Gallants
The spirit of Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer is alive and kicking in Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng’s new film…
Wong Yau-Nam (Ip Man, Murderer) stars as Leung, an estate agent so far down the food chain with manage s that make Horrible Bosses look like award-winning members of Investors In People. Sent out by his company to settle a dispute in a small village, he soon finds himself stuck right in the middle when he befriends two old martial artists, Dragon (Chen Kuan-Tai, Dragon Tiger Gate, Born To Fight) and Tiger (Bruce Leung, Kung Fu Hustle, Broken Oath), who’ve turned their school into a teahouse when their master Law (Teddy Robin, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Twin Dragons, The Legend of Wisely, Run, Tiger, Run) fell into a coma.
The landlord employing Leung’s services turns out to be none other than childhood friend he used bully, Chung Sang-mang (MC Jin, 2 Fast 2 Furious), now seeking vengeance. When Master Law awakes, he’s keen to put his martial arts school back on the map by taking on Chung and his master Pong Ching (Michael Chan, Broken Oath, Legacy of Rage, Young and Dangerous: The Prequel). Revenge is a dish best served cold, and preserved… if Master Law has anything to do with it.
Directors Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng previously collaborated on The Moss (not to be confused with Kang Woo-Suk’s film Moss), with Cheng here making his debut behind the camera. It’s a likeable take on the tournament style martial art action and comedy films of the 60s and 70s, updating the context to a sleepy modern day village. Unsurprisingly the tone, and even subject matter, is evocative of Stephen Chow’s comedies, particularly Kung Fu Hustle, where former martial artists have found regular, very ordinary jobs that give no hint of their former lives.
It’s also more than a little reminiscent of Kim Jee-woon’s fabulous comedy The Foul King, where a now rather young and fresh-faced looking Song Kang-ho appeared as a similarly downtrodden employee bullied by his boss, in this case becoming dirty fighting wrestler. Much like Jee-woon’s film, where even when the lead has had some success in the ring he still can’t get the better of his boss, there’s no startling transformation for Leung into an amazing fighter. His skills may have developed greatly, but no more. If anything, the directors seem to get somewhat either so bored by their lead or distracted by the performances of the older cast to worry about sort of character development for Leung.
The film is full of nods to Shaw Brothers and other such films, and plenty more besides – there’s even a throwaway reference to E.T.! Like Kung Fu Hustle the film pays homage to those films, casting legendary Hong Kong cinema veterans in most of the major roles, including Susan Shaw (The Mysterious Lady Killer, Buddha’s Palm, The Mad Monk), Li Ka (The Millionaires Express) and Turbo Law (aka Lo Mang, The Brave Archer, Five Deadly Venoms, Ip Man 2, Hard Boiled). Completing the younger trio, Jia Xiao Chen (Isabella, All’s Well Ends Well 2011), who plays Kwai, a girl brought up by Tiger and Dragon and no mean martial artist herself.
There are some high points, the fate of Master Law and his two disciples is told in a neat, stylish animation that belies the low-budget nature of the film. Added to that there’s a crazy soundtrack which includes contributions from Teddy Robin and MC Jin (you probably guessed that was coming!). At its core there are some fun ideas at play, and some poignant thoughts about getting old, but the final reel never quite fulfils its early promise, becoming almost as messy as some of the films it parodies. Even the action choreography, masterminded by another HK veteran Yuen Tak (Fong Sai Yuk, Shaolin, Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, The Iceman Cometh), fails to deliver on the conclusive duels most kung fu films build towards, despite some great initial scenes.
If not for the performances from the cast – particularly Chen Kuan-Tai and Bruce Leung in their roles as Dragon and Tiger, as well as Teddy Robin and Susan Shaw who won best supporting actor and actress respectively at the 2011 Hong Kong Film Awards (Teddy also got awarded best original score with co-composer Tommy Wai) – this could misfire completely. Instead its highly enjoyable – it’s just a shame it couldn’t carry its initial gusto right to the end.
Gallants is released on UK DVD by MVM on Monday 25 July.
DVD details
Distributor: MVM (UK)
Edition: DVD (2011)
Sadly another lacklustre release from MVM, with just the trailer included as an extra - meaning the original fairly minimal original HK DVD is so much better. I mean come on, at the very least MC Jin's hilarious video for the closing track (with co-stars Wong Yau-Nam and Jia Xiao Chen) should have been included.
It's a real shame, as bonus content would have added so much to this release. For instance a commentary by the directors, or an even expert such as Bey Logan, would have been able to bring more attention to the references in the film.
Yep - it's another 'wish Cine-Asia had got it'. Such a negligible release as to be almost criminal.
