DAILY FILM DOSE: A Daily Film Appreciation and Review Blog: Chinese

Showing posts with label Chinese. Show all posts

Thursday, 25 October 2012

In the Mood For Love

Significant for a number of reasons, 'In the Mood for Love' is not only a great film, routinely voted in polls as one of the best movies of its decade, it also completes Wong Kar-Wai’s decade-long examination of the barriers to human connectivity, a series of now-iconic and influential HK films which includes 'Chungking Express', 'Happy Together', 'Days of Being Wild' and 'Fallen Angels'. It also comes at the end of the millennium, which has the impression of being cinema’s last word on the theme of love and romance in the 20th Century.

In the Mood for Love (2000) dir. Wong Kar-Wai
Starring: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung

By Alan Bacchus

Part of the allure of the cinema of Wong Kar-Wai is it’s relation to the prevailing action genre in Hong Kong at the time. After the proliferation of John Woo/Jackie Chan-inspired action and kung fu extravaganzas in the '90s, Kar-Wai seemed like the supreme antidote to these overly produced, emotionally excessive exports. In the Mood for Love is like a delicate porcelain doll. With a wisp of a story, the film coasts on the constrained angst of the characters, but always with a supreme cinematic eye, as cool, stylized and memorable as those engrossed action movies.

It’s 1962, and here Kar-Wai’s frequent collaborator Tony Leung plays Chow Mo-wan, a journalist looking for an apartment for him and his wife. Same with Su Chan (Maggie Cheung), his comely neighbour, alluring and gorgeous in her 60s bees nest hairdo and form-fitting pattern dresses. But Su’s also married to a man as busy and unavailable as Chow’s wife. Conscious efforts are made not to see the faces of Chow's or Su’s spouses, a commonality the audience subliminally recognizes, thus connecting the two characters together.

Gradually through a series of impressively edited montage scenes we learn of an affair between the two spouses. The sequence ends in a magnificent restaurant scene, in which Chow and Su question each other about their respective accessories - Chow’s tie, which resembles the same tie Su gave her husband from abroad, and Su’s bag, which resembles a bag Chow gave his wife.

A love affair develops between the two without consummation. Together they vow not to ‘become like their spouses’ and betray their marriages. Kar-Wai turns these screws extra tight as Chow gradually grows fonder of Su, subtly inviting her to consummate their relationship. Thus, Su’s increasing apprehension and teasing love furthers the sadness of their forlorn love. And after a series of time shifts forward into the late '60s where we see a downtrodden Chow return to the same apartment years later looking for Su, Kar-Wai elevates his drama to near-Odyssey-like tragedy.

Before In the Mood for Love, Kar-Wai was celebrated for a unique fluid visual style, his camera seemed free to float in and around the busy HK streets at will. But here Kar-Wai consciously sequesters himself in the tight spaces of the cramped apartment space. Even with these limitations he manages to find evocative compositions in which to frame his characters. We never see Chow’s wife but immediately identify her by the semi-circular window overlooking her office. And the frequent meeting place for Su and Chow in the early days of their courtship is simply the landing of the building’s staircase. Kar-Wai maximizes these repeated and simple slow-motion shots with help from the indelible music cue from Shigeru Umebayashi, and of course Christopher Doyle’s lauded cinematography and lighting.

It took four years for the follow-up, 2046, to come out and three years after that came his English-language film, My Blueberry Nights. These lengthy intervals suggest perhaps, much like the effect Apocalypse Now had on Francis Coppola’s career, In the Mood for Love exasperated Wong Kar-Wai's remarkable creative juices. I hope this isn't true.

****

In the Mood for Love is available on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

Friday, 7 September 2012

TIFF 2012 - Motorway

Motorway is a somewhat shameless Drive knock-off but with all the car chases that weren't in Nicolas Winding Refn's film. Slight plagiarism aside, Soy Cheang's driving film exemplifies why Hong Kong has been the king of slick action cinema for years.

Motorway (2012) dir. Soi Cheang
Starring: Anthony Wong, Shaun Yeu

By Alan Bacchus

The plotting of the good guys vs. bad guys has the same ice-cold professionalism as a Michael Mann film. There are no throwaway gags or witty one-liners here. But while Mann made a fetish of procedural details of the heist, for Cheang it's the escape that gets him hard.

To support the dozen or so chase sequences anchoring the film there is a roll call of familiar action movie plotting devices. To start, our hero (Yeu) is introduced as a hot-shot young cop, who at every turn contradicts his superiors' orders in order to exercise his love for chasing people in his police car. Partnering him is Wong's character, the grizzled veteran, not exactly days away from retirement (that cliché would too obvious), but a cop with his best days behind him who prefers to sit back and take the cautious route to policing. Of course, we eventually learn he was once like his partner, a dervish behind the wheel, but he's suffering from post-traumatic stress related to an accident in the past.

We're in Shane Black buddy cop territory here, and if it wasn't for the superlative Hong Kong slickness and supercool, this would be a tedious affair.

But it isn't. Motorway cashes in on the director's desire to simply make a car chase film that fetishizes the steel machines with Zen-like reverence. Unlike the muscular fetishness of the Fast and the Furious films, the characters' attachment to their cars in Motorway is like Chow Yun Fat to John Woo's guns - ridiculous but impressively passionate.

***

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Accident

This TIFF inclusion from 2009 finally emerges on Canadian soil for public consumption on Blu-ray via Shout Factory almost three years later. While not widely known, Soi Cheang's film has one of the most clever conceptual plot hooks since 'Infernal Affairs': a group of assassins-for-hire specialize in elaborately choreographed murders made to look like accidents, thus absolving their clients and themselves of persecution or retribution. It makes for a stimulating, small-scale thriller ripe for a bigger, more spectacular Hollywood remake.

Accident (2009) dir. Soi Cheang
Starring: Louis Koo, Richie Ren, Shui-Fan Fung, Michelle Ye, Suet Lam

By Alan Bacchus

Hong Kong star Louis Koo plays Ho Kwok-Fai, the brain of the team, a foursome not unlike something we'd see in a Mission Impossible film. They're introduced overseeing their latest orchestration: a car accident on a busy Hong Kong street. Seemingly random details, such as a rogue balloon flying in the air covering up a street camera and a blinding flash of reflected light from a mirror, combine to create a perfectly constructed domino effect that results in their pre-planned fake accident. But on their latest job, when a bus seemingly runs out of control, killing one of Ho's colleagues, Ho suspects he might be the target of someone else's accident orchestration.

Director Soi Cheang keeps the action and plotting contained, making Accident a relatively small picture and focusing in on Ho's character and his obsession, paranoia and isolation. Not unlike Gene Hackman's Harry Caul from The Conversation or Leonardo Di Caprio in Inception, Ho's life of clandestine deception has altered his perception of reality. This boils over into a paranoia-fuelled search for his assassin. He rents an apartment directly below his suspect, maps out his floor plan on his ceiling and listens in on his telephone conversations. Doubt and confusion create an obsessed mania akin to the destruction of Hackman's apartment in The Conversation or Guy Pearce's tattooed notes in Memento.

Louis Koo's performance is delightfully intense and focused, portraying Ho as a broken man plagued by the nightmarish memories of his wife's fatal car accident (or potential murder). Koo's attire complements this intensity, as he wears constricting clothes, a form-fitting jacket and large, industrial sniper glasses.

Cheang imbues a distinct visual palette using long lenses almost exclusively to convey a voyeuristic feel and visually compressing the world around Ho.

If anything, where Cheang leaves us short is in detailing the procedural aspects of his characters' schemes, something a Hollywood remake, as made by Christopher Nolan or Martin Scorsese, would map out and visualize with greater fastidiousness and care. But the work presented here is still an intriguing conceptual film that stands on its own, a sharp little gem to find in the glut of other new home video releases.

The Shout Factory Blu-ray features a decent making-of documentary and curiously, a faulty 2:35:1 anamorphic transfer, which appears as a vertically stretched 16x9 full frame aspect ratio. It's difficult to say if this fault applies to all the Blu-rays in circulation, however.

***½

This review first appeared on Exclaim.ca

Tuesday, 6 March 2012

The Legend of Drunken Master

The Legend of Drunken Master aka Drunken Master 2 (2000) dir. Chia-Liang Liu
Starring: Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Long Ti, Andy Lau

***1/2

by Alan Bacchus

Even before the American release of this film, HK action buffs already knew it as Drunken Master 2, a legendary film certainly in my household for its astonishing fight sequences featuring Jackie Chan at his most lethal, most athletic, toughest and funniest. Remember, these were the days before the internet, and thus accessibility to foreign films not released stateside was limited. But for me access to Drunken Master 2 came from my membership at my local strip mall LaserDisc-renting Chinese videostore in Mississauga.

After the release of Rumble in the Bronx in North America in 1995, Jackie Chan finally had success overseas 15 years after he made his American debut in the early '80s. Other than the retched Rush Hour movies, Chan’s subsequent releases were older HK films re-dubbed and sometimes re-edited for North America. 1992’s Police Story 3 became Supercop in 1996, Police Story 4 became First Strike, and it was the same with Operation Condor, Twin Dragons and Mr. Nice Guy, each with decreasing box office returns and general public hype.

And so in 2000 when The Legend of Drunken Master was released, it was just another Jackie Chan movie to most people. But to the LaserDisc-watching freaks like me it was something special. However, what a shame that a meager $11 million box office take meant that arguably the film with the greatest ever hand-to-hand fight sequences was only glanced over.

What are the best kung-fu movies ever made? Maybe those Jet Li/Tsui Hark Once Upon a Time in China flicks? Or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Or the Yhang Zimou mystical epics? Enter the Dragon? The old school Five Deadly Venoms? Drunken Master 2 is a marvel because its kung fu is boiled down to hand-to-hand combat, achieving a fresh 'purity' in action largely unaided by elaborate weaponry, pyrotechnics, highflying wire techniques and, most definitely, computer graphics - just the beautiful and astonishing choreography of hands and feet flying.

It’s the turn of the century in China. Jackie Chan and his family have just bought a rare and potent root of ginseng from a neighbouring province and are crossing the border to get back home. Chan, aged 40 at the time, plays the ‘teenaged’ Fei-hung and son to his disapproving father, Kei-ying (Long Ti), who runs a martial arts school and garden/nursery. Fei-hung the troublemaker decides to hide the ginseng in a fellow passenger’s suitcase to avoid the customs charges. Of course, there’s a mix-up and Fei-hung winds up with some other kind of valuable artifact coveted by a nefarious group of imperialist thieves.

When the baddies come looking for the artifact, Fei-hung is forced to defend himself, protect his mother, get back his ginseng and do it all without pissing off his father. Fei-hung’s technique is ‘drunken boxing’ – his own personal style which mimics the wobbling and swaying of a drunken person, thus putting his opponent off guard. But when he actually gets drunk, like Popeye, Fei-hung gets stronger, quicker and more badass.

As usual, it’s disposable plotting for Jackie Chan, but the old world China setting is made more bearable than say the 'New York' locale of Rumble in the Bronx or the international espionage of First Strike. Again, Chan’s vaudevillian/silent cinema comic timing is ramped up, creating a fast-paced, zany comedy or errors. The family core of Fei-hung, his father and his step-mother forms a fun three-way comic dynamic. Anita Mui is the stand-out as the stepmother (actually 9 years Chan’s junior!). She appears to be acting in a film all her own, as her heightened and exaggerated mannerisms go beyond even Chan’s tone of silent-era influenced anachronism.

But it’s the awe-inspiring fight sequences that made Drunken Master 2 the best kept secret among us suburban LaserDisc genre-junkies. If not the greatest fight sequence ever put to film, then at least my personal favourite is the incredible tea-house scene in the middle of the picture. Fei-hung and his buddy sit down on the upper floor of a tea house for a peaceful drink when out of nowhere a hundred axe-wielding thugs storm the building and attack them. The duo proceed to beat down these badasses and tear apart the entire building with bamboo poles and brute strength. It’s over-the-top and implausible, 2 vs. 100, but the choreography is so precise we actually believe two people could do such damage and fend off a hundred guys. The Wachowski Bros. would later film their own version in Matrix Reloaded with their Neo vs. 100 Smiths fight but with the aid of mondo computer effects.

This is just one of a half-dozen equally inspired and monumentally artistic and brutal hand-to-hand fight sequences and the reason my LaserDisc player in the 1990s got a good workout replaying it over and over again.

The Legend of Drunken Master is available on Blu-ray from Miramax/Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, in addition to three other martial arts classics – Hero, Iron Monkey and Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman.

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Still Life

Still Life (2006) dir. Jia Zhangke
Starring: Tao Zhao, Zhou Lan, Sanming Han, Lizhen Ma, Hongwei Wang

****

By Alan Bacchus

The Three Gorges Dam is China’s massive hydroelectric dam, a marvel of engineering built in 2006 and the largest power station in the world. As a manmade structure that tamed the great Yangtze River, it became a symbol of the might of the new Chinese economy. But because of the ensuing environmental impact and displacement of millions of rural citizens, it’s also seen as a stake for liberal activism in the country.

Ironically, out of this massive economic change and upheaval begat a number of great international films in the past few years. Yung Chang’s great documentary, Up the Zangtze, showed this change from the point of view of a tourist sailing a boat on the river. Jia Zhangke’s celebrated Venice Golden Lion winner, Still Life, is arguably the crowning artistic statement of this period of change.

It’s a challenging piece that magnificently juxtaposes the journey of two lost souls in search of their loved ones against the background of a centuries-old rural way of life about to be drowned for all eternity by rapid progress.

Han Sanming is a coalminer arriving in the town of Fengjie, which is about to be flooded. He’s searching for his wife who left him 16 years ago with a daughter he’s never seen. Han goes from person to person asking about his wife and where she might be, with each person guiding him to the next, like connect the dots. There’s also Shen Hong, a nurse in Fengjie, who is searching for her husband, Guo Bing, who hasn’t come home in 2 years. Like Han, she wanders through the near wasteland of vacant buildings and impossibly beautiful mountainous landscapes looking for answers.

Through the compartmentalization of Han's and Shen’s scenes (Han is featured in the first third, Shen in the second, then Han again in the final third), Zhangke forms a rudimentary three act structure. But nothing at all feels familiar in Zhangke’s world. While the real-life personalities he finds and uses as actors in his film along the way lend an observational documentary-like feel, there’s a strong tone of mystical realism. At one point from Shen’s daydreaming point of view we see her imagining one of the derelict building skeletons suddenly launching into the sky like a rocket ship. Zhangke elegantly weaves these elements of spiritual fantasy into deeply emotional personal character stories.

Despite the title, Still Life seems to be constantly in motion, albeit slow and methodical at a snail’s pace. But it is motion and we can feel it. In every frame, people are constantly working like worker bee drones in unity for the greater purpose, either swinging sledgehammers to demolish the massive buildings that now look like industrial carcasses of the former Communist era, or operating large and complex machinery while making trinkets for the West.

Or perhaps it's a Maoist metaphor for the ability of the Chinese people to form a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Zhangke’s camera complements these themes, moving at the same pace, creeping into its subjects like a Hitchcockian voyeur, or just elegantly gliding across the often astonishing visuals.

It truly is a visual masterpiece featuring one stunning composition after another, at all times making us reconcile in our minds the achievements of man against the achievement of nature and earth.

Saturday, 18 June 2011

The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter

The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984) Dir. Chia-Liang Liu
Starring: Gordon Liu Chia, Kara Hui Ying-Hung, Johnny Wang, Lily Li

***

By Greg Klymkiw

The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter is often cited as one of the great martial arts pictures of all time and while I won't dispute this proclamation from bigger aficionados of the genre than I, this fella has to admit he wasn't as bowled over as the fanboys. For me, I always found martial arts pictures thrilling enough when the action was hot and heavy, but whenever I saw them, I longed for something resembling characters as opposed to character-types. While I realize all genres are rooted in this form of shorthand, so many of the best pictures rise above and beyond the familiar - taking things to levels that allow for a more enriching experience.

I'll also admit it might be a cultural "thang" on my part, but for me, the preponderance of seemingly stale formulas in the genre of martial arts pictures - formulas that never seemed all that fresh in terms of character, approach and/or storytelling techniques - continue to test my patience, more so than any other genre.

First and foremost, the guiding factor for many Asian martial arts action movies is the notion of maintaining and/or regaining honour through revenge. On the surface, I have no problem with this. Vengeance offers up tons of entertainment value, especially when the violent extraction of an eye for an eye - sometimes literally as in the truly magnificent Five Fingers Of Death - is the very thing that drives the engine of many pictures in this and other genres. And let it be said, loud and clear, that revenge is, for me, the sweetest character motivation of all, but for any picture utilizing it and hoping to work beyond the pleasure derived from salaciously wallowing amidst carnage in the name of retribution, I must selfishly admit to needing a trifle more.

The few times I had any investment in the proceedings of Asian action epics were the pictures of Bruce Lee. He had a great mug that the camera loved, physical prowess in the martial arts that defied belief and he was such a great actor/screen persona, that it was relatively easy to root for him even if the characters he played had little more going on than their desire for revenge. Too many other actors - even if they were skilled martial artists - were bereft of the gifts that made someone like Lee a star persona. He was so rooted in our hearts and minds that even the most rudimentary, derivative plots took on veritable Shakespearean qualities when Bruce Lee commanded the screen.

The martial arts pictures I continue to have the most trouble with are period costume epics. The plots are all variations on the following: One man, family or group defend a particular emperor of a dynasty a long time ago in a land faraway. Betrayal and/or murder lead to revenge and the restoration of order once again. Okay, it's a sure fire formula, but for me, it never works as good drama and is merely the flimsiest coat hanger to adorn with some very cool shit (usually great fight scenes). On occasion there are exceptions to this rule, but they are rare indeed. I also reiterate that it might be some manner of cultural block since there are plenty of genres in the Occident that are saddled with similar attributes and they seldom bother me if the pictures are, at least, well made.

The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter has, in spite of its stellar reputation, the same lack of dramatic resonance for me – the been-there-done-that formula of the plot line detailed above (which is, by the way, essentially the 8 Diagram plot) is what drives the picture into an assembly line abyss for me.

That said, what separates it from many of the rest is just how exceptional the fight choreography and camera coverage of the ass kicking is. It's first rate, as a matter of fact. Any number of fight scenes in this picture, especially the climactic one had me on the edge of my seat with eyes glued to the screen. The placement of the camera(s) is always in the right place at the right time. Camera movement is judicious. Cutting is minimal. Close ups are sparing. Wide-shots are plentiful – allowing us to actually see the stunning fight choreography.

How wonderful all these would have been if there had been something resembling emotional investiture in the on-screen fictional personages involved.

The bottom line is that if you love martial arts, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter is a four-star picture, but even if you aren’t, it still warrants three stars for one salient reason. The fights in the picture are so stunning that you’ll find yourself, like I did, scanning back to several of them again and again after the initial viewing.

Not surprisingly, I am always happy to watch Akira Kurosawa or John Woo direct action pictures, but they do what most of their Asian colleagues are unable to do – they provide stunning action with great (and yes, often familiar) stories that are replete with first-rate writing and most importantly, characters that are fully fleshed out. While I consider their films to be artistry of the highest order, they often inject and/or pay homage to a pulpy, trashy sensibility to the proceedings. Interestingly, their movies are infused with influence from masters like John Ford, David Lean, Sam Peckinpah, Jean-Pierre Melville and, in Woo's case specifically, movie musicals. (Woo's Red Cliff is a perfect example of a great Asian historical epic - stunning action, great story, etc.)

Many of the rest, while creating their own unique approaches – mostly to action – seem far too insular in their perspective. Their work will often be endowed with the necessary frissons to ensure that the action is fast and furious. but it's the action that takes a front seat to everything else a picture needs to survive both the ephemeral and purely visceral.

In spite of all this, I'm satisfied to report that The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter is magnificent pulp and I'm just as happy to take it over all the recent precious, fully formed historical epics of Zhang Yimou or worse, the overrated Ang Lee Crouching Shih-Tzu Flying Pussy nonsense.

Methinks I doth protest too much. It's a good picture. I just wish it and it's ilk were more consistently fleshed out. Even better than flesh, a nicely marbled hunk of barbecue pork is far more succulent with globs of fat attached to it.

Down with lean. Up with porcine. Pass the soya sauce, please.

The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter is available on DVD and Blu-ray on the Dragon Dynasty label’s series of Shaw Brothers Classics.

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

CANNES 2011 - Wu Xia

Wu Xia "Swordsmen" (2011) dir. Peter Ho-San Chan
Starring: Donnie Yen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Jimmy Wang Yu

**1/2

By Blair Stewart

A dash of Rashomon, a pinch of A History of Violence, with Donnie Yen's left foot crushing your windpipe, Wu Xia takes a few chances with the Asian martial arts genre and mostly succeeds.

In 1917 China, two marauding bandits of great repute accidentally give up the ghost to local “aw' gee shucks” farmer Liu Jinxi (Donnie Yen with blindingly white teeth for a humble peasant) in a foiled village robbery. All appears on the up-and-up to the local officials except for Detective Xu Baijiu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and his B.S. alarm. He's the sort of sleuth who can pull off the calabash pipe look. In a superb sequence, Baijiu's inspection of the crime scene recreates the battle, as the three combatants fling themselves around in slo-mo with projectile CGI teeth pinging about. Questions are raised about Liu's past, as the detective peels away his facade, inadvertently catching the attention of a fearsome Triad with a stake in the matter.

The touch of the detective in Wu Xia is far more subtle than that of Tsui Hark's overblown Detective Dee from last year, as Kaneshiro's character is enjoyably worthy of his own film. It would have been interesting to see him use brains in order to outwit flying-fist Shaolin monks and roadside bandits on his own. The rest of the story in Wu Xia is mostly enjoyable hokum with its x-rayed pressure point brutalities and acupuncture needle assaults. This film mostly suffers from a lack of epic rumble like those the Chans and Jaas have previously delivered. There's just something about one mean hombre taking out an army that puts a hop in my step. Despite Yen's immense skill and screen charisma, the fight sequences often suffer from being cut too quickly. The longer the take holds, the greater my admiration grows for what Ho-San Chan's stars and stuntmen can accomplish. Outside of these qualms, the film is commendable for experimenting with a formula that was once at its most basic – foot + face = awesome.

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

Chungking Express

Chungking Express (1994) dir, Wong Kar Wai
Starring: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Faye Wong, Tony Leung Chiu Wai

****

By Alan Bacchus

The opening credit in this film belongs to Quentin Tarantino's distribution arm Rolling Thunder Pictures, in his usual font, Though it's thematically and aesthetically different than his work, it's easy to see why this piqued Tarantino's interest. Both females leads are elusive hip chicks, not unlike Uma Thurman in both Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, Pam Grier and Melanie Laurent and others. Ultimately we could derive this type of character from Jean-Luc Godard in Vivre Sa Vie, Anna Karina, the waify bohemian prostitute who was so darn sexy in that demure sweater.

In Chungking Express Brigitte Lin and Faye Wong exhibit the same desirable qualities as Anna Karina and those Tarantino characters. They are so elusive Kar-Wai doesn't even give them names. Lin is unidentified but unmistakeable as the mysterious woman with the blonde wig who always wears sunglasses even at night. Faye Wong plays the niece of a convenience store clerk with a 'je ne sais quoi' carefree flightiness. Both gals have enough spunk to attract the attentions of two lonely heartbroken cops.

But this is a Wong Kar-Wai film which means lovers getting together is not so easy. Like many of his works, in particular In the Mood For Love, Wai tells a story of the barriers to love, instead of the emotional bond which should bring them together,

It's mid-90's Hong Kong, a rain-drenched city bristling with colourful neon, inhabited by night owls, an amalgam of cultures, Chinese, British, American, South Asian. Think Blade Runner in the present. Wai divides his 90mins into two distinct narratives set around the aforementioned convenience store deep in the heart of this electric city.

Takeshi Kaneshiro plays cop 223, whose just broke up with his girlfriend and finds himself ogling a mysterious, cloaked, wigged and sunglasses wearing drug dealer (Brigitte Lin). In the second half of the picture we see Tony Leung as cop 663 who has also broken up with his GF but drawn to Faye Wong's sprite and young convenience store clerk.

Leung's staid expressions fit his formal police attire. For Takeshi K he’s more outwardly love sick and thus wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s more susceptible to getting drunk and confessing his inner torment. The two contrasting personalities, both with the same conflicts and goals, work like a classic ying and yang.We never see these stories intertwined, yet we feel as they are both happening simultaneous or in some kind of Inception-like dreamworld.

Chungking has an honest and rare cinematic purity to it. It's wholly stylish, but not in an obtrusive way. The streetwise motion and colours organically weaves itself into the dreamlike narrative. A scattershot story really barely held together by plotting. Instead Wai tells a dual story which works better as one.

The universal love story and mix of cultures infused with the pitch perfect mix use Western pop songs, ‘What a Difference a Day Makes”, “California Dreaming”, also the Cranberries' 'Dreams' in Chinese, adds to the accessibility of this story.

Much has been written about Wai's impressionistic style. Indeed it's a visual and aural masterpiece. Not a set piece driven film, but a mix of elegance and edgy art house sensabilities. It’s both formal and controlled and wild and meandering. Watch the dialogue scenes often filmed with long lenses with the camera locked down, throwing the background out of focus and beautifying the subjects. The rest of the camera is constantly in motion, whipping, panning and moving about, not haphazardly always following the subject either the physical motion or the emotional state of the characters. Slo-motion, reflective surfaces all add to his hip-romantic aesthetic.

Saturday, 20 November 2010

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010) dir. by Tsui Hark
Starring Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Li Bingbing and Tony Leung Ka-fai

**

By Blair Stewart

A timely response to Guy Richie's recently daft "Sherlock Holmes", Tsui Hark's long-gestating "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame" fancies a Tang-Zhou Dynasty court official as that of a wuxia ass-whupping crimestopper.

Di Renjie was a 600 A.D. chancellor during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian whose pluck in matters of political stratagem were such that centuries later he has reemerged as the imperial gumshoe in a mystery novel/film adaptation fighting against the status quo and the supernatural. And by supernatural I refer to our hero drop-kicking a pack of CGI-talking deer. As one would.

The coronation of Wu (Carina Lau) as China's sovereign comes fast as a towering Buddha is being erected to honour her but a rash of self-combustions amongst her lackeys forces the Empress's release of Dee (Andy Lau) to crack a case tied to her own hubris. Tailing the erstwhile revolutionary Dee is Wu's loyal right-hand, the fetching Shangguan Jing'er (Li Bingbing), and together they join forces with albino policemen and syphilic dwarf witch-doctors to solve the riddle. From the plot synopsis I digress that most Mandarin folk tales were conceived by monks and poets on epic opium binges the night before their telling.

Using his powers of deduction, foresight and body blows, Dee goes high in the Imperial Court and low in the underworld bartering caves to figure out why Wu loyalists are turning to ash. Andy Lau makes for a charming rogue in the lead; his spiky beard twitching in the company of his unscrupulous royal bailbondsman. It would be a geek pleasure to see Lau's Dee bounce ideas off of Poirot and Holmes, but that's a crossover for another day. There's a good cast in "Dee" mostly buried under silly costumes with Carina Lau's Empress showing interesting shades of grey in her role and Tony Leung's most welcome inscrutable mug in a small appearance.

Despite their work the fundamentals of a good film are often ignored in "Dee" to make room for some lousy f.x., creaky plot machinations and wan fight scenes. This latter problem exists despite the presence of wire-fu choreography by Sammo Hung and the director being, you know, Tsui Hark of "Once Upon A Time in China" and "Time and Tide" action acclaim. Too many damn computer effects and quick-cuttings I say, not enough in-camera tricks and long takes.

Along with these qualms I was also bothered by the obvious digital look of the film that often took me right out of the story (a similar problem I had with Gibson's "Apocalypto"), and the same nagging sense from the revealed theme late in the story as I had watching Zhang Yimou's 2002 "Hero" for the first time: Sacrifice yourself for the good of the people, a unified country is most important for the people, and sometimes those people need a ruthless leader. Somehow I don't think this film would have been made with yuans paying the budget if it had been called "Detective Dee vs. the 1000 Corrupt Party Members".

A promising Asian compliment to "Harry Potter" mysticism and "Indiana Jones" daring-do is stunted by these flaws, but perhaps success will iron out those kinks in Dee's future Detective adventures. Mind the flying unconscious deer.

Thursday, 30 September 2010

Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms

Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms (1978) dir. Cheh Chang
Starring: Kuan Tai Chen, Feng Lu, Philip Kwok, Meng Lo, Chien Sun, Sheng Chiang

**

By Alan Bacchus

I won't say I'm an expert in Kung Fu cinema, but this also isn’t my first kung fu film, and nor is it my first Shaw Bros kung fu film. I can see how this can be considered a classic and yes, it’s probably influential in the genre, and thus revered by hardcore genre-philes, but its the HK equivalent of a American B-Movie exploitation picture. If you embrace the silliness, brutality, politically incorrectness, awful production values, horrendous acting, makeup, cinematography and screenplay you might enjoy this.

It’s possibly one of the most brutally violent and cruel films I’ve ever seen. The opening is especially audacious and brutal. Rivals of the Tiger Kung Fu clan break into the home of master Chu Twin and proceed to chop off the master’s wife’s legs and his son’s arms. When the master returns he quickly kills them all in revenge and swears vengence by making metal replacement arms for his son in order for him to become an even greater kung fu warrior.

Years later, the son, Chu Cho Chang, is grown up and indeed has metal arms which can crush other objects and shoot flying daggers. Unfortunately he and father Chu have grown bitter and even more brutal than their original attackers, ruling their village like despotic madmen maiming and chopping of limps of innocent citizens for no good reason. A few people try to stand up to them, in particular four warriors, Mr. Wei, the town blacksmith who is rendered mute when he’s forced to drink a dangerous elixir, Yuan Yi tries to fight back but has his head squeezed so tight he's rendered an idiot, another one is rendered blind by Cho Chang’s metal fingers and another who has his legs chopped off.

You get the idea? The original Asian title of this picture translated to Crippled Avengers, a more appropriate title as the rest of the film plays out in traditional kung fu revenge cinema featuring four crippled warriors fighting for their vengence. Of course the cripples retreat to the company of an elderly and bearded kung fu master who teaches them how to use their crippledness to their advantage and defeat the house of the Tiger.

It’s full on Kill Bill cinema here, atrociously fake wigs, beards, sideburns, moustaches a plenty, overly accentuated sound effects, sparse studio sets, bad Shaw Scope lenses which create a weird and likely unintentional focus problems around the outside of the frame, bright red to the point of almost being orange blood and more. The only missing is the badly dubbed American voices. Instead, aghast, we get subtitles! How shameful.

But how are the fight scenes you ask? Well, they are good, for the day. Obviously the skill level and production techniques to make kung fu fighting more acrobatic, faster, energetic and thrilling are better now than then. And so taking that into consideration, their artistry and attention to detail the numerous fight sequences do not disappoint.

‘Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms’ is available from Alliance Films and the Weinstein Company via their kung fu label, Dragon Dynasty Collection.

Monday, 15 February 2010

Berlin 2010-A WOMAN, A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP

A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop "San Qiang Pai An Jing Qi" (2010)
dir. by Zhang Yimou
Starring: Honglei Sun, Dahong Ni and Ni Yan

**

By Blair Stewart

A self-explanatory title for a cultural oddity, Zhang Yimou has remade the Coen Bros. debut "Blood Simple" into a mildly-forgettable show of buffoonery in Technicolor.

Taking Godard's theory of filmmaking and shoe-horning a noodle shop in there, the backwater pulp tale is moved from 80's Texas to imperial China in the belly of the Gobi desert. The Noodle Shop owner (Dahong Ni) is a spiteful ol' burlap sack who hires the local policeman (Honglei Sun riffing on Beat Takeshi's stone-faced countenance very well) to whack his trophy Wife (Ni Yan) and her hired 'help' (Xiao Shen-Yang).

If you're already familiar with "Blood Simple" you'll know all the double-crossings and grave-diggings will stack up like pancakes and if you aren't you should be by now. *smacking the latter-half of readers with a rolled-up newspaper*

What Zhang Yimou brings to this sidewinder tale apart from changing the setting is a digitally-enhanced colour scheme that would surely make Baz Luhrmann tip his light meter and added some very broad traditional Chinese comedy as well. And when I say broad I mean pratfalls, prop teeth and loads of shrieking, hoo-boy. While the film is not without merit because of the intensely beautiful surroundings it also doesn't have enough substance to surpass the American version, despite Sun's deadpan and Yan's screen luminosity.

If you want a good fix for down-and-dirty behaviour you should surely pay well for the pure stuff, not the imitation knock-off.

BTW-"A Woman, A Gun and A Noodle Shop" was in dire need of more noodles.

Friday, 12 February 2010

Berlin 2010 - APART TOGETHER

Apart Together "Tuan Yuan" (2010) dir. Wang Quan'an
Starring: Lisa Lu, Ling Feng and Monica Mo

***

by Blair Stewart

The 2010 Berlinale opens with a sublime look at the seeds sown from the division between China and Taiwan and the old world and the new.

Elderly grandmother Qiao Yu'e(Lisa Lu) remembers well the final days of the National People's Party in the Shanghai of 1949 and the last time she saw her lover Lui Yangsheng (Ling Feng). The soldier Lui fled for Taiwan over a half-century ago, leaving Yu'e with a cracked heart, a baby on the way and the Cultural Revolution around the corner.

Fifty years on as tensions relax between the nations the door opens for a still-spry Lui to return to Yu'e side, upsetting the applecart of her new family as around them the glass-and-metal smokestacks of New Shanghai bares down on what is left of the old city quarters.

A small film on the big subject of modern China shedding dying skin that's been depicted in Jia Zhang-Ke's "Still Life" and "The World", Wang Quan'an's "Apart Together" won't blow down your door but sneaks up on you with wry observations visualized by excellent long-takes. Lu and Feng certainly have a chemistry as two wrinkled old farts raising each others' pulses but it's the performance of Xui Caigen as Lu's hilariously windbaggy husband Lao (who happens to be a former Mao-era army officer) that pushes the film from 'decent' to a 'memorable'. It's worth seeing alone for the unexpected songs that made this reviewer's head and heart all soft.

Friday, 4 December 2009

Red Cliff (North American Version)

Red Cliff (2009) dir. John Woo
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen and Zhao Wei

***1/2

By Greg Klymkiw

I know absolutely nothing about Chinese history. Well, not absolutely nothing. I have a vague notion that there was a period during the first few centuries of the previous millennium where the country was carved up among a variety of warlords. For what feels like eons, these despots fought each other incessantly for wealth and power until further battles shifted focus towards the centralization of power within this huge nation rather than letting things exist in a carved-up rag-tag fashion. That's it. That's all I know. I grant you it ain't much and it's most certainly a far cry from the knowledge I've gleaned on the subject of American history - a knowledge I garnered mostly from American cinema.

But I feel no shame on this front - especially not within the context of John Woo's new picture "Red Cliff" which might actually be the first movie to present a piece of Chinese history in a manner that makes some sense to me. Part of this, I believe, is rooted in Woo's consumate skill and artistry as a filmmaker. Woo's stylistic virtuosity not only presents the historical events of the picture with the kind of airtight adherence to narrative that made his best pre-Hollywood work like "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled" such fine movies, but he does so with a clear love of Hollywood cinema. He is clearly influenced and in the same league as such American Masters as John Ford and Sam Peckinpah - expertly blending the sentiment and manly honour with action and violence that borders on ballet (here we also see Woo's love of the American musical).

"Red Cliff" holds the distinction of being the most expensive film ever made in China and it has broken boxoffice records all over Asia in a two-part 280-minute epic. Alas, on its first-run in North America, we are getting, not two parts, but one shorter version that clocks in about an hour shorter. Some of the action of the narrative feels rushed and truncated in this version, but luckily, what Woo does best, is gloriously intact.

Set around 300 CE (instead of the proper Christian "A.D."), "Red Cliff" tells the story of an epic battle between an alliance of southern warlords against the much larger and more powerful northern force. It's a classic right versus might tale and I'm grateful that Woo directs with such style, verve and storytelling savvy that I feel substantially enriched in at least one small part of Chinese history.

Most of all, it's one hell of a good show. Woo paints a gorgeous series of pictures with the kind of epic sweep that only a master can bring to the table. Replete with gorgeous compositions, plenty of intrigue and romance, healthy dollops of male honour and camaraderie and truly ferocious and thrilling battle scenes, "Red Cliff", even in truncated form, does not disappoint. Woo's mastery of cinema allows for the kind of action set-pieces that feel unlike anything we have seen in recent years. Even though he maintains, like Peckinpah, a cutty style of movement, his sense of geography is so first-rate that we always know where we are in any given field of battle. Like Peckinpah, as opposed to virtually every other hack working in movies today, Woo infuses his action with emotional weight. Every edit is a story edit - moving the narrative ever-forward. And every act of violence is a skilfully choreographed ballet that not only looks great, but carries considerable dramatic impact. His sense of composition, like Ford, is painterly. I cannot think of a single frame that isn't wrought with the care and love of a true artist.

And even though things move a tad slowly in the first hour, the final ninety minutes leave you wanting more. In fact, I had such a good time that I immediately wanted to watch it again. This is a rare occurence in contemporary cinema.

"Red Cliff" is a big screen must-see event, but even still, I would prefer additional helpings of this picture to come replete with the whole damn thing. As such, I am hoping and praying that my next encounter is the full 280-minute version. I suspect that when this happens, it'll be very easy to knock my rating up to a full four stars.

Some have referred to this as a comback film for Woo. I don't think Woo really went anywhere. He patiently delivered expertly crafted Hollywood genre pictures. Some were good and others not so good. And now, he's simply and happily back where he belongs - with a story that inspires him and talent in front and behind the camera that delivers 110% to make sure his vision is everything it has, can and will be.

"Red Cliff" opens in theatres today in Canada from E1 Entertainment

Friday, 11 September 2009

TIFF 2009: City of Life and Death

City of Life and Death (2009) dir. Lu Chuan
Starring: Ye Liu, Yuanyuan Gao, Hideo Nakaizumi, Wei Fan

***1/2

Lu Chuan’s massive dramatic recounting of the atrocious Nanking massacre will probably become a new benchmark in historical cinema. An epic 2 hour 15mins black and white, violent, disturbing, shocking and heartbreaking experience which shows the atrocities of soldiers in war with maximum power and effectiveness.

To refresh your knowledge of history, before WWII China and Japan were at war by themselves and in 1937 the Japanese conquered China’s then capital city, Nanking (or Nanjing). The battle resulted in 300,000 Chinese soldiers killed, and in the six weeks that followed the raping of tens of thousands of women ritualistically in a massacre, for shear dehumanizing brutality, on par with the holocaust.

This event is not widely known and certainly not in the public consciousness like the Holocaust, but Lu Chuan’s dramatic cinematic record should change this. It’s a precise and painstakingly detailed account put to screen with seemingly no production expense spared.

Yu Cao’s breathtaking anamorphic B&W cinematography immediately puts us into a distinct world of cinematic integrity and realism. The opening 30mins recreates the last stand by the Chinese to hold the city. The battle scenes are as rough, noisy, intense and harrowing as anything put to screen. If the final battle scene of “Saving Private Ryan” were shot in B&W, it would have looked like this. With a history of realistically-rendered war films behind it, and with ‘Saving Private Ryan”, and ‘Band of Brothers” as benchmark precedents, it’s difficult to make cinematic war fresh. But Lu Chuan, by shifting his point of view between the Japanese and Chinese, manages to create a distinct omniscient view of battle. And in between the frenetic handheld gunfire, and explosions Chuan takes time to pull out and frame some truly awesome compositions. The sight of hundreds of Japanese surrendering with their hands up in a church is the stuff of David Lean and the awe of watching hundreds of soldiers gunned down to their deaths in a single wideshot is almost unparalleled.

For the second and third acts, Chuan shifts to the even more gruesome plight of the civilian refugees in the aftermath. We watch as the Japanese soldiers, seemingly left to their own devices and unmonitored by Japanese generals, sadistically corral and torture the women with a disturbingly organized system of ritualistic rape. From here Chuan moves from “Saving Private Ryan” to ‘Schindler’s List”. The cinematography is certainly visual reminder of the effect, but the tone of random, inexplicable violence and genuine heroism, and courage echoes Spielberg’s benchmark film as well.

Out of all this gruesomeness emerge a number of distinct and developed characters. Tang who starts out as a representative of the Nazi party and who cowardly desires to save his own ass goes through the greatest change, rising at the end of the film to become a selfless hero and courageous leader. And the sadistic Japanese leader is as cruel and vicious as Ralph Fiennes' summation of Nazi evil, Amon Goeth.

A film like ‘City of Life and Death’ needs to be made as a matter of dramatic cinematic record. The film demands more of its audience than ‘Schindler’s List’ of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ though. The cinematic brutality on display can be sickening and an emotional beatdown, but by providing us with an impeccably authored piece of art Chuan accomplishes everything this film needs to be.

Saturday, 22 August 2009

The Five Deadly Venoms

Five Deadly Venoms (1978) dir. Chang Chen
Starring: Sheng Chiang, Philip Kwok, Feng Lu, Pai Wei, Meng Lo

***

The house of the Venoms is in turmoil! The master of the famous kung fu training school is dying and sensing a plot by his former students to steal some hidden treasure he sends his latest apprentice Yang Da to investigate. The identities of his former students are unknown, but one of them has killed the Naun family and stolen the master’s treasure.

The Five Venoms include:

Snake – a martial arts master who uses his two hands like a snake's striking head for one and a whipping tail as the other.
Toad – a strongman technique which renders the fighter impervious to fists, swords, spears and other weapons, but also highly vulnerable in one unknown weakspot
Gekko – a wall climbing technique which allow the master to fight from walls, ceilings defying gravity to his advantage
Scorpion – the deadliest of the Venom skills, which uses sweeping leg kicks to mimic the striking tail of the scorpion
Centipede – aka man of a thousands hands – a fight technique so fast which appears like a thousands hands fighting at once.

The film has actually very few action sequences, substituted by a complex Machiavellian whodonuit plotting the murderer's identity and theft of the secret treasure map. While the innocent youth Yang Da is our point of view into the world, the redeemed hero turns out to be Mr. He (aka Gekko) who is introduced as a slimy opportunist looking for the treasure but turns intoa heroic champion of the moral values and reputation of the House of Five Venoms.

The venoms do eventually fight each other but unfortunately the 70's-style action unfortunately shows its age. It’s a slower, more controlled and obvious choreographed staging – more like a dance than believable combat - but there’s the same elegance and beauty with the graceful martial arts movements.

Toad vs. Centipede fight which takes place in the street surrounded by onlookers is slow and obviously choreographed, but as the first fledged fight scene it’s a marvellous representation of classic Shaw Bros 70’s Kung Fu with just enough wire work and slow-motion to highlight the key beats of the fight.

Though lacking in the intense awe-inspiring stunt work of modern kung-fu cinema, ‘Five Deadly Venoms’ makes up for it with all the pastiche we expect from the genre.

Creative torture is part of the fun of 70s’ kung fu. At one point one of the suspects is stabbed in the nose with an iron knitting needle, thus piercing his brain and killing him. The Toad vs. Snake fight ends with Toad’s entrapment in ‘coat of a thousand needles’ – an glorier version of a medieval iron maiden - thus rendering him impotent from a hundred nail stabbings. Later he’s branded with a red hot metal chest plate. .

The fake facial hair, sideburns and hairpieces are unintentionally hilarious, obviously in some kind of virile attempt to be tougher and manlier. The ‘Shaw Vision’ anamorphic camera lenses are so conclave, whenever the camera pans it grossly distorts the image like a fishbowl. And we can't forget the bright red blood, the looped dialogue, aggressive grunting sounds and and those crash zooms!

And yes, that’s Philp Kwok – for HK action junkies the brilliant badass from John Woo’s Hard Boiled – as the redeemed Mr. He. Another reason to rediscover "Five Deadly Venoms" as an influential benchmark of Hong Kong action cinema. Enjoy.

"The Five Deadly Venoms" is available on DVD from Alliance Films in Canada

Thursday, 23 July 2009

Curse of the Golden Flower

Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) dir. Yhang Yimou
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Jay Chou, Ye Liu, Dahong Ni, Junjie Qin

***

“Curse” is a decent wrap-up to Zhang Yimou’s trilogy of mythical martial arts epics which included “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers”. This time Yimou employs less action and more melodrama, crafting a yellow-paletted Shakespearean-tragic extravaganza. One more of these films is just enough for us and since the 2000 release of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, this subgenre of Chinese action is officially played out.

We’re in 10th century China (the Tang Dynasty), the lands are ruled by a despotic Emperor Ping (Chow Yun Fat) and his three sons. While Ping is off fighting, his wife, Empress Phoenix (Gong Li) holds down the court spending her days lavishly being waited upon with the highest degree of decadence. When Ping returns to the palace for the annual Chrysanthemum Festival, a Hamlet-worthy inter-family rivalry is sparked which threatens the peace in the land.

The Empress resents the so-called medicine she’s forced to take as commanded by her husband, and when she’s told the medicine has become laced by poison, revenge is plotted. But her husband is not the culprit, his former lover, Jiang Shi (Chen Jin), and mother to his illegitimate child – the crown prince – enters the story as the architect of these diabolic deeds. But when Ping’s second son is discovered to be having an affair with Jiang's daughter, the complex battle lines become crossed. The lovers’ quagmire results in a gigantic war which erupts pitting father against son and wife against husband and much much bloodshed.

It might seem like a complicated plotting, but you don’t really have to follow along too hard to recognize the influences from Shakespearean and Greek theatre, sampling the incestual rivalries of Hamlet, King Lear and Oedipus Rex. Most of everything is on the nose though, and Yimou doesn’t the take to the time to enrich the characters outside of the ornate costumes on their backs. Ping is no King Lear and Phoenix is no Lady Macbeth.

As with "Daggers" and "Hero", most of everything becomes overwhelmed by Yimou’s astounding production design and visual choreography. And indeed, it fits in well and often trumps the grandeur of those two predecessors. In the final act, the plotting is so complex and regurgitated with haste, we’re not really sure who is fighting whom and why. As a result things get very big very fast when armies of thousands appear out of no where ready for battle The choreography and shear epic scope of this scene is as big as anything in the LOTR trilogy. And we can't help not feel it was all just practice for the Yimou's opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.

Three of these films is more than enough for Yimou to prove him as a master of this genre. It’s time for him to move on and show us something we haven’t seen – again. Believe it or not, his next film is a Chinese remake of The Coen Bros’ “Blood Simple” – this will be something not to miss.

“The Curse of the Golden Flower” is available in a new Blu-Ray box set from Sony Picture Home Entertainment including “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “House of Flying Daggers”

Tuesday, 24 June 2008

COME DRINK WITH ME

Come Drink With Me (1966) dir. King Hu
Starring: Pei-pei Cheng, Hua Yueh, Hung Lieh Chen, Yunzhong Li

***1/2

I am probably not the best reviewer for this film, which according Hong Kong cinema fans is a landmark film in the genre. I profess to only be a casual fan of martial arts cinema, and though my knowledge doesn’t go beyond the Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and the schlocky Tiger/Crane films of the 70’s of my youth, I can say that “Come Drink With Me” lives to its reputation as the birth of the genre.

“Come Drink With Me” is a simple story, a powerful kung fu warrior, the Jade Faced Tiger, named after his white face makeup, stops a government convoy in rural China. It’s one on twenty but the Jade Faced Tiger beats down and slices to bits the entire group. One person is saved though and taken prisoner. The Jade Tiger’s clan ransoms off the prisoner in exchange for the release of one of their warriors.

Coming to the aid of the government prisoner is the legendary Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei Pei) an unassuming young girl with some nasty skills with a sword and a knife. The bandits prove to be keen adversaries, but she soon finds herself aided by a mysterious drunken kung-fu master who looking for revenge against his old partner. Together they make a formidable duo of destruction.

The film is a marvel for 1966, made a few years before the Bruce Lee films. With “Come Drink With Me”, born is the foundation of all kung fu films which came after it. The story is told with the pacing and chutzpah attitude of a Spaghetti Western. Fights are played out without musical accompaniment – just the sounds of the fists and swords. King Hu takes time to play out each challenge and battle. He’s conscious of the pauses in action as the heroes survey their opponents and plot their strategy. And then with swiftness the action starts with a burst of energy.

King Hu’s magnificent widescreen frames are perfectly composed and make stunning use of the awesome mountain landscapes of mainland China. “Come Drink With Me” also pioneered the expressive use of blood in the action. Stabs and slicing swipes of the swords are met with streams and squirts of gushing blood.

The fights are admittedly rudimentary compared to the abilities and technology available today, but the film is not so much about the choreography of battle but the attitude of the characters to battle. And Cheng Pei Pei as female lead warrior is the ideal lonesome protagonist. She is gorgeous, commanding and confident with the steely-eyed stare of an intimidating master. Ang Lee would take influence from the film and cast Cheng as the Jade Fox in “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”.

I started watching the film (a special edition DVD) without knowing anything of the film, including the year it was made. The fight sequences lack the dance-like fluidity of the more famous genre classics of Jet Li or Jackie Chan, but these films didn’t arrive until the 1980’s – before then it was “Come Drink With Me” which stood above all others and a benchmark of achievement for the genre. Enjoy.

“Come Drink With Me” is available on DVD from the Weinstein Company in the U.S. and Alliance Films in Canada

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

LUST, CAUTION

Lust, Caution (2007) dir. Ang Lee
Starring: Tony Leung, Wei Tang, Joan Chen, Lee-Hom Wang

**1/2

After the phenomenal success of “Brokeback Mountain” Ang Lee returned to his homeland to make another Chinese-Language film. His ability not only to move easily between genres, but different cultures and different languages is impressive. He scored with “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, but unfortunately “Lust, Caution” is a miss.

The film is set in WWII-era Shanghai during Japanese occupation of China. Wong Chia Chi (Wei Tang) is an innocent and shy student attending University. To engage herself in social activities she joins a drama company at school. Within the company emerge the seeds of a revolutionary movement, one of many resistance groups being formed around the country. Chia and his friends unite to help free their suppressed citizens from Fascist rule. The group targets a high-ranking corrupt police official, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), for assassination. But it’s Chia who is charged with infiltrating his affluent family and courting him. Chia’s Mata-Hari alter ego is Mrs. Mak – who ingratiates herself with the family through a series of Mahjong Games (like “poker-night” for Chinese women).

In one of the most original scenes of the film Chia, who is a virgin, has to practice sex with one of her comrades. Soon the beautiful and confident Chia goes after Yee. Her longing glance turns into a torrid affair, which spans several years before the group has a chance to strike their blow. When the time comes Chia’s feelings may just stand in the way of her duties for the resistance.

The title is appropriate as the film weighs traditional wartime political intrigue with hot and steamy eroticism. Lee certainly does the steaminess right. Tang and Leung film three or four red-hot love scenes. In the unrated version of the film, full frontal is all over the place and in a few places some eye-opening hardcore shots are left in. Lee makes it all very sexy and tasteful and erotic.

Where the film is left dry is the espionage half of the story. There’s more than enough room in the 2 hr 40min running time to show us the intrigue, suspense and danger involved in Chia and Kwang’s spy games. Unfortunately these events are only talked about and never shown on screen. For example, Mr. Yee’s assistant informs him that his secret police raided several residence safe houses. Considering these safe houses involve the characters in the film, we should have seen these events. As well, Mr. Yee describes to Chia the ‘bloody activities’ he had to go through to get information from a detainee. It’s an emotional scene, which could have been made more powerful if we, or perhaps Chia, witnessed it.

Instead the film exists solely within the point of view either Yee or Chia. Though I respect Lee for his consistency in point of view and his concern for not making a ‘thriller’, I don’t think he gets the romantic story right either.

There are very little sparks between Yee and Chia. And for the entire film Chia gives in to Yee’s animalistic physical and sexual abuse. Like a sex worker, she serves his every fetish including extremely rough sex, bondage, hair-pulling, slapping etc. The fundamental error here is why Yee, who is so paranoid he carries around multiple bodyguards with him, wouldn’t suspect Chia as a spy? Surely no one would give in to such obscene sexual demands without pay or reciprocity? If Yee were a charming aristocrat or had a Stanley Kowalski-swagger, I might believe, but Leung portrays Lee with absolutely no passion, character, or likeable quality for Chia to cling onto. We are left with nothing but rough sex to bring the two together.

Perhaps Lee intended a bond to form through the unspoken longing glances between the two. This requires great leaps to fill in these large gaps. In fact there’s just too much leaping to do in order for “Lust, Caution” to come together completely. There are some beautiful moments dotted throughout, but not enough to sustain interest for such length of time.

Lust, Caution | London 2007

Wednesday, 10 October 2007

ELECTION

Election (2006) dir. Johnnie To
Starring: Simon Yam, Tony Leung Ka Fei

**

Johnnie To’s “Election” was an official selection at Cannes in 2005 and was at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006 (along with it’s sequel “Election 2”). It also won some major hardware at the Hong Kong film Awards. Some major accomplishments for a very average Hong Kong gangster film. I'll probably take some heat for this, but nothing elevates the film beyond the plethora of Hong Kong triad films that get over-praised year after year.

It’s part of Triad tradition to elect the new Chairman of a gang every two years. This year’s campaigning is particularly aggressive between the two frontrunners Lok (Simon Yam) and Big D (Tony Leung Ka Fei). When Lok is elected Big D doesn’t take it graciously and proceeds to kidnap two of the elder voters to get them to change their decision. When the coveted Baton which symbolizes the leadership of the Chairman disappears in the melee the henchman of both Lok and Big D chase it down leaving nothing standing in their way.

Amid the violent confrontations, much political maneuvering takes place in a local jail house where both Lok, Big D and many of the voters have been locked up. After some unlikely alliances a winner emerges at the expense of much brutal bloodshed.

One of my key DFD contributors has often said that critics are too kind and easy on Asian films. Did “The Host” really deserve a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes? It's good, but not that good. Therefore I’m not going to go easy on this one. Like many Hong Kong action films I’ve seen, the acting is bi-polar. Characters are pushed to the extreme all believability is completely thrown out the window. Lok is a soft-spoken gangster who rarely utters a word or expresses an emotion. Nothing phases him and he always seems in control. Of course, as the screenwriting rule says, the antagonist is the anti-thesis of the hero (assuming that’s Lok, who actually won the election). Johnnie To makes him out to be a screaming, raging maniac – like a Ritalin child who’s just had his candy taken away. Both characters have only one note to play each – quiet or loud.

If the characters are not there, then perhaps I could have relied on some kick ass action (as in a Tsui Hark film), but there’s none. In fact, I don’t think there’s a single gunshot in the entire film. The baddies chose to dispose of their enemies by lengthy and brutal beat downs with clubs, garbage cans and good old fashioned kicks and punches. Ok, without the action, maybe I could have been compensated with a tight suspenseful plot (as in “Infernal Affairs”). Again, there no scenes that stand out or even have me wonder ‘what’s going to happen next.’

So what do we have? A typical derivative Triad film with bad acting, no interesting characters, no action, and no suspense. The film even has a bland colourless look to it. I even tried to watch Johnny To’s “Exiled” but couldn’t make it through 30 mins before being bored again with drama worthy of an exploitation video game. "Election" has an 84% positive rating on the IMDB and apparent Quentin Tarantino called it the “best film of the year”. Am I alone on this one? Did I miss something?

Buy it here: Election 'Hak Se Wui' (Special Collector's Edition) 2 DVD Set

Saturday, 8 September 2007

TIFF REPORT #1 - Le Voyage Du Ballon Rouge

Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge (2007) dir. Hou Hsaio Hsien
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Simon Iteanu

*

Part of the joy of ‘doing the Festival’ is experimenting in the hopes of making those eye-opening discoveries you can tell all your friends about – “Dude, you gotta check out this Chinese-French art film about a balloon that floats around Paris!” “Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge” wasn’t exactly a blind choice of film. After reading some early rave reviews I made it my first film of the festival - a quiet story about a young boy and his Chinese nanny who are followed around by a lifelike red balloon. Can I have my money back? “Master” director Hou Hsaio Hsien’s film moves at a snail’s pace across a football field, with virtually no plot or point to the film than to satisfy discriminating art house film snobs. Stay away.

To give the film some credit “Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge” opens with a wonderful sequence as Hsien’s camera follows an inconspicuous balloon around a subway station. It seems to have a life of its own, and follows the young boy around the city like a lost dog. Then the balloon disappears from the story for about an hour, when the real film begins. Juliette Binoche plays Suzanne, the mother to the young boy, Simon (Simon Iteanu). Her husband is on an extended business trip to Montreal and her elder daughter is studying in Belgium. The pressure of taking care of Simon, while working a busy job of a voiceover actress is taking its toll. Therefore she hires a Chinese nanny, Song (Fang Song) to babysit him. That’s really about all the plot I can explain. Honestly, there is no more plot. The balloon comes back now and again, as we learn Song has been making a film about the balloon and has cast Simon as her defacto lead. Curiously Suzanne isn’t freaked out when Song casually tells her she’s been filming her son as part of a student film project. Creepy?

At the beginning of the screening the gorgeous Binoche, wearing a revealing dress only a movie star could pull off, introduced the film and told us of her wonderful collaboration with Hsien. She said she never received direction and was told to make up dialogue that seemed natural to her. The result may be a “natural-feeling” film, but there is a reason screenwriters are hired to write a script before production, so the director doesn’t waste time shooting rolls and rolls of balloons flying across the sky or recording thousand of feet of banal conversation. That’s what this film turns out to be.

I suspect if Mr. Hsien’s name wasn’t attached this film wouldn’t even warrant a discussion, nor would it have been accepted into the festival, but then again, I wouldn’t have been able to gaze at the gorgeous beauty of Juliette Binoche in the flesh. That’s where the one star comes from. Avoid this like the plague.

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