Ah Kam

This movie is almost all Michelle Yeoh, whom I--and, I imagine, most males--enjoy seeing in almost anything. Here for once she is playing a character devoid of glamour and fantasy, and presumably not far different from herself, except in being unlucky, unhappy, unknown, and unappreciated.

It is difficult for me to imagine Ms. Yeoh, even at her youngest and most inexperienced, as having been shy and skittish around a man she liked, or easily led. Otherwise she is convincing and, as always, attractive and likable. But there is one thing I find missing from her performance, as from all her performances, which is made all the clearer in this down-to-earth milieu: her character is never knowable. You don't get to see far down into her, to find out who she is and how she got that way. True, the lack is as much in the script as in the performance, but most actors are able to fill in the spaces in the scripts. Why is the character in this film a stunt woman? Why does she stay a stunt woman? How does she feel about the other characters--her roommate, her director, or the director's son? Her attitude toward life is that of most of Ms. Yeoh's characters: glum resignation, and with good reason; her attitude toward people is one of detached tolerance, generally benevolent but impatient, as if she were an aunt who happened also to be a queen or some supernatural entity (this works best in martial-arts fantasies where the character IS a supernatural entity).

Ms. Yeoh aside, I thought the film a rather interesting treatment of a rather uninteresting story, and was particularly interested that it acknowledged the criminal aspect of the film industry in Hong Kong. But I wished the processes of movie-making and the on-set relationships had been shown in more detail, and that the melodramatics near the end had been avoided, being out of key in a relatively realistic story.

Stunt woman Michelle Yeoh finally gets her break in the hardscrabble world of Hong Kong film, when director Sammo Hung's leading lady throws a fit. No, she doesn't get to play the lead, she gets to be a stunt woman on the production, and discovers an unlikely and erratic collection of people who produce the most amazing effects in the sloppiest and most haphazard fashion possible.

Ann Hui's is bolstered by these two performers, as well as the other performers. Like many a Hong Kong production, it has a third act that seems to come out of nowhere to seal the emotional arc of the story, but I'm fine with it and the fine stunt work of Yuk-Sing Ma.

A film that starts strong, with Michelle Yeoh playing a stunt woman and offering the viewer a behind the scenes glance at the making of action movies in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, Yeoh was seriously injured while leaping 18 feet off a bridge for a stunt she didn't consider particularly dangerous, but landed vertically, on her head. Reports vary on the extent of her injuries, from fracturing a few vertebrae, to dislocating her neck and cracking some ribs, to "only" deep-tissue bruising and a cracked rib. She would say later, "I heard a snap in my back when I landed and said, 'Uh-oh, I'm going to paralyzed for life.'" She was in the hospital and in traction for many weeks.

The script was altered so that the film could be completed, but the result is a hodge-podge of tepid romance and an organized crime story. On the positive side, it allowed Yeoh to show off her acting chops, and not unexpectedly, she commands the screen. If you're a fan of hers, this is probably worth seeing. The plot just falls apart, however, meandering through a collection of story lines that lacked cohesive vision. There are several scenes of the guys getting drunk, and the character of the obnoxious young boy was grating. During the end credits we see footage of Yeoh following the stunt that went wrong, which was gripping to say the least but got a little uncomfortable. The crew moving her is alone cringe-inducing even if it was as gently as possible, and it then goes on for too long, almost as if director Ann Hui was trying to over-compensate for the messy second half of the film.

1st watched 1/1/2010 – 3 out of 10 (Dir-Ann Hui): Mixed-up mess of a movie about a stuntwoman and her experiences on and off the set. Michelle Yeah plays the woman who gets work with a crew making what appears to be a low budget kung fu movie in a very un-Hollywood- like set. She is really well liked by the director(Aka. The Boss) and everyone else and then gets more and more responsibilities. A gang randomly attacks the crew every once in awhile and causes havoc(this creates kind of a sub-plot). She has a brief romance with a restaurant owner, goes away from the business, but eventually comes back when this doesn't work out. The gang eventually kills the boss and then she's left to take care of the son, since she feels responsible as part of the crews family. This is basically the whole movie. Every incident seems to happen very quickly without much lead or development done for the characters. The movie comes across like it was chopped to pieces and was intended to be much longer. Characters come in and out of the story, things happen to them, and then we go onto the next scene. There is a central core of characters but in my opinion, this movie shows us a very shoddy bit of directing by an acclaimed Ann Hui. This could have been a good expose on this type of work but instead we get kind of a messed-up soap opera of a movie. If there is a longer director's cut that would be interesting to see but I don't know if it would improve the movie. The makers really come across like they really didn't know what kind of movie they wanted to make and it shows. Avoid this one.

The film tries too hard. It tries to be a behind the scenes look at Hong Kong action film making. And a thriller. And a love story. It also intends to give Michelle Yeoh a chance to play three very different aspects of the same woman. The film spends not enough time on the first theme and too much on the others.

That said, it is an extremely effective little film And more important: it gives Michelle Yeoh the chance to do some of the best acting of her career. She creates a wonderfully complete and charming character as a stunt double getting her big break.

The woman she plays is, especially in the first third, different from anything you have seen her do before. It proves that she is one of the greatest living actresses -- and not just in action films.