KUNG FU HUSTLE: Stephen Chow’s follow-up to SHAOLIN SOCCER ups the over-the-top action quotient by about three zillion percent. The story is set in 1930s Hong Kong, with Chow as a shaggy-haired, would-be bad guy named Sing, who gets caught up in the middle of a war between the top-hat-wearing Axe gang and the hard scrabble inhabitants of Pig Sty Alley. Chow–who wrote, produced, and directed–doesn’t step in as the star here for quite a while, letting the comic duties fly in a myriad of directions: a landlady in curlers (Yuen Qiu) has a yell that can flatten buildings; people get kicked across courtyards and through walls; musician assassins whip ghost sabers from lyre strings, and a mental patient in pink flip-flops named “the Beast” (Leung Siu Lung) catches bullets in his fingers. Buoyed by SOCCER’s box office success, HUSTLE uses bigger production values and a dizzying amount of CGI-enhanced martial arts (imagine Bruce Lee vs. Bugs Bunny in THE MATRIX).
It’s full of references to other films and filmmakers, revering spaghetti westerns and ’70s Shaw brothers movies a la Tarantino’s KILL BILL (fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping worked on both films). It also pays sly homage to the works of Wong Kar Wai, D.W. Griffith, Sam Raimi, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick, and Akira Kurosawa. Raymond Wong’s inspired score matches each cinematic reference with the appropriate cue as the camera circles and swoops around the sprawling sets. This is a real treat, more than a great action film or comedy, it’s a great film period, and one that set box office records in the East. THE MEDALLION: Jackie Chan is back in action with THE MEDALLION, yet another fast-paced martial arts action-comedy. Chan plays Eddie Yang, a Hong Kong cop who is working with Interpol officer Arthur Watson (Lee Evans) in order to protect a gifted young child. Aware that the child holds a centuries-old medallion that could give him limitless powers, Snakehead (Julian Sands) and his band of criminals kidnap the child and head for Dublin. It isn’t long before Eddie arrives in Ireland where he is teamed up with beautiful Interpol officer Nicole James (Claire Forlani), who also happens to be a former flame. Together Eddie, Nicole, and the bumbling Watson manage to track down the child, but after an accident in which Eddie appears to have died, it’s up to the gifted boy to put the trusty medallion to work and resuscitate him. director Gordon Chan uses special effects alongside superstar choreographer Sammo Hung’s action sequences, giving the audience a double dose of adrenaline.
Artist Name(s) : Stephen Chow | Yuen Wah | Lam Chi Chung Release Date : August 31, 2005 Language : Cantonese Subtitle : English IMDB Link : www.imdb.com/title/tt0373074/
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The Pang brothers return with another horror movie Re-Cycle which closed Cannes Film Festival’s “Un Certain Regard” section. This visually impressive piece stars Angelica Lee who first worked with the Pang brothers in The Eye. She plays a popular author who falls into a eerily beautiful world when writing a supernatural thriller. The Pang brothers employ new CG technologies to create abandoned slums which resemble Hong Kong’s long-forgotten demolished walled city, imagined color-drained hills and forests, and a suffocating tunnel with embryos hanging from above. The first half of the film delivers plenty of suspense in the same style as other Pang brothers’ film. However, the second half of Re-Cycle, mostly an RPG-like adventure, innovatively weaves into the exquisite setting a sense of spookiness.
Angelica Lee is Ting-yin, a popular author who is stuck with her writing and keeps discarding her ideas. She starts to sense her apartment being haunted. When she steps out of her building, she arrives in a mysterious world where she comes across characters she has created and abandoned. An old man (Lau Siu Ming) tells her that she must go to “The Transit” to leave this place, and a little girl (Tsang Nga Kei) accompanies her to go through one desolate world to another in this inexplicable space… The film concludes with a surprising twist which one will appreciate if he or she follows the clever plot closely.
The sophisticated narrative structure, which at times mixes fiction and reality, makes the film more interesting than what is expected from a normal horror film. Thematically speaking, the attraction of Re-Cycle lies in the notion of abandonment. Ideas discarded and memories forgotten, no matter by an individual or a community, will return to haunt you.
Artist Name(s) : Angelica Lee | Rain Li | Lau Siu Ming Release Date : August 25, 2006 Language : Mandarin, Cantonese Subtitle : English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese IMDB Link : www.imdb.com/name/nm0490618/
The Love Undercover franchise gets a new leading lady for Love Undercover 3! With Fong Lai-Keun (Miriam Yeung) off in Europe watching the World Cup, her commanding officer Chung Sir (Hui Siu Hung) needs a new pet project to occupy his time. Enter Fan Shi-Wao (Fiona Sit), an ultra-perky delivery girl who saves Chung and his team from an auto accident. As a reward, Chung shepherds Fan through cadet school, and allows her to join his largely useless cop team. But Interpol efficiency expert Suzuki (Japanese heartthrob Suzuki Takuya) has a special assignment for Fan: to go undercover on her own team to report on Chung’s time-wasting ways! Will Fan sell out her own colleagues for a chance at love with Suzuki?
Director Joe Ma (Feel 100%, the first two Love Undercover films) brings his trademark style of comedy to this summer 2006 comedy hit. The film features the debut comic performance of Fiona Sit, who turned heads with her dramatic performance in Derek Yee’s 2005 drama 2 Young. Sit is supported by returning cast members Hui Siu Hung, Raymond Wong Ho Yin, and Commercial Radio DJ Sammy, who even dresses up like a Japanese geisha for one sequence. Numerous silly gags and wacky jokes populate Love Undercover 3, and Sit and her co-stars gamely navigate the off-the-wall chaos. Even without Miriam Yeung, Love Undercover 3 is surefire, laugh-out-loud law enforcement fun!
Artist Name(s) : Takuya Suzuki | Fiona Sit | Hui Shiu Hung Release Date : August 21, 2006 Language : Mandarin, Cantonese Subtitle : Simplified Chinese, English, Traditional Chinese IMDB Link : www.imdb.com/name/nm0159483/
From haunting all the way down to marginally amusing. The Eye films, products of those wunderkind Pang Brothers, have consistently gone downhill since 2002’s stellar The Eye, leading up to this year’s frightfully silly The Eye 10. So what’s the problem? Are the Pang Brothers only one-trick wonders? Or has the idea of seeing dead people simply run its course? The answer probably skews towards the latter, as the Pang Brothers do show enough style and verve to warrant even more money thrown at them (though maybe not in the comedy genre). Also, The Eye 10 has its merits style-wise, and the filmmakers should get some credit for trying to shake up their formula. However, if the forumla for Eye 10 is repeated ad nauseum, then Eye 11, Eye 15, or Eye 69 don’t sound very appealing.
The previous Eye films had solo female leads; not this time. The Pang Brothers (who also co-wrote Eye 10 with Mark Wu) go the youth route and enlist a passel of young actors for a supposedly creepy journey to Thailand. Wilson Chen (Blue Gate Crossing, Twins Effect II) leads the pack as Ted, a typical Hong Kong slacker vacationing with cousin May (Kate Yeung of 20 : 30: 40), pal Gofei (Kris Gu), and Gofei’s girlfriend April (EEG starlet Isabella Leong). The group is visiting the homeland of Thai buddy Chongkwai (Ray MacDonald), which means fun in the sun and plenty of teen hijinks. On a dark night, the quintet begin telling ghost stories, and Chongkwai offers up his special invitation: to make their own ghost stories. Duh, they agree, and the problems begin.
But not right away. Chongkwai introduces his “seeing ghosts” offer as a game, inspired by a mysterious book that he bought from a shady bookseller. The book details the “10 Encounters,” i.e. the ten methods enabling humans to see ghosts. The first two are “The Case of the Cornea Transplant” and the “Case of Attempting Suicide While Pregnant” - obvious references to Eye 1 and Eye 2, complete with stock footage of Angelica Lee and Shu Qi from those films. Those two methods are not attempted by the kids, but the rest - a Ouija board, playing “Hide N’ Seek” with a black cat, offering a midnight meal on the streets - are fair game, as the kids try their hardest to see ghosts and presumably scare the bejesus out of themselves.
The plan works; they see ghosts and freak themselves out, though their fright isn’t translated to the audience. The ability to see ghosts seems to be completely non-threatening, which actually echoes the previous Eye movies, where the spirits were bad mojo, but nothing more. Despite their freaky, pale appearance and accompanying pulse-pounding soundtrack, the ghosts never really hurt anyone. That knowledge wasn’t necessarily given in the beginning of those films, so tension and some fright was still possible, but in Eye 10 seeing ghosts seems like just a way to pass the time with your buddies. This doesn’t stay true for the whole film, but even then the scares barely register.
Here’s one reason why: these kids are largely uninteresting. Wilson Chen and Kate Yeung are both promising young actors, but their characters are one-dimensional and don’t engender much sympathy. The most difficult part is probably given to Isabella Leong, who brings lightweight photogenic appeal to the increasingly distraught April. She gets all freaked when bad stuff starts to happen, but still not much tension is added. Again, the characters being uninteresting is one reason, but another is the proliferation of throwaway gags and jokes that get in the way of a consistent frightening tone. Humor in horror pictures is actually welcome because it can provide some relief from the omnipresent doom and gloom. However, the jokes in Eye 10 either stretch on for way too long, or are lowbrow sophomoric stuff that would be better served in a Wong Jing movie. When the characters start farting as a way to ward off ghosts, it pretty much seals the deal; Eye 10 is a sometimes effective, but unfortunately silly motion picture.
The good stuff: production values, the overwrought and sometimes bombastic soundtrack, and even some well-directed moments. The scenes in Hong Kong where Ted and May begin to spy ghosts are vintage Pang Brothers, and echo some of the creepier moments from the original Eye. However, despite the effective direction, the scenes are completely undermined by the ultimate silliness of everything, and even the “10 Encounters” can get comical. One of the prescribed ghost-seeing methods is to bend over and look between your legs. Even in a serious horror picture, that method is probably a little too silly, but in the wacky, unaffecting world of Eye 10, it’s just more silly stuff on an already egregious silly heap. Eye 11, 12, 14, or 2046 may be better, but let’s hope they shake all the silly stuff out. (Kozo 2005).
Year: 2005 Director: Danny Pang Fat, Oxide Pang Chun Producer: Peter Chan Ho-Sun, Lawrence Cheng Tan-Shui, Jojo Hui, Eric Tsang Chi-Wai Writer: Danny Pang Fat, Oxide Pang Chun, Mark Wu Cast: Wilson Chen Bo-Lin, Isabella Leong, Kate Yeung Kei, Kris Gu, Ray MacDonald, Bongkoth Kongmalai
If there is one Hong Kong movie people are looking to this year, it’s probably this one: Dragon Tiger Gate. Based on the long-running comic book from creator Tony Wong Luk-Wong, Dragon Tiger Gate has elements that propel it beyond your average local production into something designed to induce Pavlovian responses from action-starved international audiences. Dragon Tiger Gate has it all: copious martial arts, hot young idols, righteous posturing, noble comic book concepts, and above all, Donnie Yen. At its best, Dragon Tiger Gate is an energetic action fix, and Yen is the man who makes it happen. But at its worst, Dragon Tiger Gate is uninteresting and embarrassing — and Yen gets plenty of blame. He’s not the only one at fault, but given his omnipresent status as co-producer, action director and star, Yen is the one who gets called out first. Expectations after SPL are sky high, and anything less would disappoint. But that’s just what Dragon Tiger Gate does.
Donnie Yen is Dragon, a twentysomething (!) year-old martial arts stud who used to belong to Dragon Tiger Gate, the most righteous of the local martial arts organizations. Dragon left the Gate years ago with his mother (Sherin Teng in a cameo), leaving behind younger brother Tiger (Nicholas Tse). Years later, the two brothers cross paths at a floating restaurant, where Tiger senses an opportunity to utilize his high-kicking martial arts skills to defend a hapless family from some bullying thugs. Tiger proceeds to whip major ass, annoying the goons of crimelord Ma Kwun (Shaw Brothers legend Chen Kuan-Tai). But Dragon shows up, fists flying and locks of hair blowing in the manufactured wind. The two tussle briefly before Ma Kwun lets Tiger go. The lesson: even crimelords don’t want brothers to fight.
However, the two soon cross paths again. Tiger’s friends pick up the “Lousha Plaque” from the scene of the brawl, and Ma Kwun wants it back. The Plaque is a heavy gold badge representing face, or some sort of Jiang Hu concept better understood by people versed in Dragon Tiger Gate’s comic book lore. Dragon comes after Tiger and his friends in a Japanese restaurant brawl (that’s two restaurant fights in less than 20 minutes), but proceeds to take out his own men when some of Ma Kwun’s more dastardly minions show up bearing swords. The fight attracts the attention of Turbo Shek (Shawn Yu wearing a silver fright wig), who uses nunchakus and enters the fray because he doesn’t like it when people disturb his dinner. Cue plenty of injured people and nifty slow-motion martial arts excess, punctuated by close-up glamour shots of Donnie Yen’s mug as the wind rustles his silky head of hair. Much of the wind is presumably caused by the resulting air displacement of Dragon’s punches, but we all know how it’s being caused: some guy with a nozzle blowing air into Donnie Yen’s face. Ladies and gentlemen: movie magic.
But hey, it all entertains — even with an abnormally high level of photogenic fakery. Unlike the gritty bodyslams of SPL, Dragon Tiger Gate goes for a mixture of choreographed roughhousing and obviously prettified bedlam. The artifice of Dragon Tiger Gate can plainly be seen in every aspect of its production, from casting (Donnie Yen as a man in his twenties?), to the CG-enhanced cityscapes, to the incredibly pretty way the martial arts are presented. Action director Yen gets the most out of the film’s non martial artists (Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yu), and director Wilson Yip stages many of the sequences with effective, if not too showy camerawork. But Yip’s camera is upstaged heavily by Yen’s action, which uses lots of movement to little more effect than pretty posing. Dragon spends a lot of time flailing his arms and barely connecting, the effect being that everything looks more cool than it probably really is. The fighting is a step below SPL’s bone-crunching action as it lacks a consistent sense of power, but this is a comic book adaptation, so pretty panels are practically a necessity. And at least the power-to-posing ratio is greater than in The Storm Riders.
Wilson Yip’s best works have had a keen wit and understanding of character beneath their genre trappings, but that quality is lost in Dragon Tiger Gate. For one thing, the characters are more types than anything else, and those who possess anything resembling wit are quickly shoved into the background. Shawn Yu’s Turbo Shek should have been a more fun character; he’s a wandering martial artist who wants to impress Dragon Tiger Gate master Wong Jianglong, played by Yuen Wah in the film’s only other fun performance. The two have a couple of fun scenes where they spar, and Turbo resolves to train harder, but their story disappears in favor of Dragon and Tiger’s estrangement, plus a tragic love story between Dragon and a Lousha Gate member named, uh, Lousha (Li Xiao-Ran). Their romance gets mucho screentime, but it’s more interminable than involving. The other romance, between Ma Xiaoling and Tiger, is only marginally more interesting because the actors playing them seem to be slightly more compatible. Tse and Dong make a photogenic pair, but their cutesy interludes are upstaged by product placements for Nokia mobile phones. Both Tiger and Xiaoling own Nokias, as does Turbo Shek and probably everyone else in the world of Dragon Tiger Gate. Yay, commercialism!
Knocking a movie for its obvious product placement is probably a tad petty, but this is a symptom of what’s wrong with Dragon Tiger Gate. Nitpicking on the film is easy because as a whole, it doesn’t truly involve or affect like any good movie should. The film has solid production design, effective comic book themes, and even some scenes of genuine emotion (Wong Jianglong’s showdown with Shibumi packs an effective emotional punch). But in the end, the defining memory of Dragon Tiger Gate is not how exciting the action sequences were, or how interesting the story was. No, the defining impression left by Dragon Tiger Gate is how blazingly cool Donnie Yen is supposed to look, and how hard the filmmakers try to get the audience to buy in. Aside from his extreme poses, flowing hairdo, and flashy martial arts, Yen also gets to brood like a badass, cry like a smoldering romantic hero, and hug his brother with uncomfortably exaggerated passion. Even the film’s final showdown is all geared towards Yen. Dragon shows up to take down Shibumi without the help of either Turbo or Tiger, and his exaggerated preening hits cinema overdrive during the finale. Perhaps a better title for the film should have been just Dragon, or maybe the Greatest Looking Martial Artist Ever and his Brother.
Gripes aside, Dragon Tiger Gate does have your action fix, and non-fans of the comic could write off the film’s canned story and emotions as some sort of slavish referencing of the original comic. Still, as an actual 95-minute film, Dragon Tiger Gate only entertains part of the time — and a bunch of that time can easily be called entertainment of the unintentional variety. That last gripe once again falls upon Donnie Yen, who has had his brushes with onscreen hubris before (Ballistic Kiss, anyone?). The man likes to look good, and even in SPL’s gritty trappings, Yen struts across the screen like the Hong Kong Cinema version of U2’s Bono. But to be fair, Yen is probably the only action star left in Hong Kong who understands that people out there actually like movies with plenty of kicks, punches, and moments of bonecrunching impact. We should just be glad that he’s still trying to give us what other filmmakers won’t anymore — and if he wants to look good (or try to look good) while doing it, that’s his prerogative, right? Dragon Tiger Gate is a mixed bag, but “mixed bag” means that there’s some good stuff in there. Pick that stuff out, and leave the rest. That’s what I did. (Kozo 2006)
Year: 2006 Director: Wilson Yip Wai-Shun Producer: Nansun Shi, Raymond Wong Bak-Ming, Donnie Yen Ji-Dan, Yu Dong Action: Donnie Yen Ji-Dan Cast: Donnie Yen Ji-Dan, Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung, Shawn Yu Man-Lok, Dong Jie, Li Xiao-Ran, Yuen Wah, Chen Kuan-Tai, Sherin Teng Shui-Man, Tommy Yuen Man-On, Sam Chan Yu-Sum, Tony Wong Luk-Wong, Louis Koo Tin-Lok (voice only), Ella Koon Yun-Na (voice only), Isabella Leong (voice only)
It’s full of references to other films and filmmakers, revering spaghetti westerns and ’70s Shaw brothers movies a la Tarantino’s KILL BILL (fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping worked on both films). It also pays sly homage to the works of Wong Kar Wai, D.W. Griffith, Sam Raimi, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick, and Akira Kurosawa. Raymond Wong’s inspired score matches each cinematic reference with the appropriate cue as the camera circles and swoops around the sprawling sets. This is a real treat, more than a great action film or comedy, it’s a great film period, and one that set box office records in the East. THE MEDALLION: Jackie Chan is back in action with THE MEDALLION, yet another fast-paced martial arts action-comedy. Chan plays Eddie Yang, a Hong Kong cop who is working with Interpol officer Arthur Watson (Lee Evans) in order to protect a gifted young child. Aware that the child holds a centuries-old medallion that could give him limitless powers, Snakehead (Julian Sands) and his band of criminals kidnap the child and head for Dublin. It isn’t long before Eddie arrives in Ireland where he is teamed up with beautiful Interpol officer Nicole James (Claire Forlani), who also happens to be a former flame. Together Eddie, Nicole, and the bumbling Watson manage to track down the child, but after an accident in which Eddie appears to have died, it’s up to the gifted boy to put the trusty medallion to work and resuscitate him. director Gordon Chan uses special effects alongside superstar choreographer Sammo Hung’s action sequences, giving the audience a double dose of adrenaline.
