Hong Kong Cinema

[Mr Sausage]

Tsui Hark discussion moved here.

[yoloswegmaster]

Brand new restored versions of Royal Warriors, Tiger on the Beat, and Full Contact are being released on Blu in Germany. Full Contact is an interesting one as I thought that was among the stack of major titles that were being held by Golden Princess.

[Orlac]

I think Full Contact is owned by Mei Ah so far as home video rights go.

Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon is a similar case, and therefore got a UK BD release recently.

[afilmcionado]

Lan Yu’s restoration has been making the rounds lately – does anyone know if US rights have been snapped up? Film Movement released Center Stage but nothing since then. Really want to watch this one so any information would help, thanks.

[yoloswegmaster]

Unearthed Films will be releasing the notorious CAT III film 'Dr. Lamb' in August.

[Mr Sausage]

Inspired by all the discussion of HK action films in the 88 Films thread, I put on a pair of early Michelle Yeohs I'd never seen.


Royal Warriors (David Chung, 1986)

A dark revenge film mixed with, no joke, a romantic comedy. I can’t say if the mixture works because you watch enough HK stuff you start to feel at home in the tonal shifts. The plot is your familiar B action film. Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Michael Wong (who becomes Yeoh’s love interest) foil a hostage situation on a plane in maybe the best plane-set action scene ever filmed. This sets up a double revenge plot, as the brother-in-arms of one of the men killed on the plane takes revenge on the three while Sanada plots his own counter revenge. It’s gritty and twisty, but also sometimes light and frothy. The craziest part, tho’, is that the war-time backstory and motivations given to the antagonists are more appropriate for heroes. After the third flashback of them selflessly risking their own lives to save each other, pledging brotherhoods right out of the Three Musketeers, you forget they’re all sociopathic murderers! One moment you’re rooting for them to save each other in the jungles of Vietnam, the next you watch as they gun down club patrons for fun. It's so weird. Anyway, the film is all about the physical abilities of the performers, and Yeoh and Sanada are among the best. Yeoh, while not yet a great actress, has charisma and presence to spare and anchors the film; Sanada brings his usual intensity and martial arts skills. Together the two sail through some incredible action scenes. The action isn’t quite as blistering and creative as the Cory Yuen stuff from the same time, but the pace, variety, and physical skills of the performers make for some memorable fights that take full advantage of whatever space they happen in. A great follow up to Yes, Madame for Yeoh.


Magnificent Warriors (David Chung, 1987)

After all the urban thrillers, it’s nice to get this Indiana Jones-style period adventure film. Michelle Yeoh is a gun runner for the Chinese resistance during the Japanese occupation of the 30s. Yeoh is sent by her grandfather, a resistance leader, to retrieve some crucial information with the help of a young, handsome agent she’s to meet on the way. But there’s a classic mix up, with Yeoh taking a gambling nomad, Richard Ng, for the agent she’s supposed to meet. There’s a more consistent tone here, one light-hearted and adventurous. The lower budget is compensated for by some beautiful location work in Tibet and Northern China. I think I preferred this to Jackie Chan’s own Indiana Jones adventure, Armour of God. Chan’s film had interminable stretches of slapstick comedy weighing down the second act. This one’s brisker and more consistently exciting, even if the action never matches Chan’s brilliance. These early Michelle Yeoh films are a lot of fun.

[Michael Kerpan]

Anyone know whether Johnnie To and Ann Hui have (in effect) retired -- given the current situation in Hong Kong?

[Salamanca]

Anyone know whether Johnnie To and Ann Hui have (in effect) retired -- given the current situation in Hong Kong?

Johnnie To has just produced a TV series (roughly translated as Three Lives) for ViuTV in Hong Kong. Ann Hui’s Love After Love was just released late last year in the Mainland. I don’t believe, given the timeline, either activity suggests that they’ve effectively retired. Ann Hui has implied that she may be slowing down her output for other reasons:

“"It's time to plan again." Xu Anhua smiled: "After the epidemic, the way we all look at things is a little different from the past. I did have a few themes before, but for some reason, it doesn't seem feasible to shoot now .I guess it's going to be a while before we do it again, just know how you feel about what's going on."

Xu Anhua mentioned in the last interview of "Making a Movie" that her physical strength is not as good as before, and she may not be able to be a director in the future. In front of the camera, she said, she hopes she can be photographed until she is 75 years old.”

https://m.mingpao.com/ldy/cultureleisur ... 麼這麼難說-訪許鞍華

[Michael Kerpan]

Salamanca - thanks for the update

[therewillbeblus]

Royal Warriors (David Chung, 1986)

A dark revenge film mixed with, no joke, a romantic comedy. I can’t say if the mixture works because you watch enough HK stuff you start to feel at home in the tonal shifts. The plot is your familiar B action film. Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Michael Wong (who becomes Yeoh’s love interest) foil a hostage situation on a plane in maybe the best plane-set action scene ever filmed.

And what a scene! The intensity of the final element of the setpiece, where there's a battle for who will succumb to the explosive decompression in the cabin, is far more riveting than it would be in most films- effectively drawn-out to make you feel the suffocating powerlessness of the situation, even physiologically so with the villain for a while! The film as a whole is definitely chaotically shrugging off its tonal inconsistencies, but it's brazenly committed to squeezing every narrative idea (vs. an emphasis on insane stunt ideas in other films, which are present here too of course) into its skeleton, and works marvelously in rhythm with its relentless forward momentum that hops between multiple different character trajectories. Perhaps it's that act of a splitting narrative that allows the schizophrenic moods to satisfactorily blend into one unified, messy spirit. I don't know, but I do know I need to see more films like this, stat

[therewillbeblus]

Magnificent Warriors (David Chung, 1987)

After all the urban thrillers, it’s nice to get this Indiana Jones-style period adventure film. Michelle Yeoh is a gun runner for the Chinese resistance during the Japanese occupation of the 30s. Yeoh is sent by her grandfather, a resistance leader, to retrieve some crucial information with the help of a young, handsome agent she’s to meet on the way. But there’s a classic mix up, with Yeoh taking a gambling nomad, Richard Ng, for the agent she’s supposed to meet. There’s a more consistent tone here, one light-hearted and adventurous.

Wow, the farce in the gambling den with Ng is comedy gold- from well-timed explosive sight gags to Marx Bros-esque confounding word vomit (il)logic. The scene sets the high expectation for the rest of the film: expertly shot choreography that makes milder action appear way more exciting than it would in another filmmaker’s hands. It’s still very impressive choreography though- better than I could have anticipated from a low-budget Indiana Jones HK knockoff, and the most breezy fun I’ve had watching a movie on a minute for minute, pound for pound basis in a while.

I had to look up David Chung and, of course, he was predominantly a cinematographer- who would collaborate with Tsui Hark on a few occasions (including serving as one of the six photographers for Once Upon a Time in China). Despite only directing six gigs (one co-helmed with Hark) ending in the late 80s, he continued to work through the mid-90s in the cinematography dept. After these two gems, I’m planning to check out the other three (I can’t find his first film on backchannels), as well as Yeoh’s other 80s star vehicle, Easy Money, before she joined Chan in Police Story 3/Supercop in the 90s and her career took off. This continues to be a rich project where one discovery spawns several more like a spider web- fun stuff!

[Mr Sausage]

Tsui Hark also produced Chung's last two films, and acted in I Love Maria / Roboforce. IMDB lists him as a co-director on the latter as well, but Lisa Morton in her book on Tsui doesn't mention it, listing him only as producer and actor.

I still can't get over just how good Michelle Yeoh's first three vehicles are. Crazy to think she retired soon after making them, only coming back to the industry in 1992 following her divorce from her former producer.

[therewillbeblus]

Agreed, I don't have the highest hopes for Easy Money but still holding out for a 4/4. While Yes, Madam! is unquestionably the best of the lot, Magnificent Warriors was just a wall-to-wall blast, and between that and KK/Itami's Sweet Home, I know exactly what my two new go-to comfort-food movies are going to be next time I need to drown in a candy/soda slumber

[Mr Sausage]

Heroic Trio (Johnnie To, 1993)

A bizarre superhero film. A powerful eunuch is stealing babies so he can crown one of them Emperor of China, and it’s up to Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh, and Maggie Cheung to stop him. You’d think with those three actresses, Johnnie To behind the camera, and Ching Siu-Tung as action director, this would be an action masterpiece and not a stilted, goofy mess. At least Maggie Cheung’s having a good time; she struts around in punky leathers, garters, and tousled curls, all sarcasm and cheek. It’s a fun performance. Anthony Wong’s here, too, being weird, eating his own lopped off appendages, grunting endlessly. As for the action, there was crazy stuff like the spinning motorcycle, and the finale was impressive (aside from the wanton child deaths anyway), but mainly the fights were brief and shot in confusing darkness or with running crowds obscuring the frenetic choreography. The parade of loony ideas and hard right turns was consistent enough to keep my attention, but the movie was flat overall, only ascending to the gonzo heights it promised right at the end. This movie is all about the last ten minutes. Aside from that, after all the great Hong Kong action I’ve been watching, this was a let down.


Heroic Trio 2: Executioners (Johnnie To & Ching Siu-Tung, 1993)

Opens with a hard right turn: a nuclear explosion before the start of the movie has turned the world into a post apocalyptic wasteland populated by mutants. The few remaining cities are gripped by a water crisis. Meanwhile, a mutant who acquired genius from the radiation (and dresses like the Phantom of the Opera) has set himself up as a god of the wasteland, controlling all the water with his unique purification system. There’re some surprisingly complex politics going on, with the police, the governing elite, the protest groups, the terrorists, and the profiteers all forming the parts of a vast moving system the Trio have to navigate, with the Trio’s motives divided between duty, money, and motherhood. With images of police violence, riots, conspiratorial thinking, and social discontent, and a subplot about a coup against a democratic government by internal fascist elements, the film feels contemporary. It’s also stylish, with its racing camera, creative angles, and slow motion inserts; but, as with the first, the action can feel sluggish, the pace and rhythm of the fights interrupted by an overuse of slow motion. This is easily a much better movie than the first, really committing to the logic of its setting and the stakes of its narrative.

[therewillbeblus]

Easy Money was even worse than I feared it might be- after kicking ass for three films straight, Yeoh is given nearly nothing to do- she hardly speaks, has no screen presence (literally absent for long stretches, and without asserting herself when she is 'there'), and doesn't use any of her physical abilities or skillsets. The first half of this film is essentially a slow-burn slice of mostly-wordless banality as characters sneak around without engaging in any exciting action or espionage tactics, which the film clearly thinks it's doing. Yeoh is involved in one of the lamest, most lifeless car chases I've ever seen, and there are sincere musical interludes to meditate on some star-crossed romance that feels entirely unearned by the lack of spark in either principal, let alone their 'chemistry'. I guess the final heist is shot okay, and I got some very minor kicks out of some examples of the central male character's hostile dynamics with his peers, but I've already forgotten what these are. Yawn

[therewillbeblus]

It's A Drink! It's A Bomb! (David Chung)

Before he directed a composed Michelle Yeoh in two action-packed adventure films, Chung helmed this madcap crime comedy revolving around three idiotic social misfits who get roped into a dangerous conspiracy to find a soda can bomb. A 'wrong man' narrative of serial misunderstandings along a sprawling chase of cat-and-mouse commences, but the real treat here is the colorful cast of characters played by George Lam, Maggie Cheung, and John Shum, and their vibrant interplay is what will make this film either soar or plummet for viewers.

The film is comically self-aware of its breezy genre limits, starting with the ridiculous character introductions. Lam comes in as a motorcycling passerby who is brought into the chaos without consent- though he's more than up for the task! As the inconsequential man-on-the-run who triggers the events begins to explain the plot, Lam shushes him to respond that he doesn't care and only needs to know if this man is "a good guy or a bad guy," and then proceeds to get really into the action, taking the commanding role in telling the double agent on the chase not to worry so much- reversing the expectations of roles in typical wrong-man pics! Lam is the smartest of the central trio, but right away we have this offbeat sense of an adrenaline junkie’s go-with-the-flow attitude seeking thrills even at the risk of trumping self-preservation, a man so eager to assert his dominance over a situation that it clouds judgment. He's also the most effectively silly one, who doesn’t get as many opportunities to go full-unhinged, but when he does, completely nails it (like the wildly unnecessary, theatrically aggressive ploy to manipulate a stingy gas station attendant into letting them use his phone. After seeing Lam most recently give a sincere perf in Boat People and a vapid one in Easy Money, it's heartening to see him absolutely kill this somewhat-measured humorous role. It's the toughest part in the film to pull off, not to mention the one that anchors the success of its many moving parts, and he really shows versatile acting chops here, rising to the challenge with gusto.

Maggie Cheung’s introduction is also bizarre, trading weird insults and brow-raising insinuations with her grandfather, who goes to great lengths to provoke her around being unattractive while she kinda-sorta frames him as a suitor (the bit where she bikes next to his car is so strange), yet both are amicable throughout this nonchalant boundary-crossing exchange. Cheung plays a total ditz, and she's not given quite as much breathing room to profess her charisma amidst the two large male personalities resembling polarized forms of recklessness, but she's a welcome addition to the crew all the same. And then there’s Shum's cabbie with premeditated provocative road rage (or, just, rage).. a total hothead and the loudest and most impulsive imbecile of the bunch. When they finally get together their darkly comic re-enactment of a murder for the lead detective is hysterical, and the eccentric and endlessly entertaining social dynamics don’t let up from there. It’s not as impressive on the action front as Chung’s next couple of outings in the director’s chair, but it’s very engaging and economical paced, with slapstick action and intelligently-constructed farce.

The film plays a bit like Dumb and Dumber, only in a trio with more fully-formed personalities detailing each principal’s idiosyncratic social deficits, which are revealed in reference to the other counterparts. Such smart screenwriting reminds me of The Apartment's character introductions, only, you know, goofy and shallow and directed purely at how to gain the biggest laughs from interpersonal relations. The script and actors know exactly how to collaborate with one another’s energies and quirks to maximize lunacy and concoct impressively elaborate gags with confidence. There are a couple of hysterically inane scenes where they prepare to face the bad guys in a standoff on the road at twilight, or when they taunt each other when kidnapped to passive-aggressively force ideas of ante-upping torture methods into the minds of their captors! This is the kind of film where the central trio of idiots defy the internal logic of their own idiocy- recognizing a mole in the police force because he believes the parts of their zany narratives even they realize are stupid… but after they spent an exhaustively inventive scene of verbal sparring trying to convince a policeman sitting in the very same chair of the validity of their claims, offended at his doubt! And the film culminates in a service of horseplay action with soda can MacGuffins that goes on far longer than it should, yet manages to work as the filmmakers stuff various costume ideas they just couldn't bear to leave out, sticking the landing that's totally in step with this shaggy dog tale. Fun stuff!

[Mr Sausage]

David Chung seems pretty reliable. Wonder why his director filmography is so small.

I Love Maria / Roboforce (David Chung, 1988)

Sci-fi insanity from Hong Kong. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai of all people plays an annoying, incompetent photojournalist, while Sally Yeh plays the titular Maria, a gang leader turned robot. More fun is John Shum and Tsui Hark reproducing their Yes, Madame chemistry. Watching them endlessly electrocute each other or try to outmanoeuver the other with ever more complicated commands to the robot is hysterical. It’s like two brothers fighting. The plot? I don’t know. Something about gang members using high tech robots and the attempt to stop it? It’s all over the place; I’m pretty sure they made it up as they went along. Like so much good HK filmmaking, it makes up for its low budget and incoherent script with a restless, unpredictable visual sense and an overflow of imagination. It stretches its limited special effects to the utmost to capture every possibility in a given situation, mixing equal amounts of jokes and action into whatever’s happening. Madcap fun from start to finish. I don’t much like HK comedy, but this one often had me giggling with its goofy humour.


Wicked City (Peter Mak Tai-Kit, 1992)

Holy shit, Tatsuya Nakadai’s in this! Tsui Hark is a huge manga and anime devotee, and so wrote, produced, (and according to Michelle Reis, sometimes directed) this adaptation of the titular manga. This movie is wild. It’s about cops hunting down shape-shifting, tentacle sprouting, eye-glowing demons called Raptors in the months leading up to the 1997 handover. The film is all excess style. Endless unmotivated whip pans, canted angles, track ins/outs, slow motion. Heavy greens, red, and blues saturate every scene. The film amps up the trademark Tsui visuals to create a dynamic comic book feel. Tsui would try for the same thing in the two Black Mask films, to varying success, but this is the most unrestrained example of it. A textbook case of how to make a bad movie good through sheer creative effort and imagination. The fact that nothing is properly set up turns this into one long experience of narrative and visual novelty. I had no idea what to expect from one minute to the next and loved every bit of it.

[Finch]

Dreadnaught, one of two Yuen Biao films released by Eureka this month, is a lot fun. It was my first time viewing, and played a bit like a giallo-adjacent martial arts film. The villain is a criminal on the run from justice and he stalks Yuen Biao's scaredy cat character for much of the film because Biao is carrying an amulet, the rattling sound of which triggers flashbacks to Painted Face's wife dying in their confrontation with the law in the film's opening. The stalking/chase scenes include point of view shots and heavy breathing that could have been lifted from Argento, or Bava if Yuen Woo-Ping had been more theatrical with his lighting. There is a fair amount of mugging from the supporting actors, some of whom appeared in the earlier Magnificent Butcher, but the friendship between Biao and Kar-Leung is rather touching and it provides some of the better comedy in the film. Possibly my favorite Yuen Woo-Ping film yet. If you had to prioritise between Dreadnaught and Knockabout, I'd go with the former though the Sammo Hung film is no slouch either. The comedy is harder to sit through (not as patience testing as The Odd Couple but I might sample the shorter export cut next time) but the fighting, as always with Sammo, is excellent, and Knockabout is an even stronger showcase for Biao's extraordinary acrobatics.

[therewillbeblus]

David Chung seems pretty reliable. Wonder why his director filmography is so small.

I Love Maria / Roboforce (David Chung, 1988)

Sci-fi insanity from Hong Kong. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai of all people plays an annoying, incompetent photojournalist, while Sally Yeh plays the titular Maria, a gang leader turned robot. More fun is John Shum and Tsui Hark reproducing their Yes, Madame chemistry. Watching them endlessly electrocute each other or try to outmanoeuver the other with ever more complicated commands to the robot is hysterical. It’s like two brothers fighting. The plot? I don’t know. Something about gang members using high tech robots and the attempt to stop it? It’s all over the place; I’m pretty sure they made it up as they went along. Like so much good HK filmmaking, it makes up for its low budget and incoherent script with a restless, unpredictable visual sense and an overflow of imagination. It stretches its limited special effects to the utmost to capture every possibility in a given situation, mixing equal amounts of jokes and action into whatever’s happening. Madcap fun from start to finish. I don’t much like HK comedy, but this one often had me giggling with its goofy humour.

I don't really like most HK comedy that I've seen either but I'm finding these selective viewings to be fire ..Wait, do I actually like it after all, or am just mining gold with this streak? Anyways, stuff like Shum pointing a gun at a guy and saying, "You're an animal.. I hate animals!" is just as puzzlingly hilarious as everything else in this film, scaling from those small head-tilting moments, to more intentional goofiness vis a vis the buddy-idiocy dynamic, to giant WTF setpieces that force laughs in a zoom-out re-realization that there's no investment in the story. The tonal inconsistencies played for laughs are great- I especially loved the sentimental music scored over Hark and Shum transitioning into hiding out together, ironically contrasted with their witless, manic dynamic. In general, it was a pleasure to have these two at the center of a film- Yes, Madam! is great for packing so much in together and balancing their banter with thrilling action setpieces, diverse tonal traction, and an inviting narrative structure, but this is a straight-up hangout movie set in a sci-fi adventure tale featuring two-thirds of that comic arc, and it's something I need more of in my life (cue: side projects to complete Shum and Hark's actor filmographies...?)

Unless David Chung's final film at the helm is a total disaster, I have no idea why anyone would do anything but give him massive amounts of dough to do whatever the fuck he wanted to forever. What a strange and amazing career, dipping into all these different 'genres' but essentially making the same kind of freewheeling bonkers film each time. Maybe it'll be worth looking into all the folks Tsui Hark and co associated with to see how large this Cool Club really was..

[Mr Sausage]

Most of Tsui's acting was in cameos, but he did give himself a main role alongside Sam Hui and Teddy Robin Kwan in his own film, Working Class (I wasn't a big fan, tho').

John Shum was in a couple of the Lucky Stars films alongside Jackie, Sammo, and Richard Ng. Maybe I should finally check those out. He also has a small comic role as a pianist in the best scene in Tsui's All the Wrong Clues....

[Mr Sausage]

Dreadnaught, one of two Yuen Biao films released by Eureka this month, is a lot fun. It was my first time viewing, and played a bit like a giallo-adjacent martial arts film. The villain is a criminal on the run from justice and he stalks Yuen Biao's scaredy cat character for much of the film because Biao is carrying an amulet, the rattling sound of which triggers flashbacks to Painted Face's wife dying in their confrontation with the law in the film's opening. The stalking/chase scenes include point of view shots and heavy breathing that could have been lifted from Argento, or Bava if Yuen Woo-Ping had been more theatrical with his lighting. There is a fair amount of mugging from the supporting actors, some of whom appeared in the earlier Magnificent Butcher, but the friendship between Biao and Kar-Leung is rather touching and it provides some of the better comedy in the film. Possibly my favorite Yuen Woo-Ping film yet. If you had to prioritise between Dreadnaught and Knockabout, I'd go with the former though the Sammo Hung film is no slouch either. The comedy is harder to sit through (not as patience testing as The Odd Couple but I might sample the shorter export cut next time) but the fighting, as always with Sammo, is excellent, and Knockabout is an even stronger showcase for Biao's extraordinary acrobatics.

This was pretty good. A fun early kung fu horror comedy. There were shots right out of Argento and Carpenter (a masked face reveal in a dark alley was pure Halloween). Funny that the next time Yuen Biao would star in a Wong Fei-Hung film, he'd also be an unsuccessful prospective student with a lot of athletic ability but no martial arts skills, leading to a lot of acrobatic fight avoidance. There was less painful comedy than Magnificent Butcher (and fewer sex murders, which is always a plus), but also fewer fight scenes. Ultimately I felt the films were of a piece, and could even be sequels given Kwan Tak-Hing again plays Wong Fei-Hung. The fight in the opera theatre with the Peking Opera 'double' was unsettling and genuinely unique.

[Finch]

The confrontation with the double was my favorite sequence in the film for the same reason.

[therewillbeblus]

Enemy Shadow (Peter Mak Tai-Kit)

I'm planning to check out Wicked City soon, but first decided to throw on Peter Mak Tai-Kit's most well-known film (I think? On a cursory search, this is at least the most prominent title of his available online), and it's a bit of a mess. The first two acts are drowned in meandering voiceover narration and way too many blurry slow-motion action (or non-action) scenes- like WKW’s hazy aesthetic applied to trivial and significant material alike, and it doesn’t work. I suppose the intent of both of these pieces is to craft a meditative reflection on the protagonist's disillusionment through relentless existential introspection, including isolation within social and romantic(?) subplots, as a result of her commitment to undo the self-imposed identity mark of freezing during the triggering traumatic episode. However, this only really becomes effective in the last act of dark, murky, stark violence. The finale is strong, and respectfully opts for subtle ruthlessness vs any kind of glamorous setpiece that would negate the realistic brutality of this milieu swallowing and birthing the character's drives for the sake of concocting a false sense of gratification most principals seek when setting off on these one-note noirish philosophical revenge courses.

SpoilerShow

I appreciate how the purging fantasy in the end, where our heroine declares she has rid herself of her soul's "shade" or whatever, is just a mirage of catharsis, and we see her die alone, blending in with bleakly-colored trash bags and sewage in the most de-romanticized fashion to end the film!

None of this saves the film though.

[therewillbeblus]

Web of Deception (David Chung)

Chung’s last film as director sheds the tonal delirium and narrative chaos of his previous work and opts instead for a contained paint-by-numbers neo-noir blueprint. The problem isn't his commitment to a genre, but the lack of passion in this lifeless composition, which fails to emphasize the multiple threads or stakes attached to motivations driving the plot mechanics. The entire back half is an elongated 'situation' that's ripe for suspenseful amplification, but it's executed with a monotonous drone score and no technical decisions around camerawork, blocking, or intuitive edits to assist in boiling the excitement beyond a flaccid simmer. It's not a bad film, just nothing exceptional any way you slice it, and if this is the route Chung was going I'm not surprised he returned to the cinematographer's chair... I just wish he let loose again, after four excellent pieces of evidence for this working on his resume before this sluggish affair. The climax ignites some promising thrills and almost goes for a cruel, drawn-out death to culminate its mayhem -one that would have been wholly deserved and somewhat cathartic- but chickens out, in step with the safe mode the rest of the film is operating in.. Nods to The Shining and Blood Simple don’t do it any favors, and neither do the twists nor fatalism in the film's closing moment, which feel tacked on and unearned. The loss of creative magic from Chung's established manic ambitions is deeply felt, and it's a frustrating way to go out.


My Father is a Hero (Cory Yuen)

Yuen begins crafting this film by inviting us into a gritty, bleak milieu, suffocating action setpieces with his invasive, sprawling camerawork, bringing intensity to every action- including brushing teeth(!), which is where the other polar-opposite flavor of devout silliness comes into play. Jet Li is a tough undercover cop who is tragically removed from his family and must keep his life a secret, which traumatizes his son and disallows him from being present for other befallen tragedies. Also, he kicks the shit out of dogs, spars against a hammy foe straight out of an early Connery Bond, cartoonishly twirls a baton around in an opponent's mouth for shits and giggles in the middle of a battle, and, yes, uses his son as a weapon tied to a rope to fend off a three against one-and-a-half scenario... gotta play those odds! His son also gets into some absurdly skilled martial arts fights both with Li and without. There's a scene where all his classmates are bullying him because his dad is rumored to be a criminal with relentless cruelty, and the kid just takes it, but then these boys kill the ants he plays with during recess, and the kid just destroys this group of other ten year old boys. I mean, like, masterclass black belt stuff, and the other kids are somehow also just only slightly worse than him, so it’s a real battle. Moral of the story: Don’t fuck with this kid’s ants, he loves 'em. Then in the end, the kid is apparently suddenly over his mother's death (which Li has not yet processed) and proceeds to nonchalantly ses Li up with a lady cop who was after him but then somehow realized he might actually be a good guy from Li's dying wife's last words and then surmises that he might actually be a cop instead of a criminal and tells the kid this with utmost confidence as she makes said impulsive conclusion. Interspersed between these moments of Tone Two are more gloomy and acutely turbulent action scenes, which are very impressive- including an early grisly shootout, a battle that leads Li onto and into a truck, and the big final battle pre-kidtossing, which is incredibly well-staged and liberally shot from all angles with dynamic, sharp, and inventive direction. This is a pretty bizarre film.

[Mr Sausage]

In the Line of Duty IV (Yuen Woo-Ping, 1989)

Hong Kong production companies just did whatever the fuck. Michelle Yeoh’s first two starring vehicles, Yes, Madame and Royal Warriors, a pair of unrelated action films, were repurposed after the fact into a film series called In the Line of Duty, no films of which carried that title until the third film (unseen by me). Michelle Yeoh isn’t even in any of the others, she’s been replaced by Cynthia Khan playing an analogous character. Also, no joke, Cynthia Khan’s screen name is an amalgam of Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Khan (Yeoh’s early screen name), ie. the stars of Yes, Madame. Add to the cast Donnie Yen, the great Yuen Woo-Ping as director, and you have this exciting, incoherent movie. Khan is a poor replacement for Yeoh; she has pretty good moves, but no charisma or screen presence to speak of. Donnie Yen, tho’, is always a pleasure, his martial arts prowess without compare. He does well as the out of control cop on the warpath. Funnily, the main character is neither Yen nor Khan’s police officers, but a dock worker caught up in the plot, played by Yuen Woo-Ping’s brother, Yuen Yat-Chor. He’s an able martial artist with a goofy face, so he gets a lot of the comedy along with numerous fight scenes. The first half hour set in America is a decent action movie, but when the plot moves to Hong Kong the film ascends to some heart-pumping insanity. There’s a fight scene that happens all over a moving van, literally every surface but the bottom, with the real actors just hanging from the van’s windows or grill as it careens along. It’s nuts. The movie’s pretty good. Not brilliant, but a fine example of the fists and guns stuff with a number of creative set-pieces, large and small.