easternkicks.com » Hong Kong classics

The Storm Riders

Andrew Heskins — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:00:29 +0000

With the long-awaited sequel The Storm Warriors out next Monday, we look back at the original adaptation of Ma Wing-Shing’s comic book Fung Wan, directed by Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs)…

In ancient China, the appropriately named evil Lord Conqueror (played by Sonny Chiba, The Streetfighter, Legend Of Eight Samurai, Kill Bill, on particularly fine raucous, bellowing form) learns from a Buddhist prophet that his future as ruler lies in two children, Wind and Cloud, and sends his legions out, King Herod style, to find and bring them under his wing and kill anyone who gets in his way.

But the final part of the prophecy must wait 10 years, as Wind (Ekin Cheng, Tokyo Raiders, Heroic Duo, Forest Of Death) and Cloud (Aaron Kwok, Murderer, Divergence, Saviour Of The Soul) grow up to be the most powerful weapons in Conqueror’s arsenal.

Wind is kindhearted, oblivious to the truth that his father Whispering Prince (Alex Fong, One Nite In Mongkok, Portland Street Blues) was killed during a dual with Conqueror. Cloud, on the other hand, is fully aware of the part Conqueror played in his father Striding Sky’s (Rongguang Yu, Mulan, New Police Story, Musa: The Warrior) death, and has become bitter, a cold and ruthless servant.

When the second part of the prophecy us revealed, that Wind and Cloud will not only make him, but also be his undoing, Conqueror sets about setting them against each other. This only results in backfiring on him, with his daughter Charity (Kristy Yang, A Man Called Hero, The Duel) murdered by his own hands.

Soon both Wind and Cloud have reasons to revenge themselves on Lord Conqueror, but can they work together to do it?

When The Storm Riders debuted at cinemas in 1998 it marked a turning point in Hong Kong filmmaking, the introduction of a high percentage of CGI effects that were (at that point) state-of-the-art. Even now the effects stand up pretty well. And that was kind of the point, co-produced by Hong Kong based Centro Digital Pictures, the film can be seen as much as a calling card for their work as it can a blockbuster, and really proved that HK could match Hollywood special effects.

Still riding the success of the Young And Dangerous series, which turned Ekin Cheng into a star and is attributed with glamorising triad life to teenagers of the time, this one-time Wong Kar-Wai cinematographer invigorated the wuxia genre, which had waned in popularity since the early 90s, setting the scene for Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon a few years later.

Taken from the successful long-running manhua, or comic book series Fung Wan by Ma Wing-Shing, it’s interesting to look back on The Storm Riders and see how reverent it is to what came before. In the same way that Wing-Shing referenced the martial art novels of the 50s and 60s, Lau looked to the big screen adaptions, such as those by the Shaw Brothers studio.

In particular it’s the series of Gu Long adaptations by director Chor Yuen such as The Magic Blade and Death Duel that come to mind, as Each character is announced with text on screen. The later Buddha’s Palm seems quite an influence too, with that films attempt to imbue martial art powers with post Star Wars effects. Lau doesn’t stop there, there’s the casting Chiba with his long history in Asian film; the childhood scenes and stylised vision recall Ronny Yu’s The Bride With White Hair; and the dual between Conqueror and Whispering Prince in a bamboo forest pays homage to that in King Hu’s Touch Of Zen, much as Lee would do a couple of years later in Crouching Tiger.

Yet unlike Lee, Lau brought a more modern sensitivity with him. He pulled on those modern references from Young And Dangerous, with slo-mo action scenes with more in common with pop promos, and fights set to dance music (rather than more classical Chinese influence music), much as The Matrix would do a year later. This was wuxia re-interpreted for the post-MTV generation, echoing Tsui Hark’s early, anarchic take on the genre in The Butterfly Murders, and was probably the biggest step on since Hark’s own Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain and Ching Siu-tung’s A Chinese Ghost Story.

With an all- star cast, including Shu Qi, Michael Tse and Anthony Wong, The Storm Riders is still a highly enjoyable film, reaching the right balance of narrative and action (unlike it’s successor!).

Unsurprisingly, it was immensely popular. Inspiring another Ma Wing-Shing adoption, A Man Called Hero and the similarly themed The Duel, both also starring Ekin Cheng, and setting the scene for Hark to revisit his earliest triumph in the disappointing CGI led Legend Of Zu. Lau then tried an (unofficial) attempt at bringing computer game Tekken Fist to the screen in The Avenging Fist and rebooting the Wisley character (Legend Of Wisley, The Seventh Curse) in Wesley’s Mysterious File, before moving on to the Infernal Affairs series that finally made his name internationally.

The Storm Warriors is released Monday 12 July on Blu-ray and DVD by Cine Asia.

Breaking News

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:00:03 +0000

A great thriller by Johnnie To and wry look at how 21st century news is broadcast all rolled into one – Hong Kong filmmaking at it’s best…

When a police operation to catch a ruthless gang of bank robbers goes wrong, live cameras broadcast footage of a police crying and begging for his life on Hong Kong television.

Deciding to turn the gangs capture into a public relations exercise, police Commissioner Rebecca Fong (Kelly Chen, An Empress and the Warriors, Infernal Affairs, Tokyo Riders), engages the press to watch Hong Kong’s finest successfully and efficiently bring down the gang, now hiding in an apartment block with father Yip (Lam Suet, Exiled, Election, Mad Detective) and his two children hostage.

Things don’t go to plan, though, as the apartment block also contains two assassins, soon holed up in the same flat, and the tenacious detective in charge of the original operation, Inspector Cheung (Nick Cheung, Exiled, The Beast Stalker), who refuses to give up even when ordered.

Soon the gangs’ leader Yuen (Richie Ren, Accident, Sniper) gets the better of Rebecca’s plan and starts turning the tables on the police’s version of events. In this game of wits, can the police win the publics confidence, let alone capture the criminals?

Undoubtedly one of Johnnie To’s finest works, shamefully it was the Russian language remake Newsmakers that brought me to it – a film that stands alongside Infernal Affairs as one of the best Hong Kong movies of the last decade. As fine as remake was, it really doesn’t compare to the original.

Utterly enthralling from the start, it’s in the sort of film that can totally engross you in moments, the kind that can make you forget where you are watching it in chucks on a tiny screen. (Trust me, I’ve tried!)

The infamous opening tracking shot beautifully sets the pace. Mellow music plays while To follows the action spiralling from a peaceful if lively street with cops staking our their intended arrests, to an all out gunfight and even a bazooka explosion.

All the time the camera weaves in an out of buildings, up and down the street, from above and below, in the sort of perfectly choreographed way that would make Brian DePalma jealous. He forces us, the audience, to be constantly one step behind, eternally a spectator.

(It also brilliant sets a core theme of one level of cops inadvertently stepping into larger operations, the beat cops step into Cheung’s operation as he does exactly the same later.)

A wonderfully wry observation of our modern consumption of news media, flippantly played out like a reality TV show, it’s hard not to draw parallels over the authorities inability to control the media with China’s own habit of wanting to control the Internet (an observation that can’t have been lost on its original Hong Kong audience).

With superb performances by the cast, including Johnnie To favourites Nicky, Suet and Richie, Breaking News is a superb thriller, even if you don’t like thrillers!

A genuine Hong Kong classic!

Accident

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:00:01 +0000

It’s no accident this has been causing such a stir! Intelligent with a fantastic premise, surely this one of the finest Hong Kong films of the last decade…

Ho Kwok-fai aka The Brain (Louis Koo, Election, Flash Point, Protégé) is a genius assassin who, together with his small inconspicuous team, can make any hit look like an fluke accident. His team are so proficient that they’ve gone completely unnoticed for years, but that doesn’t stop their troubled leader being somewhat paranoid about getting discovered.

When a hit goes disastrously wrong and a member of the team is killed, Brain becomes obsessed that it was no accident, and someone is targeting him. He believes that insurance inspector Chan Fong-chow Richie Ren, Seoul Raiders, Exiled, Breaking News) is orchestrating it all. But in a world where there’s no such thing as coincidence, can accidents really happen?

Honed from the finest pedigree in Hong Kong film Accident has arrived to incredible acclaim at every festival it’s played at, including nominations for Best film at the Sitges – Catalonian International Film Festival and Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The credits could hardly read better: production by Johnnie To; written by Szeto Kam-Yuen (whose credits include easternKicks fave The Longest Nite, S.P.L.: Kill Zone, Exiled, Flash Point) and Tang Lik-Kei (Flash Point); and directed by Soi Cheang (Dog Bite Dog).

And does it live up to that? Ooooooooh yes! Cheang’s direction is tight, letting his characters develop on screen, but keeping the running time to an unusually concise (by today’s standards) 90 minutes. There’s a terrific build of tension as Ho Kwok-fai falls deeper into his paranoia, reminiscent of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation.

Beautifully acted by an ensemble cast including Fung Shui-Fan (My Lucky Stars, Mr. Vampire II, Winners and Sinners), Michelle Ye (Sniper), Alexander Chan (Infernal Affairs 2, One Nite In Mongkok) and Lam Suet (Yep, again!), this is flawless.

Surely the only criticism is that, like many classic HK films (particularly those with such a great premise), the film leaves you wanting more. But heck, that’s one of the reasons it’s so good!

Probably the best Hong Kong film since Infernal Affairs, and yes, a remake has already been mooted. Let’s hope the original gets the proper release it deserves in the US and UK long before any American imposter. (Please!)

Damn fine! My advice: find this, watch this… by any means necessary!

S.P.L.: Kill Zone

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:00:50 +0000

Finally released in the UK – thanks to a tie-up between Cine Asia and Weinstein’s US-based Dragon Dynasty label – one of the best martial arts films of the last decade…!

When Inspector Wa Kwun (Donnie Yen) joins an established crime unit, soon to replace retiring Detective Chan Kwok Chung (Simon Yam, Election, Exiled, Full Contact), he finds a team that have spent too long crossing the line between right and wrong. Chung has become obsessed on bringing down ruthless crime lord and keen golfer Wong Po (Sammo Hung, Fatal Move, The Prodigal Son) at any cost since Po organised an assassination of a witness and his family, leaving only his daughter alive and in Chung’s care.

Ma finds himself at odds with both the criminals he’s sworn to apprehend and the unit he’s meant to be leading when the team augment a piece of evidence to pin a murder on Po. But when Po hires a deadly assassin Jack (Jacky Wu, Fatal Contact, Invisible Target), Ma’s ethics must take second place to keeping both himself and his colleagues alive.

It’s no surprise S.P.L.: Kill Zone made one hell of an impact on it’s original release and that’s namely down to the extended showdown between Yen and Wu, then Hung. Tightly choreographed by Donnie Yen, there’s a ferocity rarely seen before in Hong Kong action and martial art films – it helped bring a new realism away from the incredible wire-fu for which it’s become best known.

There’s no dispute that the pairing of Hung and Yen was one that long overdue for martial arts fans (and so nearly happened several times before), but the preceding dual with Wu also helped put back this star back on the map – having been originally heralded back in 1996 for films like Tai Chi Boxer. And it all leads to a shocking and unforgettable ending.

The film itself is notably lacking in martial arts for much of it’s running time. Director and writer Wilson Yip expends a lot of time building up the characters of Chung and his team, ably played by Liu Kai Chi (The Detective, The Beast Stalker), Danny Summer and Ken Chang (Tsui Hark’s Vampire Hunters), showing them for all faults and merits.

The theme of police detectives crossing the line to get results is by no means new, but here Yip is more judgemental than his peers and predecessors have been. Yip leaves you in no doubt that they have stepped too far over the line, there can be no redemption. Occasionally it’s a little heavy-handed, but overall superbly shot and tightly paced. The setting of the film in the 90s even allows for some playful shots of old technology like video and dv tapes – ah, remember the good old days?

It’s obvious from some of the commentary on the DVD that Yen pushed Yip to include more fight scenes, revealing that he arranged additional funding for reshoots. It’s hard to imagine the film having the same impact without them.

This was, of course, the first collaboration between Yip and Yen. Since then we’ve had Dragon Tiger Gate, Flash Point and the exceedingly likable biopic Ip Man, and what better time to revisit this film with Ip Man 2 soon to be released and that much awaited rematch between Hung and Yip.

Bring it on!

S.P.L.: Kill Zone is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 8 March by Cine Asia.

Ashes Of Time Redux

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:00:20 +0000

Wong Kar-wai returns to his 1994 classic to produce a definite version – but is it really any better…?

When Wong Kar-wai first announced he was returning to his classic wu xia pian genre movie it was always going to ruffle a few feathers.

The director’s notorious reputation for never being truly happy with his work – think about the stalls and re-editing his most recent films like 2046 and My Blueberry Nights have received, even after being released to festivals (if they hadn’t been pulled first) – seemed to have reached Ridley Scott proportions. (I mean what, yet another cut of Blade Runner?)

And here was a film beloved of fans, a rare step into a genre you’d rarely associate Kar-wai with. But is the Redux an improvement, or sacrilege, as some will maintain?

Back in 1994, the Ashes Of Time seemed a strange project for Wong Kar-wai. The first project for the production company he set up with fellow Hong Kong director Jeff Lau, Jet Tone, the thought of Kar-wai tackling a martial arts movie – at the very height of the wu xia genre’s popularity – may have been deemed inappropriate for a director already gaining recognition for his artistic merit. That the project should be an attempt to bring Louis Cha’s infamous Eagle Shooting Heroes novels (translated as Condor Heroes in the West) – a Chinese epic on a par with J. R. R. Tolkien’s Ring trilogy, and incidentally published around the same time – appeared ambitious in the extreme.

And yet it became a marriage made in heaven for Kar-wai and wu xia fans alike.

Rather than attempt to bring the complex novel to the screen, Kar-wai instead decided to take characters and elements suggested by it. Unsurprisingly for him, the film becomes much more a reflection on lost love and feelings left unspoken than it is on martial arts or so-called wire fu. He layers narrative with a typical disregard for the linear, interweaving his characters as they become as disconnected emotionally from life and loved ones as they are physically in the desert where our lead character presides.

And at the centre of it all is vagabond Ouyang Feng, superbly played by the late Leslie Cheung as the unsympathetic agent for a dangerous league of assassins and swordsmen. Long wounded by a love he neglected and lost, he’s become cold and cynical. Yet as seasons come and go, and friends and enemies with them, he begins to reflect on the origins of his self-imposed solitude.

Mixing the maturity and restraint of King Hu (Touch Of Zen) and some of the more esoteric cutaway style of Wang Hsing-Lei (Escorts Over Tiger Hills) the film takes on even more of a dreamlike quality for Kar-wai’s work, being so much further away from any contemporary reference.

With an all-star cast, the film oozes with class. Each performer excelling in their roles and, crucially, conveying the complex backstories without Kar-wai having to show them. From Tony Leung Ka-fai as Huang Yaoshi, the swordsman trying to forget his past; to Brigitte Lin as Muyong Yin/Yang, brilliantly playing up to her androgynous appearance as Asia The Invincible in Swordsman II and The East Is Red; from Tony Leung Chiu-wai as the swordsman slowly going blind; to Jacky Cheung as the shoeless beggar swordsman Hong Qigong; and then there’s Carina Lau, Charlie Yeung and the celestial beauty that is Maggie Cheung.

Let’s be clear about this, without such stunning performances Kar-wai would never have gotten away with showing us so little and implying so much. (And I’m sure he’d be the first to admit that.)

Despite the involvement of Sammo Hung as action choreographer, even the action sequences seem muted. (More so in the Redux, but we’ll come back to that.) Those expecting the clever to-and-fro of a Ching Siu-tung or Yuen Woo-ping sequence, so typical of the wire fu or the time, may be sorely disappointed. Fancy footwork is definitely the order of the day, as Kar-wai’s focus forces the action to be filmed in an unconventional way. And with plenty of slow motion. We’re not talking John Woo slo-mo here, or even his mentor Zhang Che’s, highlighting poignant moments of fast action. No, nearly all of it is in slow motion, turning the action into poetical, and often confusing, movements. Indeed, one of the more impactful moments, when Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s swordsman finally goes blind and meets his end, is a thinly disguised Lone Wolf And Cub reference from the manga and first live-action film.

Much more a precursor to Hero than the less subjective Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: in fact Kar-wai’s favourite cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who worked on both Ashes and Hero, claims the later could never existed without the former. And not just because of the gruelling location shoots in China, then very unheard of in Hong Kong filmmaking, now a basis for most productions (though mainly due to the financial benefit of Chinese co-productions).

It’s also an important turning point in how such genre movies were considered, suddenly filmmakers remembered that a wu xia movie could also be an art film, for the first time since King Hu’s Touch Of Zen. (An over-exaggeration, admittedly, but even great movies like The Bride With White Hair still focused on the spectacle of cinema.) The genre may have died out within a year or so, till Crouching Tiger revived it, but if you really want to know where wu xia got so serious, this is the defining moment. Which is easy to say with hindsight, but at the time the overrunning shooting schedule in China, which dragged on for over a year, caused the film to be a commercial flop.

It’s easy to see its influence well beyond the obvious work of Doyle on Hero. Look at the grit on Tsui Hark’s Blade or Ringo Lam’s Burning Paradise, both filmed within a year. More recently look no further than Peter Chan’s The Warlords, Kim Sung-su’s Musa or John Woo’s Red Cliff – all direct descendents of Ashes Of Time.

Kar-wai seems to have held a passion for the martial arts novels he must have grown up with. Just a few years earlier he had co-written the script for Saviour Of The Soul with Jeff Lau. Itself an adaptation of Cha’s second novel in his Eagle series (the original Cantonese title literally translates as ’91 God-Eagle-Hero-Couple) it’s arguably an even looser revision of Cha’s work than even Ashes. Updating the action to the (then) present day, it seems a little incongruous with Kar-wai’s catalogue. The tone often clashes between slapstick and serious, violent action, but the end result is an iconic Hong Kong film, undeniable fun and surprisingly beautiful (The cinematography was by Peter Pau – who would go on to win an Oscar for his work on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and also worked on Ashes ‘sister’ movie The Eagle Shooting Heroes

" target="_self">The Eagle Shooting Heroes.) Now it just feels like a rare chance for him to let his hair down.

And the theme would recur in his films, like when the lead character from In The Mood For Love Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) is encouraged to follow his dream and write martial arts novels by the spouse of his neighbour So Lai-zhen (Maggie Cheung). So it’s obviously a film close to his heart, and it was his mission to create a ‘definite’ version of the film, away from the poor DVD versions available, that brought on this revisit.

That, and perhaps penance for foisting 2046 and particularly My Blueberry Nights on his audience (mate, you should have cast Cat Power in the lead!).

So what about the Redux? How does it compare. Well for starters the title is a bit misleading. It brings to mind the Apocalypse Now Redux, where Coppola added an interesting but entirely unnecessary half hour. Instead, as you’ll probably already be aware, it’s shorter – Kar-wai has cut some five or six minutes from the running time.

According to Wong Kar-wai, it was less a case of cutting or ‘leaving out’ certain scenes than he could just not unearth a version in good enough condition to be used. That said, I believe that some of the omissions are less arbitrary. Most notable is the sequence right just after the opening face-off between Ouyang Feng and Huang Yaoshi, showing a future Ouyang fighting against the Beggar Clan, then Huang wiping out the bandits, all completely gone. It accounts for quite a chunk of time. Originally it had seemed too long, almost like an offering to those expecting an action-packed wu xia movie – which didn’t fool anyone at the time judging by the poor box office returns. Without it, though, we lose the poignancy of Ouyang’s clash with the Beggar Clan, revealed later. (Mind you, you’d probably have had to see the film a few times to get that, but that was part of the appeal.) We also lose the concluding montage, hinting at what happens to the main characters in the future. And that brings us back to the muting of the action, the focus on the film draws even more onto the drama and love stories within it.

Generally the cut has better pace. Sure, there are scenes left out. Like after the Blind Swordsman’s death we originally cut back to Huang to find him return to the inn where they used to meet – hoping he’d forgive him without realising (or perhaps wanting to realise) that he was dead. But often these scenes don’t quite fit with the flow of the film. That isn’t helped by the fact that distributors in South East Asia all released there own cuts, extending, adding or dropping as they saw fit. So chances are what we saw probably wasn’t what Kar-wai intended anyway. (Even if he wasn’t something of a fusspot!)

Added to the film are title cards to the seasons. Now I don’t agree with Kar-wai that the references to the Chinese almanac were lost on Western audiences, but their use again disciplines the cut somewhat, evening out the pace for each term over the film.

Much has been made of the digital manipulation throughout the film. I for one am not convinced that the deep saturation wasn’t what Chris Doyle had actually intended, so much of his work is about colour, and the version I’d previously seen are so washed out and grainy it’s impossible to tell. The digital meddling with the opening scene, however, seems to equal that of George Lucas in the ‘unnecessary’ category: new cutaways are made to an eclipse, later referenced; with lens glare effects added to the original footage.

I’m not, by the way, going to list all the differences here. There are new opening and closing titles, and a new score, mixing the original with replayed and expanded orchestral versions and performances by Yo-Yo Ma (again making reference to the new school of wu xia movies). There’s less obvious stuff too, but here we come to the tricky part, is it better, or just an excuse for Kar-wai to mess about with the film again?

Well, with no decent version of the film previously out there, this has to be a good thing. Sure, there are scenes I’d have to have been included, but this is an improvement, the pacing is far better. (Okay, so that might rub so ardent fans up the wrong way, but it’s true!)

This is still a classic! Perhaps even more so now…

Mad Detective

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:00:24 +0000

An inventively twisted tale from directors Johnnie To and Wong Ka-Fai (Fulltime Killer, Running On Karma, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts). Finally the Hong Kong thriller is back on form – Korea watch out!…

Part of a long-running series of collaborations between directors Johnnie To (Election, Exiled, Heroic Trio) and Wong Ka-Fai (Peace Hotel), Mad Detective is the latest of their inventive takes on genres following such films as Fulltime Killer, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts and Running On Karma. And with one of their favourite stars, Lau Chin Wan (Lost In Time, Victim, The Longest Nite), at the helm, it’s perhaps their most successful partnership yet…

Lau stars as retired Inspector Chan Kwai Bun, a once brilliant detective with an exceptional track record for solving case, but his increasingly peculiar methods and behaviour saw him leave the force soon after offering a superior officer (Eddy Ko in a welcome cameo) his ear, Vincent Van Gogh style.

Years later Inspector Ho Ka On (Andy On, Invisible Target, Election 2, Fatal Contact), who served with Bun shortly before the incident, tracks him down to ask for his help on a case. Police detective Wong has been missing for 18 months since he and his partner Ko Chi-Wai (Lam Ka-Tung, Election, Exiled, Infernal Affairs) confronted a suspect. Since then Wong’s gun has been used in several armed robberies.

Since leaving the force Bun’s methods have become no less bizarre, indeed he now believes he can see peoples ‘inner personalities’, or hidden ghosts, that reflect their real traits and motives. He also speaks to his ex-wife, a construct of his own imagination, as his own wife left him months before. Suspecting Chi-Wai from the start, he sees seven different personalities surrounding Chi-Wai, from the gluttonous ‘Fatso’ (Lam Suet) to the cunning brain (Jay Lau).

Ho becomes gradually more concerned about Bun’s sanity, fearing him completely deluded he begins to doubt all his theories and ignore his warnings. But just because Bun is insane doesn’t mean he not right…

It’s by no means the first time we’ve been presented by an unhinged detective with an uncanny knack to solving cases – from Sherlock Holmes through Zero Effect’s rock and roll wannabe to TV’s agoraphobic Monk, ticks and quirks have been exploited to create characters whose very detachment from humanity makes them its most perceptive judges. Only rarely have their methods been so dangerous, or played with such aplomb!

Certainly it’s another fine performance by Lau Chin Wan, who for too long has long gone seemingly unnoticed by audiences in the West. He presents us with such a fully-formed character as Bun it’s hard not to want to see more of him, pitching his character note perfect to convey the dark humour of the script with his peculiarly under-developed social skills. (And for that reason alone you may well find the conclusion a little unsatisfying!)

Undoubtedly the finest character actor in Hong Kong, and therefore by default a contender for the world, Lau has often cut a less photogenic lead than Tony Leung or Chow Yun-Fat. Yet from the very beginning, even in his smallest or most unlikely roles, he has stood out with exceptional performances – often far more worthy than the films themselves. Think of him as a latter day De Niro – when he was still good!

Don’t look for any major revelations in Wong Ka-Fai and Au Kin-Yee’s script. It’s not about the ‘cleverness’ of last minute twists, but rather a study in characterisation with an almost nihilistic view of humanity and how little it can take to corrupt a seemingly morale person (especially when their career is on the line) – a recurring theme in both Ka-Fai and Johnnie To’s work. It is, however, a delightfully rounded script, full of great lines and imaginative ideas. Together To and Ka-Fai bring it to life with nice, claustrophobic cinematography by Cheng Siu-Keung. And like most of Johnnie To’s movies, the editing is tight with an under 90 minute running time, though again, you may well ultimately wish it was longer.

Noticeably it steers clear of the sentimentality so abundant in Asian cinema and particularly in Hong Kong. Indeed, with it’s Canto-pop-ballad avoiding soundtrack, you almost feel that the directors are definitely targeting a wider international audience, namely the West. Despite that Mad Detective performed very reasonably at the Hong Kong box office, even though it was rated a Category III – that death knell for audience figures much like an 18 in the states – as there was one cut Johnnie To refused to make.

Mad Detective is a superb, inventive thriller that proves that Hong Kong can still call the shots against upstarts like South Korea – even if it doesn’t quite fulfill it’s potential and definitely leaves you wanting more!

(But – without giving too much of the plot away – if Hong Kong cinema has proved nothing else, there is very little that can get in the way of a franchise…!)

Mad Detective opens at the ICA, London on 18 July and is on limited release around the UK, with a DVD release later in the year. Click here for more details on where it will be shown.

Exiled

Andrew Heskins — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:20:09 +0000

Another rather convincing slice of the Hong Kong triad gang world from Election director Johnnie To – with an ensemble cast to die for!…

Set in the beautiful, Portuguese influenced architecture of Macau, just as China was re-imposing it’s rule over the Hong Kong territories, Wo (Nick Cheung, Election, Breaking News) returns to find an old friend, Blaze (Anthony Wong, Infernal Affairs, Beast Cops, The Untold Story), has been given the unenviable task of settling his bosses score. Reuniting their old gang, they are split between those who support their bosses wish, Blaze and Fat (Lam Suet, Election, Kung Fu Hustle, Running Out Of Time), and those prepared to go against his wish, Tai (Francis Ng, Infernal Affairs 2, The Bride With White Hair, 2000AD) and Cat (Roy Cheung, Infernal Affairs 2, Wild Search), they decide to pull one last job together for old times sake.

Buy Online Leaving his wife Jin (Josie Ho, Forever and Ever, So Close) and newborn child behind, Wo resigns himself to the fact he may never see them again. But then, having chosen to go against their boss Fay (Simon Yam, Bullet In The Head, Election), the same is true for all of them – and it’s going to be a long couple of days and nights.

Just as with Election, director Johnnie To’s latest, Exiled, might not necessarily bring anything new to the gangster genre, it’s really more a case of how well he does it. Some scenes – like where Tai and Blaze empty their gun cartridges as Wo loads his, just to have the same amount of bullets, the drawn-out tense confrontation in the resturant, or the blood stained Red Bull ‘sponsored’ finale that will definitely give you wings, where the final shoot out takes place while a can is spinning in the air – are so drenched in the heritage of Heroic Bloodshed films as to be instantly iconic. Indeed, you wonder it’ll take for America to rip them off, if not the whole movie itself.

What makes Exiled stand head and shoulders above the competition, even Election itself, is the incredible ensemble cast To has brought together. Wong, Ng, Suet, Yam, in fact every performance in the film is top notch. Johnnie To deliberately uses their familiarity to help fill out the background of their characters without out necessity to make much reference to it. They even look as they did in their best-known films down to the haircut they sported back in 1998.

Beautifully shot, To plays on the Portuguese architecture of Macau to bring a deliberately Mediterranean flavour to the film, paying homage the Italian American films of directors like Martin Scorsese that have so dominated the gangster genre. (In fact, the characters even jokingly adopt Italian accents and gestures at one point.)

And just as with Election, To tries to get under the skins of his gangsters, and more their families. There’s a pragmatic acceptance to their ‘profession’, but also wish to break free. The implication is that they are all ‘exiled’ from ever living a normal life.

When it comes, the action is well choreographed – though fans may wish the afore-mentioned ‘Red Bull’ scene went on a little longer. They are as frenetic and energized as you might expect in a Hong Kong film. Yet throughout Johnnie To uses a confident, unhurried pace, limiting the time period to two days and nights, not unlike some of previous films, like Macau set The Longest Nite, which he produced, or the more recent films of his peers, like Derek Yee’s One Night In Mongkok.

Perhaps this isn’t the most original take on triads – there’s no devious twists or revelations – but overall, this is a fine, enjoyable movie, and thankfully kept to a digestible length (i.e. less than 2 hours!) I even preferred it to Election!
Exiled is released on DVD in the UK on 22 October by Optimum Releasing.

Death Duel

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:00:10 +0000

Chor Yuan directs Derek Yee in this classic Wuxia tale from Shaw Brothers…

(Warning: contains spoilers!)

Yen Shih-san (Ling Yun, Clans of Intrigue, Killer Clans) yearns to find out whether or not he is the greatest swordsman, when Lady Mu (Chen Ping, The Oily Maniac, Killer Clans), employs him to duel with her families mortal enemy – Third Master. Only there’s one problem, he is already dead – or is he?

Buy OnlineAh Chi (Derek Yee, Buddha’s Palm, The Seventh Curse, Heaven Sword & Dragon Sabre) seems to be a harmless travelling peasant, when his selfless protection of a prostitute, Hsaio Li (Candy Yu, Swordsman II, 2 Young), soon reveals his true identity – he is in fact the Third Master himself, forced into hiding due to the relentless requests from warriors trying to beat him to become the number 1 swordsman in the land.

Ah Chi falls for Hsaio, but soon Mu is once again on his tail, sending countless hired assassins against him. After being tricked into being poisoned Chi goes in search of a cure, finding instead a broken Yen Shih-san, having left behind his swordsman ways to become a recluse. When Yen discovers Chi’s true identity it seems that the time for that inevitable and unavoidable duel has finally come…

Sadly the work of Chor Yuan is often overlooked in favour of fellow Shaw Brother director Zhang Che. In fact, if anything Yuan’s career was longer and perhaps even more prolific. Yuan’s vision is easily far more stylised and less formulaic than Che’s, though Yuan was undoubtedly in turn influenced by his ‘yanggang’, macho style.

Interesting, the plot also echoes some of Che’s finer, earlier work, such as The Assassin and One-Armed Swordsman. The piece considers the fate of the swordsman, unable to escape what they are, however they might try to hide.

The inevitable duel between our two protagonists, despite their mutual respect for each other, an often recurring theme in Chinese literature, reflected not only in obvious ways like Duel To The Death and Legend Of A Fighter, but also pivotal in nearly every triad/heroic bloodshed movie. The Killer, City On Fire, Time And Tide, Exiled - you name it, it’s bound to be part of the plotline…

It was his adaptations from the martial art novels of Gu Long (aka Ku Lung) that finally helped make his name in the late seventies – including films like Killer Clans, The Magic Blade and Clans Of Intrigue – but perhaps Death Duel is the finest example of this collaboration.

Unlike some of those other films, the story benefits from being far less convoluted (despite a need to introduce each character in text on screen – a method that would soon become shorthand amongst Shaw Brothers directors for films so jam-packed with leads and plots). The style is more striking, using the studios that dominated the Shaw Brothers films of the 70s to their fullest potential – right from the setting of the first (and last!) scene set in a maple forest in Autumn – undoubtedly an influence on Ronny Yu’s The Bride With White Hair.

With the support of the Shaw Brothers regulars, Derek Yee makes a convincing and personable lead (if a not quite believable master swordsman). Perhaps that his career never truly took off as a leading man says much about the state of the Hong Kong industry towards the late 70s and early 80s. (But find some solace in the fact that Yee currently counts himself amongst the cream of Hong Kong directors after Lost in Time, 2 Young and the fantastically dark One Nite in Mongkok.)

Yee’s own brother, Zhang Che favourite David Chiang, turns up at near the end as the enjoyably bonkers member of the Mu family, previously rather sensibly kept imprisoned. Another Che fave, Ti Lung, appears in another cameo, providing a warning of Chi’s fate having once been a famous swordsman himself – Fu Hung Hsueh (from The Magic Blade.) Meanwhile Lo Lieh plays Han Tang, a character who appears in Killer Clans.

Highly recommended, Death Duel is a particularly fine example of a wuxia movie from the late 70s – a rare thing indeed.

A Better Tomorrow II

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 10:53:40 +0000

It’s John Woo all right, but turned all the way up to 11!…

When convicted triad member Ho (Ti Lung, Blood Brothers, Venegeance!, The Magic Blade) refuses an offer of probation if he helps the authorities bring down his former mentor Si Lung (Dean Shek, Aces Go Places, Drunken Master), his younger brother Kit (Leslie Cheung, Rouge, Inner Senses, Farewell My Concubine) takes the case instead, still wishing to atone for his bothers sins.

Undercover as Billy, Kit soon ingratiates himself with Lung’s daughter Peggy (Regina Kent, Project A, part II, Legacy Of Rage), while unable to talk of his mission with his heavily pregnant wife. Learning of the perilous situation Kit has put himself in, Ho finally accepts the authorities proposal only to find there’s more afoot than anyone realises. Lung’s right-hand-man Ko Ying Pui (San Kwan, Police Story II, Executioners) is planning a betrayal of epic proportions, and incriminating his boss into the bargain, setting him up for the murder of a rival triad member (played with usual aplomb by Ng Man Tat).

Soon Lung is on the run from both the police and the triads, fleeing to America. Even New York, however, isn’t safe for him once the local mafia have been tipped off about his whereabouts. Driven mad by seeing his empire, family and friends ripped apart, it’s up to Ken (Chow Yun-fat, City On Fire, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) – the twin brother of the character he played in the original A Better Tomorrow).

Lung and Ken return to Hong Kong determined to bring Lung’s former employee to justice, teaming up with Ho and Kit and old friend Ken (Kenneth Tsang, Once A Thief, The Touch, Rush Hour 2). But when Kit gets fatally caught investigating Ko’s base, their thoughts turn to revenge at any cost, however bloody…

Director John Woo and co-writer/producer Tsui Hark left themselves with quite a problem after the runaway success of A Better Tomorrow. How do you follow up with a sequel when you’ve killed off the most popular character Mark (played by Chow Yun-fatFat)? How about bringing him back as his hither-to unheard of twin brother? No, not the most obvious answer, but one of Hong Kong cinemas most brazen. True, it takes a while to get started. The first half concentrates more on emulating the sentimentality of the original than the action, but when it arrives, it sure arrives in style.

‘It’s not like the movies, where the dead rise again,’ a whimsical Chow tells a petrified Dean as they prepare to shoot there way out of their besieged hotel room in one of the films best sequences. (Admittedly that subtitled line was not in the previous Hong Kong version of the film.) He then throws himself backwards down a flight of stairs with a gun in each hand – obviously, it is Woo – shooting all the way.

It’s one of many ‘quotable’ scenes, and boy, does this film have them. With the action choreographed by Ching Siu-tung (for whom Hark would produce A Chinese Ghost Story shortly afterwards, again starring Leslie Cheung) this has some of the finest, bloodiest and near ridiculous this side of Hard Boiled.

The notorious finale once again draws on Woo’s appreciation for Sam Peckinpah, as it witnesses our heroes facing an endless stream of gangsters resulting in an epic pile-up of bodies, reminiscent of The Wild Bunch. It also brings to mind the ending of Woo’s mentor Zhang Che’s rather nihilist Vengeance!, particularly as that was set within a house. (I’m not convinced it actually IS Woo’s highest bodycount, but I’m not going to argue in case someone out there actually has had time to count them all!) It’s a fantastic spectacle of blood, guns, grenades, swords, even axes (?) and doesn’t disappoint. There’s even a final duel between Ken and the mysterious hitman brillantly updates swordplay into the 80s with guns blazing.

(And the characters appearance in black suits and ties (they’ve just been to a funeral) and slo-mo swagger sure made an impression on a fella by the name of Tarantino.)

Littered with knowing references to the original film and its success, Tsui Hark’s story plays like more of a parody than straight sequel, and more than likely it was the root of Hark’s and Woo’s falling out. It’s hard to think that even John Woo couldn’t have had his tongue firmly in his cheek while making it (though since he’s disowned it, except for the ending).

Allegedly Woo’s original cut ran to 160m, while Hark demanded it be cut down to 120m. Both parties began editing and re-editing the film behind each others backs – until they gave the film over to a third party for what became the official version of the film (which according to the credits is Ronny Yu collaborator and director in his own right, Daniel Wu).

Whatever the true story behind the film, it gave both filmmakers a chance to work in the home of their hero Martin Scorsese, New York. Both filmmakers would make films there in the 90s when they finally made an impression, even if Woo made more of a career there. Hell, Chow even does an impression of Robert De Niro (in English), in another highlight from the movie, when some hustlers from a protection racket try doing a number on him. ‘You don’t like my chicken fried rice? Mamma mia!’

Sometimes it just baffles, like the resurrection of Leslie Cheung’s character after the harrowing scene where his brother is forced to shoot him or blow both their covers, only to kill him off for good shortly afterwards.

Ultimately, this is an action movie that delivers on all counts, mainly because the cast are brilliant (and what a cast it is!) – particularly Yun-fat who exudes a confident charm few can capture so readily on screen. It’s hard to believe that it’s taken this long for a proper DVD release in the UK, considering some the other John Woo films that have been released before. Sure, it’s not The Killer or Hard Boiled, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun – so find it and enjoy!

The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 17:05:05 +0000

Gordon Liu (Kill Bill Volume 1 and 2) stars in a kung fu classic that is so much more than your average revenge movie…

Though Gordon Liu is better known right now as both the arse kicking monk and Lucy Lui’s Japanese henchman in Kill Bill, it was the 36th Chamber of Shaolin, directed by his adopted brother Liu Chia-Liang, that catapulted him into stardom in the late seventies. A popular take on the founding myth of the kung fu genre – how Shaolin fighting techniques were spread throughout the common people – this is far more than your typical vengeance movie.

36th Chamber tells of Chou Chen-chi, a naive Han Chinese student instigated into revolt by his teacher against the Manchu oppressors of the Qing Dynasty. Chou soon finds himself out of his depth, his family and friends have suffered and now he himself is on the run from the Manchu. Wishing he had the strength of the Shaolin monks, he seeks refuge a temple in the hope of being allowed to learn their techniques and get revenge.

It’s a long time before the monks allow Chou, now know as Sun Ta (three virtues) to participate in their special training – the fabled 35 chambers of Shaolin. Each one contains a gruelling test that must first be bettered before the student can go on. At first Sun Ta is at a loss to see the connection between it and the fighting he so desperately wants to learn, but his determination carries him through. The psychological journey he makes, away from the weakness of his quest for revenge, is far more powerful than the physical one. It’s the purpose of their teachings.

Sun Ta’s progress through the chambers is amazing, but when he suggests setting up a 36th Chamber that would allow him to pass his teachings on the general populace they banish him from their order. Back in the world outside, Sun Ta soon finds disaffected youths much like he was, eager to learn his fighting techniques to bring the Manchu tyrants to justice.

The themes of 36th Chamber are a world away from the kung fu films that dominated the market in the seventies. It’s so much more about the personal journey Sun Ta undertakes than just revenge on his persecutors that the obligatory crowd pleasing last reel, where they are finally and spectacularly brought to justice, all but feels uncomfortable against Sun’s obviously higher state. That the screenplay came from I Kuang, who together with director Zhang Che moulded that cinema of vengeance in Hong Kong, might be surprising – but probably had a lot to do with director Liu Chia-Liang.

Liu Chia-Liang, also known as Lau Kar-Leung, had been one of the foremost martial arts choreographers for a long time before taking the directors chair himself for The Spiritual Boxer in 1975. For Chia-Liang the psychology behind the martial arts was just as important as the physicality, that his protagonists undertake spiritual journeys where they truly grow and learn as human beings, was something he wanted to bring to his audience. For him martial arts was more than just movies – it was a way of life – and for a man who could trace his martial arts linage to Wong Fei-hung, a real life Chinese folk hero, that meant everything. . It’s hard not to see the Manchu as a veiled reference to the mainland Communists, and the point is that one man CAN make a difference.

Against the overly complicated and even baroque action of contemporary Shaw Brothers produced films, Chia-Liang neatly paired back the story to tell it simply but well. The tone of the film is refreshingly airy, as the character transcends aggression Chia-Liang too escapes the confines of the studio for the outside world – rarely seen in SB movies by that time. The fighting, as you might expect, is stunning, but so too is the inventiveness of the chambers. Initially seeming irrelevant to fighting skills, their significance is made all too clear by the end. It’s here that Chia-Liang places the most importance. Filming the trials of Sun Ta as he repeatedly attempts to pass through the levels, he shows us enough to make the point, but not so much as we get bored. (No, we don’t see ALL 35 chambers!)

Supported by a cast that includes Luo Lieh in wonderfully grimacing form as one of the evil Manchu generals, Gordon Liu is well cast as the innocent student who attains knowledge and learning. Unsurprisingly 36th Chamber was Shaw Brothers number one hit of that year, and led to many sequels (including Return to the 36th Chamber, Disciples of the 36th Chamber) and imitations. The most obvious being The Shaolin Temple, the motion picture debut of a young Wu Shu martial arts champion by the name of Jet Li. Following both the template and story pretty closely, The Shaolin Temple was almost as popular a franchise as its predecessor, spawning Kids from Shaolin, (which featured Gordon Liu) and Martial Arts of Shaolin (directed by Liu Chia-Liang himself) and in turn made a star of it’s lead.

The influence was also pretty heavily felt in Jackie Chan’s breakthrough films that same year, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master. With Jackie’s master, Shaw Brother’s regular Sui-Tien Yuen (who also appeared in 36th Chamber) putting him through equally gruelling tasks, albeit more resourceful in nature, in order to learn kung fu.

With its innovative look into the secretive world of the Shaolin monk, one previously often derided and feared, it had a deep felt effect on Hong Kong cinema. In Tsui Hark’s Jet Li lead take on the Wong Fei-hung legend, Once Upon a Time in China, his highly idiosyncratic band of students echo the assorted youths who come to learn under Sun Ta. Whereas another Jet Li vehicle, The Tai Chi Master is evocative of both the Shaolin life and the lead character attaining greater wisdom. The impact of 36th Chamber is clear, it’s a deserving cult classic.

Liu Chia-Liang and Gordon Liu collaborated again on several films, including Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, Dirty Ho and 18 Legendary Weapons of China, though neither quite achieved the success due to them. Chia-Liang all but left cinema behind him for nearly a decade after ‘creative differences’ saw him sacked from directing the Jackie Chan vehicle Drunken Master 2. Though he’s recently returned to directing with the first new Shaw Brothers production in years, Drunken Monkey. Gordon Liu on the other hand has never stopped making movies, even if the roles have been more minor, and it was Quentin Tarantino himself who asked him to appear in Kill Bill, though at the time Gordon had no idea who the was…!

easternkicks.com » Hong Kong classics

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