As the Light Goes Out

Filled with fire and pathos, this will ignite the interest of some viewers (yes pun intended). That doesn't mean everyone will be thrilled - that being said, the tension of the movie is high and the movie works on a few levels. If you let it that is of course.

If you are ok with Hollywood movies doing that schtick, you should be ok China going all idolizing and going full patriotism and all that. Those things should not matter or rather you should not judge them differently based on the country of origin.

Director Derek Kwok, the same man who brought us the wonderful Gallants, and co-directed with Chow Sing Chi the fantastic Journey To The West: Conquering the Demons - brings us a tight (if not, slightly overly-long), character-driven-disaster-film set around a team of firemen in Hong Kong, on the night of Christmas Eve. In between the melodrama and arguments between comrades, the worst of the worst happens when the gas line to a power-plant catches fire and explodes resulting in a total blackout across the city!

As The Light Goes Out features a top cast with Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue, Simon Yam, Andy On, Hu Jun and many more, all who give stellar performances as the men in uniform. While the first part of the film builds up their relationships, in between some rescues and education on how deadly fires can be, things really kick-off on the half-way mark as the team set out to tackle the blazing inferno at the plant. On top of that, Shawn Yue finds out his son might be in the building, left behind with a couple of friends, from a school trip earlier in the day.

Clichés and heavy drama aside, As The Light Goes Out is actually quite gripping at times, with the thick black smoke often portrayed as a slow moving demonic force, creeping in on its victims who are trapped in its sanctum. While the majority of this is done with pretty decent CGI smoke, it still offers enough tension and fear, along with some stunning visuals and great cinematography - that makes this bitter-sweet Christmas disaster movie (about firemen), quite exciting to watch.

There's plenty of impressive stunt work from Jack Wong Wai Leung, a veteran of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team and the guy behind some work on New Police Story, Hero, SPL, and more. And talking of Mr. Chan - the legend gets a great cameo near the beginning as a recruiting fire-fighter in a TV commercial for the force, dodging asteroids on his motorbike to the theme from Police Story...

Brief, but brilliant!

Not without its flaws, and odd moments of cheesiness, As The Light Goes Out manages to be, for the most part, thrilling and entertaining, with a gripping and intense second half that leads to a big, nail-biting and explosive ending...

Overall: Worth the watch, and something a little different, As The Light Goes Out is an impressive and entertaining piece of Hong Kong cinema!

My first cinema-going in 2014, Hong Kong director/writer Derek Kowk's fifth film is another eulogy to gallant firemen after Pang Brothers' OUT OF INFERNO (2013), which just released in the end of September. The thematic coincidence in such a short span definitely hurts AS THE LIGHT GOES OUT's box office performance, but the film per se, is a solid action flick hinges on an innovative concept of smoke, both literally and figuratively.

After a prologue manifests three friends' (Tse, Yue and On, all firefighters) divergence on an accident during their mission, On is the silent but ambitious one, Yue is the insouciant scapegoat, and Tse denies his oath to keep his hands clean, which sets the keynote of their distinctive path in due course, the film concisely concentrates its story on Christmas Eve 2013, one of the hottest winter in Hong Kong history (introduced by a shoddy apocalyptic advertisement for fireman recruitment stars Jackie Chan) and a typhoon is brewing, a fire hazard in a desolate factory nearby a power plant's gas pipeline and obstinate judgment made by idiotic plant decision-maker precipitates a monstrous conflagration in the plant and complete power blackout in a large portion of Kowloon Peninsula.

The rescue procedure follows a standard yet trite routine, some heroic sacrifice (a hammy Simon Yam is not alone here), some family embroilment (a father must save his son who is entrapped in the plant with his friends on account of the lamest plot arrangement, who invites a gaggle of schoolchildren to visit a power plant on Christmas Eve and unwittingly leaves three of them behind? Come on writers, you can make something less embarrassing!), some casual cannon fodder, some running and jumping set pieces, all in all, culminates with a final bravado invoking a (should be) sensational awesomeness to counteract the common happy ending.

Nicholas Tse anchors a more average Joe impersonation into the role (unlike the usual action hero staple, such as in the most recent THE VIRAL FACTOR 2012), battles against the "smoke" - his deep-rooted guilt, whose ultimate detonating slo-motion shots are sublimated with dashing aesthetic impact to swank the glamor of self-sacrifice. As I mentioned earlier, the smoke element penetrates the film relentlessly, its horror-flick intrusion and murky aura should be credited to the CGI teamwork from Post Production Office Limited (which was founded by Tse in 2003).

Meanwhile, the rest of the cast is plain serviceable, an amalgam of actors from both Hong Kong and mainland China doesn't mirror the awkward incompatibility as in the usual cringe-worthy outputs. Derek Kwok did a decent job superintending a sizable production work under his own belt (his previous wondrous dark horse triumph with GALLANTS 2010 is co-directed with Clement Sze-Kit Cheng, which won BEST PICTURE in Hong Kong Film Award in 2011) and he is positively on the horizon in the HK cinema showbiz.

As The Light Goes Out (救火英雄) is another HK firefighter action thriller film after last year's Out of Inferno (逃出生天).The film is mainly character-driven as it follows a team of firefighters being called upon to stop a small fire at a liquor warehouse. Things were fine at first, until a series of unforeseen events happen that causes the fire starts to spread again to a nearby power plant, threatens to plunge the whole of Hong Kong into darkness during Christmas Eve.

The film shows the brotherhood bond between the leads at first, provide sufficient back stories for mostly all the key characters for the audience to get to know them. It does a good job in balancing the drama and action. The lead and supporting actors provide decent performances in their respective roles as the film progresses. The action sequences in the power plant were quite intense and thrilling enough for the audience to watch. The film also does a good job in showing the real danger behind a fire - the thick smoke, not the flames, that kills. When a person is in a room filled with thick smoke, he/she will be unable to see, breathe or think clearly...constant smoke inhalation can kill a person within minutes.

However, the chaotic shaky camera style is irritating as it makes action scenes quite difficult to follow at times. The CGI smoke and fire doesn't seem to be realistic or believable enough as you continue watching the film. Furthermore, some plot events are questionable and the film suffers from a few too many convenient contrivances to convince. The eventual sacrifice of a key character at the end of the film is simply not convincing enough to be accepted (he could have just throw the cigarette and run towards the locker room). It's also quite challenging to identify who is whom when they're all suited up in their firefighting outfits, helmets and oxygen masks.

The film is said to be dedicated to all the real-life firefighters out there. While it's not a perfect film, the film certainly delivers what is expected from it. Furthermore, there's another surprise cameo from another action star in the film as well.

Rating: 7/10

I was given the chance to watch "Gau foh ying hung" (aka "As the Light Goes Out"). I knew it was a Hong Kong movie, that was essentially all I needed to know to be interested in watching it. I didn't know, however, what the movie was about or who starred in it.

Given the title of the movie, I must admit that I had expected to be in for a horror movie. But it turns out that "As the Light Goes Out" was an action drama about firefighters, for better or worse.

That being said, then I will continue on to saying that "As the Light Goes Out" was actually a surprisingly entertaining and enjoyable movie. And I can't really claim to find firefighting movies all that impressive. However, there was also an overshadowing element of the movie being cartoonish, at an unfortunate level, given the nature of the mainland Chinese firefighter Ocean (played by Jun Hu). That character was just a bit out of place and he seemed to caricature of a heroic firefighter.

"As the Light Goes Out" does have some nice acting talents on the cast list, which includes the like of Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue, Simon Yam, Andy On and Bing Bai. And it gets better, there is a hilarious appearance by none other than Jackie Chan himself. When he does make an appearance, I must admit that the movie had turned from realistic to being a bit too much. But then it turns out to be a nice surprise instead and the movie does revert to its normal course of action.

The action sequences in the movie with all the fire and firefighting was actually quite good, and it definitely felt very real and realistic, and that added a great level of enjoyment to the movie. Actually, I will say that director Chi-kin Kwok manages to make the movie very intense and thrilling, because it feels like you are right there alongside the firefighters in the blaze.

But overly this was a watchable, thrilling and entertaining movie for sure. If you enjoy Hong Kong cinema, then "As the Light Goes Out" is definitely well worth taking the time to sit down and watch.