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.
Five Element Ninjas (1982) November 28, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Kung Fu, 1980s films , 4 commentsDirector: Chang Cheh Cast: Ricky Cheng, Lo Meng, Chen Pei-Hsi Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
It’s quite hard to write a great deal about this film, as it’s so brazenly shallow. The plot is the most simplistic excuse for joining a bunch of action scenes together: a clan of martial arts heroes known as the Alliance (who strut about wearing virginal white and not-very-macho little capes), challenge a local bandit gang. If the Alliance win, the bandits must go straight. In amongst the gang is a ringer in the form of a Samurai swordsman. He is defeated, and upon his death by Seppuku, gives the bandit king a note to send to a Ninja master to avenge his supposed disgrace. The Ninja master (Chan Wai-Man) arrives with his troops to finish of the Alliance, incorporating five clans named after the elements gold, earth, fire, water and wood.
Five Element Ninjas is one of those kung fu films that obtained a large fan base in the US, which has kind of blown its reputation out of proportion a little. Seen in context, it’s actually quite a desperate film. The studio was in trouble and this is a pretty cynical attempt to get bums on seats by painting the screen red and throwing action scene after action scene at the viewer. Oh, and a pseudo-naked ninja girl in a fishnet body stocking. Sounds like a winner on paper, obviously, and if anyone could have pulled it off, Chang Cheh could.
The film is outrageous in every respect. The Alliance’s outfits are highly questionable and there’s an air of campness quite unparalleled in films from this era. In many ways, it has the look and feel of a mid-70’s film rather than one from 1982. As with all Shaw movies from this period, it’s entirely shot indoors on the soundstage, and the artificial colours and landscapes add to the comic-book appearance of the film.
However, it’s in the violence that Five Element Ninjas comes into its own, and this is by far the most outrageous aspect. The fight with the “earth element” Ninja clan is too gruesome for words, but the guy tripping on his own entrails was hilarious (OK, so I’m a sick bastard). Mind you, that’s nothing compared to what happens later, but you’ll have to see it yourself to find out…
The only depth aimed for is with Junko (Chen Pei-Hsi), a ninja girl sent to infiltrate the Alliance and ends up on a killing spree. There are hints that she’s a more complicated person, and capable of loving. But then someone kills her. Oh well, easy come, easy go.
It’s a shame that there aren’t more big names on show. The hero by default is Ricky Cheng Tien-Chi, and you’d be forgiven for scratching your head trying to remember where you’d seen him before. It seems he didn’t have such a stellar career in the movies, but he certainly puts on a decent show here. Venom Lo Meng appears as the heroic Liang Zhi-Sheng and has a few great action scenes, but is definitely not the star of the film. It could be said that the star of the film is the Ninja weaponry, which the film takes great pains to explain has been extensively researched for the production. This is one of those films (like Legendary Weapons of China) which puts a caption on screen whenever a new weapon is shown, and I do find it distracting and a little annoying. Nevertheless, the weapons are shown in all their gruesome glory and the fight scenes (of which there are many) are usually quite inventive, albeit somewhat implausible!
Oddly for a film made in 1982, the soundtrack on the IVL DVD is in Mandarin and does not feature a Cantonese track, which, if it was released in this way, would have been another very unfashionable choice for the era. If you’re after something about as challenging as a Peter and Jane book, this could be for you. But it’s nothing to get too excited about.
The Lady is the Boss (1983) September 12, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, Kung Fu, 1980s films , 2 commentsDirector: Lau Kar-Leung Cast: Kara Hui Ying-Hung, Lau Kar-Leung, Lau Kar-Fai (Gordon Liu), Hsiao Ho, Wong Yu Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
The human mind is a strange thing. Long ago, I’d got it into my head that I’d seen, on some kind of compilation tape, a scene from a movie where the monk San Te (made famous by the legendary 36th Chamber movies) battles alongside Hsiao Ho’s Mad Monkey persona in an early 80’s action flick in a gymnasium. Impossible stuff, to be sure, but I thought I’d seen it. After scouring my tapes, I realised it must have been some kind of demented fantasy, or at best I was horribly mistaken. But more on that later.
The Lady is the Boss seems like the final part of a trilogy of films by Lau Kar-Leung exploring tradition, the change in social attitudes over time and female liberation – themes that were hardly staples of the Shaw Brothers’ (or indeed, any Hong Kong company’s) output at that time. It’s probably entirely unintentional, but this feels like a relative of 1978’s sublime Heroes of the East (a film so good, I even stole the name of it for this blog!) and the worthy 1981 production My Young Auntie. All three have the same underlying theme and share an unusual trait for films of this genre – no one is killed and there’s very little ‘violence’ on screen.
That said, this is definitely a bit more barbed than either of the other two films. The main plot focuses on Mei-Ling (Kara Hui) coming to Hong Kong to run the martial arts school currently being taught by Wang (Lau Kar-Leung). Upon her arrival from the USA (Hui is seen chewing gum throughout and slanging English and Cantonese with a wantonness that leaves the poor Chinese traditionalists reeling), she despairs of the old-fashioned methods of teaching and Wang’s insistence on quality over quantity. You see, the school has just five pupils, and training in stances alone takes one full year! Mei-Ling comes in and revamps the school, getting lots of new students in the process. Among the new recruits are a bunch of nightclub workers, whose boss is not too happy that his ladies are being taught ways of fending off the advances of their clients. As the boss is played by veteran bad-boy Johnny Wong, we’ve got a pretty good idea where things are going to end up.
The Lady is the Boss must have looked dazzlingly modern back in 1983; which is to say it looks horribly dated now. We’ve got neon pink outfits, effeminate men wearing lipstick, terribly tinny disco music and even a few BMX bicycles – all the hallmarks of a true 80’s production! It all serves to make viewing the film all the more enjoyable, and no fan of the decade will be disappointed. Besides, it makes a change from all the period pieces being churned out at the time by the studio.
Comedy plays a strong part in the film, and while the attempts at humour aren’t as bad as other Shaw productions, it still occasionally grates. Like its predecessors, most of the humour is derived from the situations and the views of the traditionally minded versus the radical. In places, the film plays a little too much like My Young Auntie for its own good in this regard, and occasionally you can’t help but feel that you’ve seen it before.
Surprisingly, the kung fu is downplayed for much of the movie in favour of comedy skits and other action scenes (including, as has been mentioned above, a short sequence involving BMX bikes). When it does kick off, though, it’s pretty impressive. With the likes of Wong Yu (Dirty Ho), Lau Kar-Fai, Hsiao Ho et al (not to mention Lau Kar-Leung himself), you know you’re going to get something special. You have to wait a while, but you do get it eventually. And there it is – Lau Kar-Fai playing a man playing San Te, and Hsiao Ho doing his Mad Monkey routine. You’d be wrong to think there’s a good reason, plot-wise, for them doing it, but then there’s not a lot of reason involved in most of this film!
In the final analysis, there’s a feeling that subconsciously Lau Kar-Leung was still siding with tradition in this film, despite the “old guard” being shown as outdated and a trifle ridiculous. The five young men who trained under the old master still have far superior skills than anyone trained under Mei-Ling, and the “fast-track” training employed by her could be seen to be portraying “modern” martial arts training techniques in a derogatory light. But I could be looking into it a bit too deeply, there. It is, after all, an action comedy, and as they go, you could do worse than this 84-minute mini-celebration of 80’s kitsch.
Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985) July 11, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Kung Fu, 1980s films , add a commentDirector: Lau Kar-Leung Cast: Hsiao Ho, Lau Kar-Fai (Gordon Liu), Lau Kar-Leung Action Directors: Lau Kar-Leung, Hsiao Ho, Lee King-Chue Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
It’s hard to believe, but this film was made in the same year as Jackie Chan’s Police Story and is a good indicator of just how out of touch the Shaw Brothers studio had become. It flopped so badly that even some fans of the first film are totally unaware that it even exists.
The second sequel to the 36th Chamber of Shaolin is actually more of a true sequel than Return to the 36th Chamber, in that Lau Kar-Fai reprises his role as (the real) San Te. However, he plays second lead (and second fiddle) to Fong Sai-Yuk (Hsiao Ho), who, along with his two brothers (I didn’t even realise Fong Sai-Yuk had brothers, but never mind), journey to the Shaolin Temple in their own quest to put one over one the Manchu government.
The story is predictable and the script is uninspired. But what’s worse is the ‘humour’ that crept into the first sequel is even more in evidence here – and it’s at least ten times as unfunny. Lau Kar-Leung apparently wrote this himself, and it’s well known that he was having a bad time around this period, which might have contributed to the lacklustre script.
There’s a vague outline of the three-act structure from the other two films, but it’s all very tenuous. As far as I know, Fong Sai-Yuk didn’t exist in the same timeline as San Te, but I could be wrong and I’m prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. His addition to the series is probably an attempt at adding someone familiar to the formula as Lau Kar-Fai had already gone through the training twice before as two different people! In any case, the training is definitely less inspired this time round. This is perhaps not too surprising, as the market had already become saturated with 36th Chamber wannabes. Plus, of course, Fong Sai-Yuk doesn’t need much training, does he?
For all that, though, there’s no denying that the action scenes are pretty damn impressive. For reasons I’ve never been able to fathom, Hsiao Ho only had leading roles in a couple of movies (although he’s visible in many, many others). His acrobatic skill is superb, and his presence saves this from total catastrophe. Right from the opening, we are treated to a blistering display of ability. While I’m on the subject of the opening titles, is it me or does the title sequence have absolutely nothing to do with the film itself? I mean, usually it has some relevance, but if this is the case here, it escaped me totally.
It’s not enough to salvage the film, though, and at times it’s all very tired-looking. The genre needed time to rest, and unfortunately this film helped to make the traditional Kung Fu picture persona non grata for a few years. In a very real sense, this movie marks the end of a glorious age, and taken in this context, Disciples of the 36th Chamber is a little easier to accept. It’s a hard film to like, but it’s impossible to dismiss.
Virus (1980) June 2, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Blogroll, Thriller, 1980s films , 4 commentsDirector: Kinji Fukasaku Cast: Masao Kusakari, Bo Svenson, George Kennedy, Robert Vaughn Territory: Japan
A horrifying man-made virus is unleashed onto the world – killing everyone except the world’s scientists stationed in Antarctica and the crew of a nuclear submarine which set sail before the outbreak. The stunned survivors gather together, but find that old nationalistic prejudices still apply despite the apocalypse. Then, a final act of human stupidity threatens to destroy the Antarctic base and finally put an end to mankind.
My all-time favourite novel is Stephen King’s The Stand, which has clearly been used as a template for the apocalyptic theme of this film. Both use a man-made flu-like virus which is accidentally unleashed (although I can’t remember now if this was ever explicitly mentioned in the first published version of The Stand, which was the only version available at the time this film was made) and devastates the world. It does then veer off in a different direction, with the survivors at the South Pole trying to resurrect the human race against a Cold War backdrop.
To give it its due Virus has aged particularly well, Cold War references aside. A lot of the themes could well apply today, and, for a film set in the near future of 1982, that is certainly quite a feat. The scope of the film is also extremely commendable – it seems that no sociological issue is left unaddressed. It’s often a downfall of films like these that gloss over certain important issues, whether it be social, sexual, political, national or suchlike.
And that’s where, I think, the film falls down. I feel Virus never really establishes a focus. It can be reasonably said that there is no “star” of this film, and that can be a tad disconcerting. A case could be made that Masao Kusakari is the focus as he has the most screen time, but his character is as broadly drawn as anybody’s, really. And his English is not quite good enough to carry him through the picture – there were several times I found myself struggling to understand him.
I also have trouble with the film’s response to sexual attitude – after the rape of one of the community’s eight women, the response is along the lines of “well, it’s terrible, but it’s bound to happen”. They then rule that the women must, essentially, “service” the 850-odd men on a rota basis. The women, evidently, do not argue against this. Abstinence is not an option, then?
All of the detail that Virus goes into portray the end of the world makes for a pretty plodding movie, and it’s only in the last half hour that it really takes off. I understand the film bombed on release, which is probably why I’d never heard of it until about three weeks ago. But the large-scale international cast and high production values (it was the most expensive film from Japan at the time) do make for a reasonably well-presented project. However, Chuck Connors as an Englishman? I think not! Actually, the best bit of casting goes to the bloke who played Dr Horatio Kane in my old favourite Kill and Kill Again. He even gets a couple of lines!
The version reviewed here is the full Japanese version, which has been remastered and presented in widescreen and runs at about 2 hours 35 minutes. There are other versions available, but they are abridged and usually fullscreen. The full-length version can be obtained on Region 1 DVD on the “Sonny Chiba Action Pack”, which is odd as it’s not an action movie nor a Sonny Chiba movie (he has about thirty seconds worth of screen time and maybe two lines of dialogue). Although it can’t complete with other apocalypse films (one of my favourites is a little New Zealand film called The Quiet Earth) it is rather a shame that the film seems to have fallen by the wayside and largely been forgotten.
I Love Maria (1988) May 18, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, Sci-Fi, 1980s films , 1 comment so farDirector: David Chung Cast: John Shum, Tsui Hark, Sally Yeh, Tony Leung (Chiu-Wai), Lam Ching-Ying Action Director: Ching Siu-Tung Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Win’s Film Workshop
Hong Kong has never been a great producer of Sci-Fi. I don’t know whether it’s a cultural thing or simply a case of they never had the budget and technology (until relatively recently) to create credible films in the field. I Love Maria puts a typical 80’s Hong Kong spin on the genre - brutal gun violence goes hand-in-hand with family-friendly humour, the occasional hint of romance rears its head and scenes of touching redemption warm the heart. Except this time there are bloody big robots all over the place.
The misleadingly named Hero Gang is terrorising Hong Kong with bank robberies carried out by a seemingly invincible robot called Pioneer I. Curly (John Shum – I think all of his characters were called Curly), a member of the Special Weapons branch of the police, and Whiskey (Tsui Hark), a former member of the Hero gang, team up when they are both accused of betraying their respective factions. They are attacked by Pioneer II – an android modelled on the Hero Gang’s main female boss Maria (Sally Yeh) by her lover who is looking for a permanent replacement that will never age or deteriorate. Curly and Whiskey, who are occasionally aided and abetted by reporter TQ Zhuang (Tony Leung), get the best of the droid purely by accident and begin to reprogram her to do their bidding, leading to a showdown with the Hero Gang, a master who wants to switch sides (Lam Ching-Ying), Pioneer III, the Real Maria and the Boss himself (Ben Lam).
What surprises most about I Love Maria is that the effects aren’t too bad. They’re nowhere near Hollywood standard, but they generally don’t look too cheesy and there’s no over-reliance on low shots of fragile-looking miniatures that you would have expected. It probably goes without saying, but Sally Yeh plays both the human Maria and the android version. She spends most of her time in the android form, and her costume and actions make her look like a cross between C3PO, Robocop and something from Metropolis. Tsui Hark, one of Hong Kong’s most respected directors, takes a co-starring role in this and shows his flair for comedy and makes a good partnership with John Shum, both looking as though they’re thoroughly enjoying themselves. Again, this sort of thing can only be found in Hong Kong – you couldn’t imagine Steven Speilburg appearing in Short Curcuit, could you? I’m slightly puzzled by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (who incidentally looks almost unrecognisably young in this) - I’m still not sure why he was there, but he does kick-start the plot sometimes and provides even more comic relief.
Like so many films from this period, I Love Maria is mainly played for laughs, and it’s hard not to find it likeable at least some of the time. The drama is dropped in sporadically and always feels a bit forced and a little hackneyed, but the fun factor never dips too low and the sight of Sally Yeh encased in metal will always be enough entertainment for some people.
I’ve always loved the title of this film: it’s one of the rare instances where the theme or nature of the piece isn’t given away by the title. It sounds like a romance or at least a cheerful and bright bit of rom-com fluff. But a film about bloody big robots? That’s class.
Today’s trivia question: Tsui Hark appeared in another film involving robots. What was it called?
The Millionaire’s Express (1986) May 15, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 1980s films , 4 commentsDirector: Sammo Hung Cast: Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Richard Ng, Kenny Bee, Eric Tsang, James Tien, Jimmy Wang Yu, Lydia Shum, Sek Gin, Rosamund Kwan, Emily Chu, Pauline Wong, Richard Norton, Cynthia Rothrock, Hwang Jang-Lee, Kurata Yasuaki, Oshima Yukari, Lam Ching-Ying Action Director: Sammo Hung Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Golden Harvest
The plot revolves around a ne’er-do-well named Chin Fong-Tin (Sammo Hung), who deliberately derails the titular train on its way to Shanghai so that the wealthy passengers will have to stop at the nearby village and visit his “hotel”. Which sounds straightforward, but there’s a group of people who want to rob the train and they’re the kind of people you really don’t want to mess with. Added to that are problems with local upstanding citizen and Fire Chief Tsao (Yuen Biao), who endeavours to thwart Chin’s efforts at every opportunity, and a hostile local population who remember Chin’s conniving nature from when he was a kid. As if that wasn’t enough, Chin also has to deal with his troublesome but well-intentioned prostitutes (which include Rosamund Kwan, Emily Chu and Pauline Wong). Oh, and there was a bank robbery earlier and the fugitives are on the loose and they also want to rob the train. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s a lothario on board the train who’s brought his wife and his mistress and must keep them from meeting each other. And none other than Wong Fei-Hung himself (Jimmy Wang-Yu) is feuding with a fellow master (Sek Gin) and their young protégés and that’s not to mention the three Japanese swordsmen (and woman) who are after a national treasure…and…and…
If you think the above must make for some horrific Hong Kong throw-everything-at-the-screen-and-hope-something-works type of experience, you’d be wrong. The Millionaire’s Express is, for me if no one else, pretty much the pinnacle of Hong Kong action comedy cinema. While some films have better action sequences, and other films are perhaps funnier, none bring together the elements in one movie better than this. It may well be broad farce and little more than a Hong Kong version of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, but when the results are this much fun, who cares?
The cast includes pretty much everyone involved in Hong Kong cinema and television at the time (apart from Jackie Chan, who is very conspicuous by his absence) and all work together beautifully. Although nobody gets much screen time apart from Sammo and Yuen Biao, you rarely get the feeling that people are simply being rolled out for a quick cameo (apart from Bolo, perhaps) and some, like Richard Ng as an unlikely Don Juan, have incredibly memorable (and hilariously funny) parts.
Picking out standout events in the film is pretty much impossible, and I’m not even going to try except to say the almost cartoon-like way Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao knock seven shades of crap out of each other is a joy no fan should miss. Sammo Hung excelled himself in his directorial duties, and the three scriptwriters (the late, great Barry Wong, Alfred Cheung and Wong Wang-Gei) should have been given medals for creating such a coherent whole out of the sum of so many parts.
This is definitely one film you can watch again and again and again and still get immense enjoyment out of. This film was the first of what many fans consider a trilogy of films linked by nothing other than their sheer quality (the others being Eastern Condors and Pedicab Driver). While the other two certainly are great, this is probably the one that bears repeated viewings best.