Sister Street Fighter (1974) July 1, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, 1970s films , add a commentDirector: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi Main Cast: Etsuko Shihomi, Masashi Ishibashi, Emi Hayakawa, Sonny Chiba Territory: Japan Production Company: Toei Company
I’ve been quite looking forward to seeing this series of films since seeing Etsuko Shihomi in action in the relatively weak final entry of the Street Fighter series. She was, for me, easily the best thing in that film, and I was wondering how she’d fare given top billing.
The usual problem of poor scriptwriting get things off to an inauspicious start when we see a stock shot of Hong Kong followed by a cop telling Koryu Lee (Shihomi) that her brother has gone missing in action while investigating a drug lord’s island fortress. I really find these films that don’t have plotting “foreplay” a real grind. There’s no introduction of character, no preamble, and basically no way for the viewer to engage in the film. The first part of the film is a collection of scenes and fights without much cohesion or meaning.
This is more or less countered, however, by the craziness of events later on. It’s evident the scriptwriters were more than a little familiar with Enter the Dragon, and Sister Street Fighter is a wacked-out version of the Bruce Lee film with a plethora of screen crazies. It’s hard to decide to whom the title of weirdest character should go, but I’d have to settle for a whole team – the Quentin Tarantino-sounding Amazon 7, who wear leopard skins, boxing boots, fishnets and white masks (well, presumably if you go out dressed like that you’re not going to want people to know who you are). There must be something weird in the air at the moment throwing all these Amazon women at me (see Fantasy Mission Force), but I’ll tell you one thing for sure – one of this gang is definitely not a woman!
Street Fighter stalwart Masashi Ishibashi appears as does Sonny Chiba himself, although neither in their previous roles. Sonny Chiba’s appearance here seems mainly to endorse the new franchise, but his scenes are some of the best of the film. That’s not to say Shihomi can’t handle herself well, it’s just that some of the fight scenes are so badly shot it draws the attention away from the action. When the camera’s wobbling around so much, it’s hard to focus on what’s going on. However, there are some gems here, including a blistering nunchaku duel that ups the adrenaline level nicely. But this doesn’t seem to quite resolve itself as the scene ends rather abruptly and her foe doesn’t show up again.
When Koryu discovers her brother’s being used as a pharmaceutical guinea pig, along with the plan to smuggle drugs in wigs (and the less said about that the better), she decides to storm the drug lord’s fortress and this starts the big climax. Again, while competent (if a little bizarre and fragmented), the culmination isn’t quite as exciting as I’d hoped, with a very strange wirework finale. What I really loved though was the brilliant show-stopping back-to-front man (fans will know what I mean) that was hilariously sick.
It definitely gets more fun as it goes on, and the menagerie of weirdoes on display will ensure it will get an occasional viewing, but Sister Street Fighter is all surface and no depth, and feels every inch the speedy production it was.
Angel (1987) June 21, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, 1980s films , add a commentDirector: Raymond Leung; Tony Leung Siu-Hung; Ivan Lai Main Cast: Saijo Hideki; Moon Lee; Elaine Liu; Oshima Yukari; Alex Fong; David Chiang; Hwang Jang-Lee Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Molesworth Limited Production
If Pedicab Driver is one of the finer examples of Hong Kong action cinema in the 80s, then Angel is probably just as far in the other direction.
The script-by-numbers is the main problem, along with indifferent direction. Gangsters want to produce enough drugs to sell to the world; a small bunch of heroes wants to stop them. Throw in some high-ranking police officers that have been kidnapped by the gang and you have the whole plot in a nutshell. The “Angels” of the title are an obvious reference to Charlie’s Angels, only this time you have a visible boss (in the form of Shaw Brothers veteran David Chiang) and a male Angel (Saijo Hideki).
The ladies come in the form of Moon Lee and Elaine Liu. It has to be said that the latter does not look as if she wants to be there at all, and seems particularly uncomfortable with the action scenes. Moon Lee has the moves but is just too cute to cut it as an action star. She tries to convey intensity and fury, but only ends up looking cuter the angrier she gets. Watching a pissed-off Moon Lee is like watching an enraged kitten – it’s not scary and you end up just wanting to pet it until it’s in a more temperate mood.
Not all the women are Angels – Japanese bad girl Oshima Yukari plays the lead muscle of the crime syndicate and gets to show off her moves as well. But it’s her partner in crime Hwang Jang-Lee that steals the show. He has a couple of great scenes, and is easily the best thing in the film. Why he wasn’t given a bigger part is beyond me.
Apart from Hwang Jang-Lee, the only other highlights are a couple of decent stunts, one involving climbing up the outside of a skyscraper. The rest left me feeling extremely unsatisfied. There’s also a sense of the film being steered in different directions (well, it had no fewer than three directors, so maybe that’s not surprising). For example, it seems to me that clues are planted that the American DEA Officer is a turncoat working with the drug ring, but confusingly this never actually happens and it turns out he’s on the level after all.
All-too-brief highlights aside, Angel can’t really be recommended to the casual fan. But if you’re really into the girls-with-guns sub genre of Hong Kong action cinema, you may want to have a look. And yes, Moon Lee really is that cute.
Pedicab Driver (1989) June 18, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 1980s films , 2 commentsDirector: Sammo Hung Main Cast: Sammo Hung; Nina Li Chi; Mang Hoi; Max Mok; Fennie Yuen; John Shum; Suen Yuet Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Bojon Films
Pedicab Driver marks the end of Sammo Hung’s greatest period as both star and director with a mighty bang. Although it seems at times to be a little over-ambitious in its storytelling, with several seemingly unrelated threads working parallel with each other, it does actually work most of the time.
The movie’s opening is definitely one of the finest pieces of Hong Kong cinema, and I defy anyone to disagree. The setting is Macau in the 1930s; two rival gangs of pedicab (passenger-carrying tricycles similar to rickshaws) drivers meet in a teahouse for negotiations, divvying up passengers. The discussion is bitter and hostile, but the two parties eventually reach a cordial agreement. Just as they are able to shake hands on their new deal, the teashop owner, chasing a cat not visible to the gangs, leaps into view brandishing a deadly meat cleaver. Both gangs mistake this for an ambush and a fight ensues. The clash is reminiscent of the barroom brawl from Jackie Chan’s Project A, and features breathtaking action and fantastic inventiveness (there’s even a “lightsaber” duel with two fluorescent lighting strips!). This scene, as well as being incredibly exciting, also underlines Sammo’s generosity behind the camera – instead of hogging the limelight, he lets the others take the lion’s share of screen time for the duration.
After such an adrenaline rush, what follows immediately after could seem a huge let-down: baker Fong (Suen Yuet) tries to court his employee Ah Bing (Nina Li Chi) even though he’s old enough to be her father, while Tung (Sammo Hung) has much the same intention. Well, it’s Nina Li Chi - that’s pretty much every man’s intention.
Anyway, there’s also Master Ng (John Shum playing very much against type), a man so thoroughly evil he would make Hitler look reasonable. Seriously, he’s the most snarlingly evil pantomime villain in Hong Kong cinema, and there have been quite a few over the years. He is a pimp, and in one scene one of his workers is giving birth. He and his men kill the girl’s father (Dick Wei – so you know there are going to be a few fireworks before the end) in front of her as the baby’s being born, then tells them to throw the offspring in the river if it’s a boy and to take it back to the brothel if it’s a girl. He then tells the woman to get back to work.
Last but not least, we have fellow pedicab driver Malted Candy (Max Mok) and his romance with Hsiu Tsui (Fennie Yuen). It’s a somewhat melodramatic affair, this relationship, and is your typical Chinese tragic love story, complete with Cantopop song sung over a montage of the couple falling in love. I don’t know what Malted Candy was expecting of the poor girl. After all, he was initially attracted to her because she reminded him of a character from a pornographic novel he was reading.
While these story threads are certainly only diversions from the main spectacle (the fights), they do seem to enhance the film, and I hold this opinion despite my cynical and jaded nature. Actually, the love story between the star-crossed lovers only seems bearable while you’re watching the film – when you think about it before and after viewing the film it all seems so tackily contrived.
The action scenes are scattered sparingly throughout the film, but the one that stands out has no relevance to the plot whatsoever. Sammo crashes a gambling den and is challenged to fight the boss. Big deal, you might think, except the boss turns out to be Lau Kar-Leung and the fight is stunning. The time that passed between this and his Shaw Brothers heyday seems to have been kind to Lau, and no doubt out of respect for the elder, Hung lets Lau’s character win the bout.
The dramatic events that unfold near the end of the film pay off when Sammo and Rice Pudding (Mang Hoi) take revenge on Master Ng. I argue that the reliance on melodrama gives the film the right tone for this climax as Sammo goes apeshit at Ng’s mansion, taking on pretty much his entire gang (including Billy Chow – always worth watching in a Hung directed film) in a way that only Sammo knows how.
Pedicab Driver is one of the finest examples of 80s action in a Hong Kong film, and as many people cite that decade as the most impressive in turns of action choreography, that’s quite a recommendation. It’s frustrating that the movie isn’t out on DVD yet (legitimately, anyway) as it deserves a much higher profile. No doubt it’ll turn up one day, and those action scenes will blow away a whole new generation of fans.
Chokugeki! Jigoku-ken (The Executioner) (1974) June 12, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 1970s films , 3 commentsDirector: Teruo Ishii Cast: Sonny Chiba; Makoto Satô; Eiji Go; Yutaka Nakajima Territory: Japan Production Company: Toei Production Ltd
It’s been a long time since I’ve done a Sonny Chiba film on here. Although it seems like I’ve not been watching them, I have in fact been on a steady diet of Chiba since watching The Street Fighter way back on my first post for this blog. I’ve bought so many boxed sets of Chiba’s films that I now have no less than three copies of Killing Machine, two copies of Bullet Train, and two versions of Virus (which isn’t really a Sonny Chiba film but that doesn’t stop companies including it).
No, the reason I’ve not been writing about them is because so many of them (apart from the Street Fighter films) leave me completely cold. I think it’s something to do with the storylines and the scripts – something always feels a little “off” to me. Chokugeki! Jigoku-ken is no different – a disgraced police officer recruits a bunch of criminals to break up a drug ring – but at least it does have a certain flair.
Chiba is Ryuichi Koga, a trained ninja – although his “backstory” consists of a few short generic training sequences before we see him as a man, leaving his master. Along for the ride is a ruthless assassin (Makoto Satô), an overly horny murderer awaiting execution on death row (Eiji Go) and, to provide eye-candy, Street Fighter co-star Yutaka Nakajima.
The first indication that something’s slightly amiss is the introduction of Makoto’s character, which is borrowed almost directly from the introduction of Lee Van Cleef’s character in The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Well, if you’re going to borrow, I suppose you borrow from the best. However, Ryuichi then springs Eiji Go out of prison with the exact same chewing-gum-in-a-lock gag from obscure Hong Kong movie Interpol 009, which I just happened to have watched a few weeks ago. Odd.
Although the characters are strange (the horny ex-prisoner is particularly annoying and I’m still not sure why Yutaka Nakajima was in the film other than for her considerable beauty) and the story a little dull, it is a cut above a lot of similar fare as it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The comedy, although lowbrow, is actually pretty funny most of the time.
And then you’ve got the action sequences, which Chiba handles as well as you’d expect. They’re the highlight of the film, of course, and in that respect Chokugeki! Jigoku-ken is a winner, with fights breaking out on a regular basis. One pleasant surprise is the inclusion of Kurata Yasuaki, who will be instantly recognisable to every Hong Kong action film fan on the planet. Mr Kurata was the go-to guy for decades when Hong Kong filmmakers wanted a Japanese martial artist, and he even got to play non-villains once or twice. His place in Hong Kong cinematic history is secured with appearances in films such as Heroes of the East, Millionaire’s Express and Fist of Legend, and apparently he’s a really nice bloke too. I don’t know why, but I was actually surprised to see him in a Japanese film!
If you take away the fights, though, you can’t help but think this is all routine stuff. I know great scriptwriting isn’t the thing most people associate with action movies (especially from this part of the world) but it would have been nice to have something interesting to hang the fight sequences on other than some (admittedly funny) comic moments and quite a lot of gratuitous nudity.
This is definitely another example of a great film if you’re in a very undemanding mood. Just don’t expect cinematic gold. Oh, and by the way, does anyone want to buy a couple of copies of Killing Machine?
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.
Interpol 009 (1967) May 11, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, 1960s films , add a commentDirector: Yeung Shu-Hei Cast: Tang Ching; Lee Kwan; Margaret Tu Chuan Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
There’s an international money counterfeiting gang in town, and Interpol agent 009, Chen Tianhong (Tang Ching) is sent to investigate.
Like Lo Wei’s Golden Buddha from 1966, Interpol 009 attempts to bring a Chinese James Bond to the screen, although the two films are otherwise unrelated.
Agent 009 has much in common with his more famous counterpart – he’s a suave womaniser, heavy drinker (although he prefers brandy to a vodka martini) and is deadly with any form of weapon you can to give him. He’s also got an arsenal of gadgets to get him out of scrapes, such as a watch with several uses (including a listening device), a lighter that can turn into a smoke bomb and chewing gum that can open locked doors. However, that’s pretty much where the similarities end, as Chen Tianhong has the charisma of a housebrick. Perhaps sensing this, he is given a sidekick in the shape of Huang Mao (Lee Kwan – best known for his appearance as Ah Kun in Bruce Lee’s The Big Boss) who runs around Hong Kong in a Beatle suit and provides comic relief.
Chen Tianhong (who proclaims, and I swear to God this is true: “Danger? That’s my middle name”) woos the ladies despite some stinky chat up lines (he even comes out with “do you come here often?” to one lady). This is perhaps the sauciest Chinese film from the 60’s I’ve seen as Agent 009 canoodles with just about every lady he comes into contact with and there’s even a bare bottom at one point. This is a far cry from the previous year’s Golden Buddha, which is extremely coy in comparison.
The story concerns a money counterfeiting gang headed by a beautiful mysterious lady (the tragic Margaret Tu Chuan, who would commit suicide before the decade came to an end at the age of 27) and it’s here that another problem becomes apparent – the villains are all a bit pedestrian and the locations are very domestic, with the action all taking place in Hong Kong. Part of the appeal of the Bond movies is the exotic locations and the overblown villains, and this film is a letdown on both points.
There is some enjoyment to be had from the film, despite its drawbacks. However, I’m not sure all the fun is intentional. There’s a scene where the bad guys are beating up some guy, who manages to get away in an unguarded car. He gets away and then drives his car straight off the nearest quay and into the water. One of the perusing villains just mutters “silly man” and shakes his head – which I found hilariously funny. The final reel mercifully turns up the action a couple of notches, and another Bond device comes into play – the age-old ploy of the bad guys tying up the hero (with sidekick in this case), planning a grisly fate for them and then scooting off and assuming the hero gets splattered across a large area. In this case, the villains leave 009 to stew until the bomb they’ve planted goes off and turns Chen Tianhong into a disgusting red mess.
So how long do the villains give Chen Tianhong to ponder his fate while they make a speedy getaway? Two minutes? Five minutes? Surely no more than ten minutes? Actually, they give him two hours. In that time, Bond would have got out, killed an army of henchmen, downed a couple of vodka martinis, shagged the villainess, killed her and quipped about it to his leading lady while making a witty quip over the radio to an exasperated M. Chen Tianhong barely gets out with his skin intact, and this sums up the film in a nutshell.
Interpol 009 is just too dull most of the time to be enjoyable and suffers from some illogical plot problems to boot. It’s not a complete write-off, and the 60’s fashions and sensibilities are always fun to watch, but this is not even on par with the more cringeworthy Roger Moore-era Bonds.
Mercenaries From Hong Kong (1982) March 29, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, War, 1980s films , add a commentDirector: Wong Jing Cast: Ti Lung; Chan Wai-Man; Chan Pak-Cheung; Lo Leih; Johnny Wang; Wong Yu Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
A businessman’s daughter contacts mercenary-for-hire Luo Li (Ti Lung) to avenge her father’s murder by an assassin who has fled to Cambodia. Luo assembles his crack team for the journey into war-torn Cambodia: a knife expert, a deadly sniper, a bare-fist fighting expert, a thief and a bomb specialist and heads into the danger zone. But once there, their plan alters when it becomes evident that things aren’t as straightforward as they seem…
Mercenaries From Hong Kong opens with a shot of Ti Lung pumping iron to an anonymous instrumental band’s rendition of Blue Oyster Cult’s Teen Archer, and you immediately know this isn’t going to be a run-of-the-mill Shaw Brothers Kung Fu flick. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the use of so many Shaw players, you may be forgiven for thinking you were watching a Golden Harvest film. For a company that never really moved with the times, Mercenaries From Hong Kong looks amazingly “contemporary” for a late-period Shaw flick, and unlike virtually all other productions from the era, hardly any of it is shot on a claustrophobic sound stage, and outdoor sets and locations are used extensively.
The story is hardly original, and pretty much rips off every war movie where an ensemble cast goes off behind enemy lines. Small band of commandoes against insurmountable odds? Check. Soldier hoping to pay for life-saving operation for sick daughter? Check. Two members of team hating each other’s guts until their backs are against the wall? Check. Backstabbing traitor masquerading as everyone’s friend? Big fat check. And when one of the team asks Luo to look after his child “in case anything happens to me”, you just know he isn’t going to make it. You might as well just shoot him in the face there and then, get it over with and recalculate everyone’s paycheck. Especially when he stupidly forgets his lucky necklace before engaging the enemy.
As well as the hackneyed plot devices and clichés, the direction isn’t terribly good. Wong Jing became infamous for his screwball comedies and exploitation movies, and both genres impose on Mercenaries From Hong Kong to a certain degree. We have a scene of Ti Lung being The Exterminator, while the inclusion of Nat Chan Pak-Cheung brings a little too much light relief for my taste. In fact, humour crops up a number of times and it just impedes the film’s progress and atmosphere.
However, one thing can’t be denied: Mercenaries From Hong Kong is extremely good fun despite (or maybe because of) its cornier elements. There’s a mass brawl in a shopping centre that is really exciting to watch, and features dozens of improvised weapon-wielding stuntmen and extras. The action scenes in general are another aspect that looks decidedly un-Shaw-like and again look more like they came from Golden Harvest’s fight choreographers. The cast includes some of Shaw’s top players as well as their perennial action-man Ti Lung, and it’s fantastic seeing Johnny Wang and Lo Leih given good-guy roles for a change. Immortal bad guys Lei Hoi-Sang and Yuen Wah also turn up to add some weight to the heavies on the other side.
It’s surprising (and a little disappointing) how little of this film is actually set in the jungles of Cambodia, as primarily the action takes place in and around Hong Kong, but Mercenaries From Hong Kong probably exceeded its remit by coming up with a film that still entertains some 26 years after it was made.
Police Story 2 (1988) December 26, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 1980s films , 8 commentsDirector: Jackie Chan Cast: Jackie Chan; Maggie Cheung; Bill Tung; Benny Lai Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Golden Harvest; Golden Way
Following the events of Police Story, Chan Ka-Kui (Jackie Chan) is demoted and hauled over the coals by his superiors. The crime lord Chu Tao (Chor Yuen) has been released due to failing health and is once again making Ka-Kui’s life a misery by getting his lackeys to constantly harass his long-standing (and long-suffering) girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung). However, Ka-Kui faces a new threat in the form of a gang of blackmailers intent on blowing up most of Hong Kong.
Police Story 2 is probably my least favourite of Jackie Chan’s starring features from the eighties. The tone always seemed too dark for a Jackie Chan film and it had a tendency to be overly dramatic and not a little melodramatic. Certain scenes always bugged me – such as the scene in a shopping mall under threat from a bomb attack, which I’ve always thought seemed heavy-handed and the people’s reactions unrealistic (and that attempt at tension with the bouncing ball is horrible passé). What I’ve always liked in Jackie’s films is the lightness and good-natured humour as well as all the physical stuff, which is why I’ve given it a miss for a few years. Watching it again reveals that the film does have some great comedy moments which I’d completely forgotten about, and I was surprises how much I enjoyed it.
Like the first film, a lot of the comedy is provided by Maggie Cheung in the role of May, and she still bears the scars of Police Story 2 to this day thanks to a gag with some toppling metal frames going wrong. It’s hard to imagine her taking such a role now, either from a comedic or physical angle, but she did have quite a flair and watching something like this does remind you of the fact. You’ve got to love the scene where she furiously shouts at Ka-Kui into the showers at the Police Station following their aborted holiday to Bali. She is oblivious to the embarrassed nakedness of the cops (and Bill Tung having a private moment in the toilet stalls) to rip into Ka-Kui, and then has another unfortunate incident with her scooter outside. Other comic moments involve Jackie going undercover wearing a fake moustache and glasses to get a lead on the explosives and the usual misunderstandings with his superiors Raymond (Lam Gwok-Hung) and the fantastic Bill Tung. Sadly, Mars, though present, has a much reduced role in this, which is a shame as he always had good comic scenes when sharing the screen with Jackie.
Regular member of Jackie’s stunt-team, Benny Lai comes out of the shadows to play the role of a deaf-mute explosives expert. Although he took one of the pirate roles in Project A Part II, he was usually only a background player in Jackie’s films and usually heavily in disguise. In this he really gets a chance to shine and his physical feats are great. He also apparently spent an inordinate amount of time preparing for the role and consulted a specialist to learn to use sign language, and I have to admit I thought he was for real until I saw him in other roles.
Police Story II does have a tendency towards incoherence and lack of direction, but no more than other films from the era. For example, the return of veteran director Chor Yuen in the role of Chu Tao turns out to be more a red herring than a genuine plot point. It’s as if the filmmakers originally intended to have him being the main bad guy again but changed their minds about a third of the way through. More of a presence is Charlie Cho as Chu Tao’s sleazy PA, John Koo. If you remember, at the end of the first film Ka-Kui punches him in the face and breaks his glasses. This gag obviously proved popular, as in every scene in which he appears in this sequel results in the same result. As a running joke, I suppose it works but on repeated viewings it gets a little tiresome.
However, nothing leaves such a bad taste in the mouth as the disgraceful product placement that goes on. You can’t go ten minutes without some blatant plug for Canon, Citizen and (inevitably) Mitsubishi. The worst offence occurs when a shopping mall is destroyed by an explosion – a Mitsubishi 4X4 (which I’m sure, if memory serves correctly, has adverts for Citizen emblazoned on its side therefore killing two birds with one stone) rolls away from the devastation without the aid of a driver and stops safely outside having smashed a plate glass window in its escape. I’m not sure what they were trying to say – that Mitsubishi cars are sentient? That they can smash windows without losing tyre pressure? It may even be a sly reference to some jokey TV advert at the time or something that I’m not aware of, but otherwise it’s terribly distracting and ruins the illusion of the movie.
On a lighter note, Jackie’s action sequences are as phenomenal as ever from the eighties. He takes on the bad guys single-handedly and comes away a winner as is demanded from the audience. I’ll always remember the first time I watched the stunt with the refuse chute exploding with Jackie still inside it. I literally gasped in shocked surprise, and how many times can you say that about a scene in a movie? I’d say it’s one of his most underrated of stunts and deserves to be seen by all. Also noteworthy are the film’s explosion effects. A shopping mall gets a spectacular bang and a fireworks factory gets blown to smithereens. There was obviously a higher budget following the success of the original film and it looks like it all went on the pyrotechnics.
So while Police Story II does have some major flaws it is still a film very much from his golden age and has much to recommend it.
The Storm Riders (1998) December 6, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Action, Wuxia, 1990s films , 10 commentsDirector: Andrew Lau Cast: Ekin Cheng; Aaron Kwok, Sonny Chiba, Wayne Lai, Kristy Yeung Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Golden Harvest
Rarely, if ever, will you find a Hong Kong movie that divides opinion as much as Andrew Lau’s 1998 adaptation of Ma Wing-Sing’s comic book of the same name. It was the first Hong Kong CGI bonanza, and it probably wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that if you have a beef with any aspect of modern day movie making in Hong Kong, you can trace it back to this movie.
The film’s detractors cite many faults with the film, but one universal gripe is the plot - or the lack of one. What it boils down to is a pair of orphans (Ekin Cheng as Wind and Aaron Kwok as Cloud) who are “groomed” by Conqueror (Japanese legend Sonny Chiba) because the soothsayer Mud Buddha (Wayne Lai) decrees that with these two disciples will bring him great power for a full decade. The kids fall in love with the same woman and it all ends badly (for all concerned) and Conqueror finally challenges Sword Saint (Anthony Wong) from the unchallenged City to a duel. Mud Buddha then drops a bombshell about the other half of the prophesy about Wind and Cloud.
Which is a workable, if basic, plot. But then the film’s origin starts to get in the way. I’ve never read the comic book – I bought loads of issues to help with my Chinese reading and eventually discovered I was way out of my depth (I bought a couple of the far inferior US translations and discovered, to my surprise, that they were no easier!) so mainly just looked at the fantastic pictures. But I’m guessing that there are a lot of characters and events here from the comic book that get crammed in just to satisfy fans. What then happens is the film becomes episodic and confusing, with minor characters popping up, doing something (presumably) important and then disappearing forever.
One thing that is sure to date a movie is making it so bang-up-to-date as possible, and Storm Riders suffers from this more than you’d think. Although less than a decade old, it looks too much like a product of its time, and nowhere is this more evident than in the opening title sequence, which now looks like a graphical cut scene from a PlayStation One game. All of the CGI tends to be a little ropey, which is a major problem as the production relies so heavily on it.
However, Storm Riders tries damn hard to be entertaining, and was a necessary step in the evolution of Hong Kong movies, which had been suffering from dwindling cinema audiences for years prior to this film. Although the film looks dated now, it certainly did the trick in getting people back watching local fare over the latest glossy Hollywood blockbusters.
I remember seeing this for the first time and thinking it was just totally incomprehensible, and this seems to be a common reaction. What this film insists upon is a second (and maybe a third) viewing, and things definitely make a hell of a lot more sense. There is an interesting relationship between the two main characters and their beloved Charity (an early appearance by Kristy Yeung) and the two are evidently intended to be two sides of the same coin with the emotional, romantic Wind and the sensual, lustful Cloud.
Over at the Hong Kong Movie Database, which is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Hong Kong films, there are many reviews for this film but one review sums up the depth of feeling that this film can engender. It was written by a user called MilesC, and he gives the film a very poor review before appending this:
Post-script: It’s been six months since I wrote the above review, and well over a year since I saw the film. It’s six o’clock in the morning, and I can’t sleep because I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT HOW MUCH I HATE THIS MOVIE. The fact that a 130 minute movie could contain so little plot, action, or character development and ACTUALLY BE FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL makes me want to destroy the entire planet. I HATE THIS MOVIE! Andrew Lau, one day I’ll come for you.
I’m guessing he steered well clear of the film after writing that, but I can’t help wondering if he watched it again whether he’d feel quite so strongly about it. Likewise, I’m guessing a lot of people who loved it upon release now find Storm Riders a little creaky and rough around the edges. I’d say I’ve grown to love it over the years, but there are plenty of better examples of this type of film nowadays.
Invisible Target (2007) December 1, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Action, Thriller, 2000s films , 6 commentsDirector: Benny Chan Cast: Nicholas Tse; Shawn Yu; Jaycee Chan; Wu Jing Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Sil Metropole Organisation Ltd
Chan Chun (Nicholas Tse) is a cop who lost his fiancée when a jewellery shop gets blown up as a result of a hit on an armoured car. Carson Fong (Shawn Yu) is another cop who is beaten and humiliated by a criminal gang. Wai King-Ho is yet another cop, this time one who has lost his brother. All three join up to bring down the Tien gang headed by Tien Yeng-Seng (Wu Jing), the gang responsible for all three officers’ circumstances.
Invisible Target starts out with a bang not unlike a Hollywood blockbuster. It serves as a plot point in that Chan Chun’s fiancée gets killed (no great loss – she doesn’t have her own voice. I don’t think I could ever love a woman who was badly dubbed) and sends him on a path of revenge. It easily brings to mind films like Die Hard and you start to worry that this is going to be yet another Hong Kong film aping Hollywood and failing miserably. While this is true to a small degree regarding the CGI, let me put your fears at rest and tell you categorically that Invisible Target is a darn good romp.
Nicholas Tse gets a lot of stick for his film work (I admit I’ve never heard a note of his music and am quite happy to keep it that way) but fair’s fair, he puts on a good show as the haunted young cop out for revenge. I must admit that Shawn Yu has previously slipped under my radar, but he also impresses as Tse’s partner by circumstance. Jaycee Chan (son of Jackie) is so earnest and serious as Wai King-Ho that his character seems to verge on parody at times, and is the least believable of the trio. In one early scene, we see him giving CPR to a foul-smelling vagrant without showing any signs of discomfort while those around him are blowing their lunch. He then modestly goes home to his grandma. He strikes you as the kind of person who wouldn’t think twice about risking his life to save a bunch of young children on a bomb-laden bus, an opinion that is reinforced later in the film where he risks his life to save a bunch of young children on a bomb-laden bus, oddly enough. Nevertheless, Wai King-Ho is the glue for the partnership of the three disparate cops. He is searching for his brother, who may or may not have gone undercover in the Tien gang. Seeing Jaycee Chan in action is an uncomfortable sensation – seeing someone who is clearly the son of Jackie Chan doing fight scenes brings a weird feeling of deja vu and brings up the inevitability of the passage of time. It sure made me feel old, anyway.
Wu Jing will be familiar to all who have seen the somewhat over-rated SPL, and many will agree he was the best thing about that movie. One great compliment to this film is that Wu Jing is still great, but he’s no longer the best (or at least the only good) thing about the project. Whereas most Hong Kong action films fail these days to entertain (for me at least) due to a number of reasons, Invisible Target succeeds, and a lot of that goes down to a more back-to-basics approach to the stuntwork and action choreography. It still goes over the top occasionally, and some of the wirework doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, but the good far outweighs the bad. In fact, after a couple of action scenes I could have sworn they were accompanied by the same tinny, lo-fi synth music that went with all those great 80’s action scenes. Upon rewinding, I found this was not the case, but it’s an interesting association.
The film – at ten minutes over two hours – is slightly too long, but paradoxically doesn’t feel bloated with extraneous material. There are some nice plot turns and interesting characters to root for and hiss at, and a couple of really standout moments. The scene where the gangster explains to Wai King-Ho, without malice or bravado, what happened to his brother and how he felt about it is one such outstanding moment.
So despite being too long and having a corny character or two, Invisible Target is still very much worth a watch, and I’m looking forward to a second viewing already.
If you’ve been reading my stuff on the more contemporary Hong Kong films both here and elsewhere, you have probably noticed that I’ve been mentioning a certain guy quite a lot. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Lam Suet:
The reason I’ve been mentioning him is because I’m starting to feel like the man is stalking me via DVD. He’s appeared in absolutely everything I’ve watched in the past couple of months that has been made in or after 2002. Has this guy got some kind of global domination thing going or has he got a really good (or bad) agent that blags him a role in every Hong Kong film made? Sure enough, I stick Invisible Target on and bang!, less than ten minutes pass and he’s there on screen. He seems to favour playing villains, although is at home playing both henchmen and criminal masterminds. Other than appearing in all these films, I know next to nothing about him, and neither does anyone else I ask. Is there anyone who can shed some light on this extraordinarily prolific actor?