Never Die

There are 2 essential things wrong with this movie.

First, the 'girl always lying joke' that gets repeated over and over again in the first half of the film. The first couple of times it vaguely amusing, after that its just monotonous.

Second, its no secret Chow Yun Fat cannot fight. He is not a martial artist. Now by the time Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is released they come up with a work-around for this problem. In Peace Hotel they don't. So they set CYF as this great fighting hero who slays many but when we see evidence of this it is simply awful. Jet Li for example would have been a much better choice for this particular role.

The idea for the story is a good one but it fails to get the job done.

First time director Ka-Fai Wai, a seasoned TV writer, and producer John Woo team up to create a very interesting vehicle for Chow Yun Fat. Styled like a spaghetti western, the film is set in the chaotic times after the fall of the last emperor and start of the Chinese republic.

Chow Yun Fat plays the Killer, a gang leader with a tragic past. During a fight with a gang, his wife is killed. The Killer goes nuts and kills everyone including his own gang. Years later he opens the "Peace Hotel", a place for criminals on the run to find refuge and reform. In enters a woman claiming to be his dead wife. The residents of the Hotel are fooled but of course the Killer isn't and is very angry at her deception. His anger is compounded when she steals his belongings. He is about to throw her out when a huge gang shows up on horseback. They are after her for killing their beloved leader. The Killer changes his mind and shelters the woman. Despite his kindness, the woman continues her deceptive ways. The gang demands that the woman be delivered to them in 21 days or else they are going to storm the hotel.

A very well made production, the sets are great, the acting overall very good and Ka-Fai Wai's direction is very assured for a first time effort. There is a good sense of humor throughout. Chow Yun Fat is great and carries the film from start to finish. The music is good, very reminiscent of Morricone or the great chambara themes although the obvious use of synthesizers for all the instruments lowers the quality a little. The biggest problem for me was a couple of very big plot holes (at least that's how I saw it) which is sad since the film is very good. The action is not central to the movie and those looking for elaborate martial arts will likely be disappointed. The big action scenes are shot in blurry close-ups with lots of dust and shaky camera work. Celia Yip's character gets beaten and slapped around a lot in this film (the character repeatedly provokes most of the abuse) so you might think twice before watching this with a girlfriend.

A good film for Chow Yun Fat fans and anyone looking for unique examples of HK film making.

Chow Yun-Fat in the wild west? Why not?

Known as "The Killer" yet again, Chow commits mass murder in a blind rage, and then vanishes from the murder scene to build the "Peace Hotel," a supposedly sacred place for crooks and degenerates to run to if they're on the run from the law or any criminal element, and have nowhere else to go.

That all changes when a woman played by Cecilia Yip arrives claiming to be Chow's long-lost wife. I tell you, I've never heard more lies spewed forth from a movie character in such a short amount of time until I saw this movie. It's just lie after lie with this one, and she's persistent, too. Chow never falls for these sob stories of hers, and quickly debunks them as the myths they are, usually following up with a smack upside the head with a paper fan or a broom or something.

Then a gang arrives, apparently after her for killing one of their bosses, but Chow's code won't allow her to be killed by them. No matter. It's obvious and inevitable that he'll take up the sword once again.

As a comedy-drama, Peace Hotel works in a few ways, but not many. It makes for an unconvincing romance story. And as an action story, it's abysmal. The swordfights are some of the worst-edited sequences I've ever seen. Imagine Paul Greengrass filming a man swinging a flaming torch (and later, a sword) through countless bad guys. Now imagine Olivier Megaton, fresh from Taken 3, editing that footage. Now imagine that footage sped up. Yeah. It's bad.

The single shootout sequence, however, is fantastic, and a major contrast to the editing style applied to the swordfights. I suspect John Woo, who helped produce this film, took over the director's chair for this sequence, because I can't see how the same director who did such poor swordfight sequences could have done such a grand shootout like the one on display here. It's the only plausible explanation.

Overall, the acting is corny and not all that great, although Chow seems to really give it his all and seems to be the only one really trying to churn out a decent performance. The comedy works, sometimes, but often falls flat. The plot twists are silly. The music is distractingly poor sometimes. I think the second half, with the exception of the shootout, is where things really started to fall apart. Unfortunate, because this could have been better had it been handled with more care.

Review: I quite enjoyed this film, mainly because of the crazy lady who told load of lies to stay in the hotel but the action scenes wasn't that great, because of the shoddy camera work. Chow Yun-Fat puts in his usual great performance and the different characters also made it quite enjoyable. Once Chow Yun-Fat's character, The Killer, falls for the lying, cheating and very deceptive girl, the storyline does get a bit weak but the witty storyline and original concept beforehand, was great. Although the movie is full of subtitles, it's still easy to follow and the open ending was sad in one way but intriguing in another. Most of the movie is based around a hotel, with a Western backdrop, so the scale of the movie isn't that big but the ending was still pretty epic. With that aside, everything about this small budget movie worked and I'm slowly becoming a big fan of Chow Yun-Fat. Enjoyable! 

Round-Up: This was the first movie directed by Ka-Fai Wait, 54, in 1995 and he has gone on to direct 17 more movies for the Oriental market, which I personally haven't heard of. Chow Yun- Fat also wrote this movie with the director, and with the production skills of John Woo, it's not surprising that this project turned out so well. 

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/crime/drama/romance/westerns starring Chow Yun-Fat, Cecilia Yip, Ho Chin and Shun Lau. 5/10

Peace Hotel is a western set in China in the 1930's and is probably best described as a cross between 'A Fistful Of Dollars' and 'The Killer'. Chow Yun-Fat (in his last film in Hong Kong before going to America) plays a retired killer who opens the 'Peace Hotel' where people can hide from their enemies with no questions asked. He teams up with Cecilia Yip with whom he had last starred with in the gripping World War II drama 'Hong Kong 1941' (1984). She plays a confidence trickster who is wanted by a large and dangerous gang that threaten to destroy the refuge to get to her. Both are excellent in this film and have a great on-screen chemistry.

The music by Healthy Poon and Cacine Wong is effective and in a similar vein to the Ennio Morricone score in the spaghetti westerns and the theme song by Alex San (music),Erica Lee (lyricist)and Cass Pang Ling (performer) fully deserved its win at the 1996 Hong Kong Film awards.

Those watching this film expecting highly choreographed gun-play sequences due to the presence of John Woo as executive producer will be disappointed as the action is infrequent and is filmed in a confusing style that probably better represents the confusion of a real fight. Peace Hotel is more character-driven than action orientated anyway and is all the better for it. Written by Chow Yun-Fat and Wai Ka-Fai (who is probably best known for co-directing 'Fulltime Killer' (2001)) there is some great dialogue and more character development than is usual for a film in the genre.

Peace Hotel may not be as good as some of Chow Yun-Fat's earlier work with John Woo, but it makes an attempt to be different and deserves credit for that.