who has no less than seven different “facets” of his personality, and watching some of them interact with the host is interesting – for example his decision making is a bossy, confident woman, while his cowardice is a fat, nervous man (Lam Suet – Hong Kong’s Mr Prolific!). The avatar Bun sees depends on what the host is feeling. Bun also seems to be able to gain supernatural insights into the case through near-death experiences, which further clarifies what’s going on.
I’ve written before about mystery thrillers sometimes being a one-shot deal (see The Detective), but Mad Detective has so much more going for it, as well as a thought-provoking ending, that I’m sure this will stand the test of time. Indeed, it’s one of those films you want to watch again straight away so you can watch out for things you might have missed first time and with the benefit of knowledge you didn’t have on the first viewing.
Mad Detective is accessible and unpretentious, exciting and fresh. The roles are all very well acted, but Lau in particular is outstanding as the titular detective. I have to say I’ve not seen him in anything other than comedy (and usually pretty broad comedy at that), and so was a little surprised at how well he pulled it off. The direction is great and Johnny To in particular seems to be on fire at the moment. If you’re after something unusual and a little challenging, this is a must-see – and a great example, along with To’s last (complete) film, Exiled, of what Hong Kong is capable of. I’m pretty excited right now…
Lam Suet-o-meter: Low. “What, you want me to play someone’s cowardice? Hmm, OK”. Probably not one for his Hollywood resumé when he can take five minutes away from being in every Hong Kong film to write it.