SFFILM HK Cinema ’20: Still Human

It is a time of blacklists and potential reprisals for Hong Kong artists who support HK’s democratic aspirations and traditional way of life. Anthony Wong Chau-sang has been told he is not on the “official” list, but his job offers from major HK studios still dried up, even before the imposition of the Orwellian “National Security” law. Yet, the world-famous star (who is openly flirting with accepting Taiwanese citizenship) has maintained his high-profile career and artistic integrity in indie films and legit theater. Ironically, he could very well be expressing his progressive values even more now in projects like Oliver Chan Siu-kuen’s Still Human, which screens tomorrow as the opening film of SFFILM’s annual Hong Kong Cinema series.

Leung Cheong-wing is difficult to handle, but it is hard to blame the former construction worker for his bitterness. A freak accident consigned him to a wheelchair, requiring an in-home care-giving (in his tiny “two bed room” flat). The only nurses willing to accept such a gig are from the Philippines, but they never stay long, because of his temper. Evelyn Santos is the latest recruit, but family difficulties back home give her a strong motivation to stay.

Even before the accident, Leung was largely alienated from his family. However, his younger former co-worker Cheung Fai provides a bit of a support network. Initially, Leung is gruffly dismissive of Santos and she tries to play dumb in response, but as anyone who has seen Intouchables or dozens of other films can predict, a rapport starts to grow between them. Soon, the old grouch is even encouraging her dreams of a photography career, sometimes without her even knowing it.

This will probably sound somewhat conventional and predictable to American patrons, but films addressing themes of disability, aging, and immigrant workers (strictly legal in Santos’s case) have considerably more novelty in Hong Kong—and they are likely to get even rarer, given the chilling effect of Beijing’s crackdown on HK liberties. Regardless, Leung is a perfect role for Wong’s talents and sensibilities. Never indulging in mawkish shtick, Wong plays the cranky codger with usual subtlety and complexity. There is a halting, start-stop pace to the development of his relationship with Santos, which gives it credibility.

Abertoir ’17: The Sleep Curse

Heather Langenkamp and Freddy Krueger’s other victims would be jealous of Dr. Lam Sik-ka and his latest patient, because no matter what they do, they cannot drift off to sleep. Yet, they still manage to have nightmares in Herman Yau’s The Sleep Curse (trailer here), which screens at this year’s Abertoir: The International Horror Festival of Wales.

Dr. Lam is a man of science, but not exclusively. He has seen uncanny things and visited his share of mediums. Neither he or his former girlfriend Monique want to end up like her older brother, whose mental collapse due to supernatural sleep deprivation takes place during the prologue. It turns out their respective fathers met the same fate, but it isn’t a hereditary condition. It is a curse dating back to the Japanese occupation.

Quite inconveniently (for a host of reasons), Lam’s decent but passive father Lam Sing was involuntarily recruited to serve as a clerk and translator to the Japanese commander. Part of his duties involve coordinating with Chow Fook, the collaborator managing the local so-called “comfort station.” Lam’s heart aches for the women enslaved there, but when his Japanese masters force him to make a pseudo-Sophie’s Choice, it sets off a chain of very bad karma, which unfolds in a series of flashbacks.

The prospect of using war crimes committed against comfort women as the catalyst for a horror film is admittedly dicey, but it certainly reflects still potent (and officially sanctioned) anti-Japanese prejudices. Intriguingly, the film is also set in 1990, pre-handover, at a time when many Hong Kongers were having nightmares. It is therefore easy to sense ghosts from two eras haunting the film. Initially, Yau seems more inclined to evoke feelings of uneasiness while maintaining a general sense of mystery, until total bedlam breaks in in the third act. We’re talking totally nuts here.

Regardless, in a dual role, Anthony Wong makes a credible Peter Cushing figure as Dr. Lam and is aptly tragic as the ill-fated Lam Sing. Likewise, Michelle Wai also shows tremendous range as both Man Ching and Man Woon, two twins of drastically differing temperaments, separated by cruel fate and Lam Sing. Jojo Goh only has one role, but she still makes an impression playing Monique partly as a femme fatale and partly as an increasingly vulnerable and agitated patient.

Herman Yau is maybe not quite as prolific as Takeshi Miike, but he certainly does not lack for a work ethic or ready financing. Despite turning out a steady stream of hit action movies and comedies, he still exhibits a distinctive touch for supernatural fare. Perfect for fans of the Nightmare Detective franchise, The Sleep Curse screens Thursday night (11/16), as part of Abertoir 2017.

HK Cinema at SFFS ’17: 77 Heartbreaks

Break-up are often measured numerically. There are fifty ways to leave your lover and ten things I hate about you. The underappreciated Eva Lui comes up with seventy-seven reasons to dump Adam Cheung’s sorry butt. He will read them for himself when he comes across her journal in Herman Yau’s 77 Heartbreaks (trailer here), which screens during the San Francisco Film Society’s annual Hong Kong Cinema series.

Lui understood Cheung had family issues, so she cut him a lot of slack. To antagonize his father, Cheung quite his job as a solicitor, becoming a kick-boxing instructor instead. Yet, one day, Lui up and leaves. This deeply depresses Cheung, but he doesn’t do any real soul searching over it. In fact, he passively falls into a relationship with Mandy, a love-struck student. As it happens, she will be the first to read Lui’s “77 Heartbreaks” journal, a volume purchased from the mysterious Heartbeat Shutter store. There almost seems to be a bit of magic to it. Regardless, it crystallizes Lui’s thoughts and gives Mandy fair warning.

Arguably, the various Chinas are becoming the world’s leading producer of rom-coms. Seriously, when was the last a Hollywood relationship comedy justified its space on a hard-drive? However, despite its rom-com elements, 77 Heartbreaks is neither very rom or com. Instead, Erica Li’s adaptation of her own novel is more of a tragedy and a withering indictment of male complacency. Although, in all honesty, there are not going to be a lot of guys willing to defend Cheung, who rather revoltingly, backs into a relationship with a woman just as attractive as Lui and even more eager to make it work, yet he treats her like dirt.

Strong and sensitive, Charlene Choi is terrific as Lui, while you could say Pakho Chow fully commits as an actor, making Cheung as self-centered and un-self-aware as could ever be humanly possible. However, Michelle Wai’s achingly vulnerable performance as Mandy will really make the audience want to line up to beat Cheung with their soap wrapped in their towels, in the manner of Full Metal Jacket. Not surprisingly, veteran Anthony Wong steals a few scenes as Lui’s boss, Solicitor Pak and Kara Hui cranks up the grace and dignity as Lui’s mother. Yet, the film’s secret trump card is Francis Ng as Shutter, the eccentric but profoundly humane photographer and silent partner in Heartbeat Shutter.

You have to give Yau and Li credit for never taking the easy way out. This isn’t like a slightly disappointing day for Bridget Jones. It is about coming to terms with the disappointments of life and the mortality of loved ones. Wisely, they also refrain from counting down every last heartbreak, concentrating on the general trajectory of the relationship instead. Considerably deeper than it looks, 77 Heartbreaks is recommended for fans youth dramas and break-up films like Singles, when it screens this Saturday (9/30) as part of the SFFS’s Hong Kong Cinema.

Maggie Cheung at Metrograph: The Heroic Trio

Granted, Anita Mui was playing a completely different Wonder Woman, but Gal Gadot still has a tough act to follow. The Cantonese superheroine also had her own super-team, but they will not realize it until come together at the eleventh hour. Frankly, Warner Brothers might as well scrap their upcoming reboot, because who is going to care after the Metrograph reminds us of the spectacle that is Johnnie To’s The Heroic Trio (trailer here), which screens as part of their retrospective series Maggie Cheung: Center Stage.

Wonder Woman fights crime, as well she should, as the alter ego of Tung, the wife of incorruptible Inspector Lau. Ching Ching, a.k.a. Sam, a.k.a., a.k.a. Third Chan, a.k.a. Invisible Girl is a reluctant criminal, bound to serve a supernatural eunuch determined to revive China’s imperial governance through infernal means. That leaves Chat or Thief Catcher or Mercy, a bounty hunter somewhere in between. She is played by Maggie Cheung, who rocks the wardrobe and flashes plenty of action chops.

There is a crime wave sweeping Hong Kong and not even the police chief’s family is safe. At the behest of Evil Master (the name tells you all you need to know), Sam (let’s use her shortest name) has abducted eighteen newborn infants, with one more to go. One of those so-called “princes” will become the new emperor, while the rest will be mutated into ogre-like killing machines, like the finger-eating Ninth Chan.

Wonder Woman is out to stop the abductions, using inside information gleaned from her husband. Upon learning his infant son is the next target, the chief hires Thief Catcher to capture Sam, but this turns out to be a costly decision when the mercenary makes a small tactical mistake. It very nearly costs her life as well, but both Wonder Woman and Sam intercede to save her. Eventually, Sam is going to join them in the fight for justice, once Ninth Chan gives her that extra bit of heart-breaking motivation.

As a film, Heroic Trio is pretty darned nuts. To basically calls and raises John Woo, cranking the fog machine up to eleven and including at least one scene with birds. If you are the pedantic sort, this film just might make your head explode, but it has massive guts. Kids die in this movie—like, a lot of them. Yet, it is still great fun, in large measure thanks to Cheung. She plays the prima donna bounty hunter to the hilt, preening for the press and laying down ultra-stylish beat-downs.

All three heroines definitely got the memo and they came to play. Michelle Yeoh gets to be the most tragic, whereas Mui develops some pleasing chemistry with Damian Lau as the clueless Inspector husband, but they all kick butt and exude a dangerous Irma Vep-like allure. Lau is indeed solid in support while Anthony Wong radiates evil as Ninth Chan. It is always strange to see him in these early thuggish roles, knowing he would evolve into an actor of tremendous gravitas and an outspoken activist.

The term “over the top” does not do justice to the lunacy of The Heroic Trio, but it is tough to beat the combination of Cheung, Yeoh, and Mui. They just don’t make superhero movies like this anymore. Highly recommended for fans of any and all involved, The Heroic Trio screens this Thursday (12/15) at Metrograph, as part of Maggie Cheung: Center Stage, along with other unforgettable Cheung films, including Ashes of Time Redux, Irma Vep, and fittingly Center Stage.

Old School Kung Fu ’16: Big Bullet

Evidently, Hong Kong was a city almost entirely without cell phones in 1996. That would change in a hurry, but their aptitude for action films remains undiminished. In 1996, Benny Chan was also relatively new to the action genre, but his reputation was quickly transformed with Golden Harvest’s release of Big Bullet (trailer here), which screens this weekend as part of Subway’s Cinema’s Old School Kung Fu 2016, with the support of Warner Archive, who have included the HK policier in their series of Golden Harvest classics on MOD (manufactured on demand) DVD (to order, fans must visit The Warner Archive Collection: warnerarchive.com).

After the wildly incompetent and possibly slightly bent Inspector Guan leads his major crimes team on a nearly disastrous raid, soon-to-be Sgt. Bill Chu subsequently explains his disappointment with his fists. Unfortunately, it will be Chu who is busted down in rank and transferred to an emergency response team. However, his reputation proceeds him. Most of his new team members are in awe of the in/famous cop, but not the strictly-by-the-book Jeff Chiu.

Naturally, their contrasting temperaments will lead to conflict when Chu starts pursing Bird and the Professor, two hardcore gangsters who killed his best friend during their freshly launched crime spree. Technically, they are Guan’s case, but he refuses to heed any of Chu’s warnings. That forces Zhu and his team to go rogue, which is fine with most of them.

Big Bullet is a perfect example of how super-slick, uber-stylish execution can make a workaday narrative shine like a diamond. Although there is plenty of fighting, it isn’t what you usually consider a Kung Fu movie, but whatever. The important thing is the action sequences are big-picture in scope but clearly and tightly staged. They all look great on-screen.

It is pretty crazy to watch a relatively young Sean Lau Ching-wan kicking butt as Chu. In a nod to reality, the soon-to-be-late Inspector Yang (played by ever reliable Francis Ng) tells him he is getting a little “stocky” for a cowboy-copper. Maybe so, but he is still all kinds of steely. It is also pretty nuts taking in the now stately Anthony Wong as Bird, the psycho-sleaze, but he is as intense as usual. However, it is Theresa Lee who steals a bunch of scenes as Apple, the girl-next-door patrol officer with mad martial arts skills. She adds the right amount of comic relief, whereas Spencer Lam slightly overdoes it as their Dan, the old veteran of their emergency response van.

Chan really earned his spurs with some massively-charged but totally street level and almost realistic action sequences. He keeps raising the stakes and boosting the adrenaline quite deftly. Of course he had the advantage of what now looks like an incredible all-star cast, who will not disappoint their more recently converted fans. Totally recommended for action connoisseurs, Big Bullet screens this Friday (4/8) and Sunday (4/10) as part of Old School Kung Fu at the Metrograph and is available for sale online at Warner Archive.

Lawless Kingdom: The Four Return

Considering the Divine Constabulary gets to investigate all the cool supernatural crimes, while Department Six is stuck with the boring human cases, inter-agency rivalry is probably inevitable. However, it becomes quite pitched when the leader of the former is accused of murdering the commander of the latter. Everyone should probably know better, but they have to admit the evidence looks pretty bad. Some kind of scheme is afoot involving crimes from the past in Gordon Chan & Janet Chun’s Lawless Kingdom (trailer here), their sequel to The Four, which releases today on DVD from Lionsgate.

Based on the 1970s wuxia novels, The Four are like Song Dynasty Avengers, whose powers are derived from chi. When it comes to that chi, their leader Zhuge Zhengwo and the wheelchair-bound Emotionless have levels that give them Professor X-worthy mental and telekinetic powers. Iron Hands is the muscle, Life Snatcher is their Flash, and it is just a bad idea to anger the lycanthropic Cold Blood. Yet, for some reason Zhuge does exactly that when he appears to fire a steampunkish firearm at the werewolf.

When Cold Blood recovers, he demands answers from his boss, who promises them in two days. Unfortunately, he is arrested for the murder of Department Six’s Sheriff King before the allotted deadline is up. To make matters even more awkward, another soon-to-be dead man claims to be one of the Gang of Twelve, who murdered Emotionless’s family and irreparably damaged her legs. Supposedly, Zhuge dispatched them all to their eternal judgment at the time, so what gives?

Watching Lawless Kingdom (a.k.a. The Four II), it seems strange that the disability community has not vocally embraced this series. Emotionless might have been the victim of a crime, but she is no passive object of sympathy. In fact, it is arguably empowering and certainly cool to watch her laying down martial arts beatdowns with the aid of Iron Hands’ prosthetics. She is particularly assertive in Kingdom, contributing some series highlights and compensating for its conspicuous status as a middle bridge film, between the relatively self-contained first installment and the conclusion that has already opened in China.

Regardless, if you like The Four (and we did), Kingdom gives you more, while exploring the characters in greater depth. Anthony Wong and Crystal Liu Lifei have some particular fine moments as Zhuge and Emotionless, whose surrogate father-daughter relationship will be strained by deceit as well as the truth.

Although Sheng Taishen’s Sheriff King is presumably dead for good, he is wonderfully sly and slippery in his limited screen time. Deng Chao and Collin Chou also solidly perform Iron Hands and Cold Blood’s action roles, but Ronald Cheng’s Life Snatcher is inexplicably stuck on the sidelines for much of the film. While the major villains stay behind the Wizard’s curtain, former newscaster Liu Yan makes a memorable femme fatale as Ru Yan, a rather insidious colleague of Ji Yaohua, Emotionless’s rival at Department Six.

Considering how much spectacle Chan and Chun put up on screen, it is rather impressive how directly they keep it all connected to the human element. They create some terrifically fantastical set pieces, including a Mordoresque prison specifically designed for those blessed with superhuman chi. For wuxia and superhero fans, it is all good stuff. Recommended especially for those intrigued by the Emotionless character, Lawless Kingdom releases today (9/1) on DVD from Lionsgate.

Ip Man—the Final Fight: the Grandmaster’s Golden Years

Ip Man was such a powerful kung fu master, he could actually warp time.  Fans can only assume as much if they wish to rationalize the conflicting timelines of the various Ip Man films released in recent years.  The dates and places might change, but Ip Man remains the grandmaster of grandmasters.  Herman Yau dramatizes his twilight years in Ip Man—the Final Flight, featuring a different Ip, yet one still more or less compatible Wong Kar-wai’s Grandmaster (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Hong Kong’s go-go economy had yet to blast off.  Master Ip earns little more than a subsistence living teaching his Wing Chun style of kung fu to students.  Well known throughout the city, Master Ip could probably do a brisker business were it not for his own self-imposed restrictions.  Kung fu is a way of life for him—not a commodity to be commercialized.

In a way, The Final Flight is a bit Gumpish, casting Master Ip as an observer of two decades of Hong Kong’s growing pains, including the rise of trade unionism and the rampant gangsterism within the Walled City.  However, when it finally gets down to fighting, Final delivers some spectacular street melees.

While produced independently of Wong Kar Wai’s long awaited martial arts spectacle and Wilson Yip’s Ip Man franchise, Anthony Wong is not a bad likeness for both Donnie Yen and “Little” Tony Leung Chiu Wai in their AARP years.  Wong might not look particularly spry, but he is a steely old cat, so it is easy to buy into him as the veteran martial artist.  After all, the genre has a long history of butt-kicking graybeards.

Indeed, Wong’s Zen-like gravitas is perfect for the venerable Ip.  He also develops some appealingly ambiguous chemistry with Zhou Chu Chu, playing a scandalous nightclub singer attracted to his old bad self.  However, the film is overstuffed with Ip’s disciples.  You would think half the city was studying under him. Regardless, Jordan Chan adds real hardboiled heft to the film as Tang Shing, a not completely corrupt copper and former student of Ip’s.  He creates a spinoff-worthy character should the filmmakers wish to further complicate the Ip Man universe.

Yau should satisfy fans with his gritty street action and humanistic portrayal of the Ip family.  In fact, Ip’s son, Ip Chun served as a technical advisor and appears in a small supporting role.  Final Fight is also bolder than its predecessor films depicting Ip’s most famous student, Bruce Lee.  Although never named as such, it is hard to miss the implication when Master Ip meets with a former student turned famous actor, whom the audience only sees from behind, sporting conspicuous sunglasses.

It was the apostolic connection to Bruce Lee that launched the Ip Man filmmaking craze to begin with, but the Master has since taken on a media life of his own. Nicely choreographed with a wistful vibe that sets it apart from the pack, Yau’s latest Ip Man is a worthy addition to the Ip canon.  Recommended for martial arts fans with a strong appreciation of tradition, Ip Man—the Final Fight opens this Friday (9/20) in New York at the Cinema Village.

NYAFF ’13: Ip Man—the Final Fight

Ip Man was such a powerful kung fu master, he could actually warp time.  Fans can only assume as much if they wish to justify the conflicting timelines of the various Ip Man films released in recent years.  The dates and places might change, but Ip Man remains the grandmaster of masters.  Herman Yau dramatizes his twilight years in Ip Man—the Final Flight (trailer here), which is sure to be a hot ticket tonight at the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Hong Kong’s go-go economy had yet to blast off.  Master Ip earns little more than a subsistence living teaching his Wing Chun style of kung fu to students.  Well known throughout the city, Master Ip could probably do a brisker business were it not for his own self-imposed restrictions.  Kung fu is a way of life for him—not a commodity to be commercialized.

In a way, The Final Flight is a bit Gumpish, casting Master Ip as an observer of two decades of Hong Kong’s growing pains, including the rise of trade unionism and rampant gangsterism within the Walled City.  However, when it finally gets down to fighting, Final delivers some spectacular street melees.

While produced independently of Wilson Yip’s Ip Man films, Anthony Wong is not a bad likeness for Donnie Yen in his AARP years.  Wong might not look particularly spry, but he is a steely old cat, so it is easy to buy into him as the veteran martial artist.  After all, the genre has a long history of butt-kicking greybeards.

Indeed, Wong’s Zen-like gravitas is perfect for the venerable Ip.  He also develops some appealingly ambiguous chemistry with Zhou Chu Chu, playing a scandalous nightclub singer attracted to his old bad self.  However, the film is overstuffed with Ip’s disciples.  You would think half the city was studying under him. Regardless, Jordan Chan adds real hardboiled heft to the film as Tang Shing, a not completely corrupt copper and former student of Ip’s.  He creates a spinoff-worthy character should the filmmakers wish to further complicate the Ip Man universe.

Festival special guest Yau should satisfy fans with his gritty street action and humanistic portrayal of the Ip family.  In fact, Ip’s son, Ip Chun served as a technical advisor and appears in a small supporting role.  Final Fight is also bolder than its predecessor films depicting Ip’s most famous student, Bruce Lee.  Although never named as such, it is hard to miss the implication when Master Ip meets with a former student turned famous actor, whom the audience only sees from behind, sporting conspicuous sunglasses.

It was the apostolic connection to Bruce Lee that launched the Ip Man filmmaking craze to begin with, but the Master has since taken on a media life of his own. Nicely choreographed with a wistful vibe that sets it apart from the pack, Yau’s latest Ip Man is a worthy addition to the Ip canon.  Recommended for martial arts fans with a strong appreciation of tradition, Ip Man—the Final Fight screens tonight (6/30) as part of the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

The Four: Super Wuxia Cops

Yes, they have exotic super-powers, but they really just have massive chi.  They are members of the Divine Constabulary, tasked with fighting crime during the late Song Dynasty.  Unfortunately, their more conventional colleagues in Department Six are less than thrilled to have them as competitors.  There is also a super-villain to contend with in Gordon Chan & Janet Chun’s The Four (trailer here), which releases on DVD and BluRay today from Well Go USA.

Although based on a series of popular 1970’s novels, The Four will not escape comparison to the X-Men, especially considering the wheelchair-bound Emotionless’s Professor X-like psychic abilities.  However, she is not running the show.  The Divine Constabulary loyally follows her adoptive father, Zhuge Zhengwo, who reports directly to the Emperor. 

Emotionless guides their inquiries and Iron Hands, a flesh-and-blood Colossus, works in the field, tapping into his network of underground contacts.  He needs some back-up though, so Zhuge recruits Life Snatcher, a preternaturally spry debt-collector, and the lycanthropic Cold Blood, a former member of Department Six.  One of many characters playing a double game, Cold Blood is actually working as an inside informer for Department Six’s head, the Sheriff King.  Constable Ji Yaohua is supposed to be his back-up, but she is actually a mole planted by the evil mastermind An Shigeng (a.k.a. the God of Wealth).

The Four starts with a counterfeiting investigation, quickly escalating into a geopolitical conspiracy and eventually presents viewers an army of risen zombies.  Instead of cheap scares, the latter are employed as shambling grist for the Four’s martial arts mill.  This is definitely a kitchen sink movie, not particularly concerned about narrative detail.  At one point, An Shiqeng tells Ji: “You can spend the rest of your life trying, but you’ll never guess what I’m up to.”  Well, thanks for the warning.

Indeed, part of the charm of The Four is how wildly overstuffed it is with wuxia superhero steampunk elements.  Action director Ku Huan delivers some gravity defying smackdown spectacle, relying more on leaping and kicking than chi-fireballs.  Already the subject of several Mainland and HK television series, The Four was a couldn’t miss box office hit in China with sequels already announced.  The superstar cast did not hurt either. 

Anthony Wong does his Obiwan thing as Zhuge—and it is still kind of awesome.  [Crystal] Liu Yifei and Jiang Yiyan (who look a bit like sisters, which is a blessing for them both) burn up the screen as Emotionless and Constable Ji, knowing rivals in both the machinations afoot and for the affections of the brooding Cold Blood.  For Jiang (who made such an impression with relatively little screen time in The Bullet Vanishes), it is a real star-making turn as the ruthless yet sensitive femme fatale.

Featuring zombies, uncanny martial arts, and a wonderfully ambiguous villainess, The Four has just about everything one could ask of a big popcorn movie.  Wildly confusing fun, The Four is recommended for martial arts and superhero genre fans.  It is now available for home viewing from Well Go USA.

White Vengeance: The Birth of the Han Dynasty

Power corrupts and the pursuit of power corrupts just as absolutely.  This is the lesson an ancient mystery man has for a pompous scholar and his students, startled paying their respects in the first Han Emperor’s tomb.  He will tell them the real story of the Hongmen Banquet and the struggle to succeed the fallen Qin Dynasty in Daniel Lee’s mistitled White Vengeance (trailer here), which is now available on DVD and BluRay today from Well Go USA.

The tyrannical Qin Emperor is dead and nobody misses him, least of all Han leader Liu Bang and Chu nobleman Xiang Yu, rival generals who forged an uneasy alliance against the Qin.  Of course, the emperor’s death prompts a rather obvious question: who will succeed him?  Fearing for his own neck, the caretaker emperor decrees the first to control the Qin capitol of Xianyang wins the throne, hoping to play the warriors against each other.  It works.

As sworn brothers turned bitter rivals, there are still a lot of unresolved issues between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, particularly concerning the royal consort Yu Ji, the latter’s lover entrusted to the former for safekeeping.  Among many things, Vengeance is an elegantly austere, almost chaste, love triangle.

There is also plenty of period warfighting in Vengeance, rendered with grit and scope.  Lee is definitely in his element staging huge clashes of armies.  He really shows viewers exactly what it means to be outflanked and why it is a bad thing.  Yet, the film’s real battle is that between the military strategists, Xiang Yu’s longtime family advisor Fan Zeng and the freelance Obiwan Zhang Liang, who sides with his rival because of Liu Bang’s professed lack of ambition.  When the two counselors match wits during a game of weiqi, the stakes are significant and bloody.

Boasting an all-star HK and Chinese cast, Vengeance features memorable supporting performances from top to bottom.  Not surprisingly, Anthony Wong dominates the film as the blind but all-seeing Fan Zeng, instantly bringing the gravitas necessary for the cunning yet classically tragic figure.  Still, as the crafty Zhang Liang, Hanyu Zhang holds his own with the recognizable Johnnie To veteran. 

Unfortunately, neither Feng Shaofeng nor Leon Lai displays the same commanding screen presence as the rival generals.  Actually, they are rather bland.     In contrast, Jordan Chan packs quite the late inning punch as Han loyalist Fan Kuai, while (Crystal) Liu Yifei is appropriately orchid-like as Yu Ji, but she also makes the most of a bigtime dramatic close-up down the stretch.

Lee rather dexterously shifts viewer sympathies in ways that might even be considered subversive.  Indeed, there is a definitely a point to Vengeance about the high cost of taking and keeping power.  What they say about good intentions still holds true.  An ambitious historical epic with plenty of action, White Vengeance is recommended with considerable enthusiasm for fans of Hong Kong cinema.  It releases today (9/4) on DVD and BluRay from Well Go USA.

HK Cinema at SFFS: Punished

Wong Ho-chiu is the sort of tycoon who has an ex-con on staff, just in case things need taking care. Indeed, they will. The iron-willed developer is not the sort of man you want to make an enemy of. Yet a small band of kidnappers does exactly that in Law Wing-cheong’s Punished (trailer here), which screens Saturday night as part of the San Francisco Film Society’s Hong Kong Cinema series.

The hard partying Daisy Wong expects her father to fund her dissolute lifestyle, despite her frequent tantrums. Wong is not inclined to indulge her, but his younger second wife and bodyguard-slash-whatever Chor do their best to cool his temper. When she is abducted, he half-suspects she is complicit in the crime. Alas, not so. After things go profoundly badly, the distraught Wong turns to Chor to provide him a measure of justice, revenge, or closure. For Wong, they are all more or less the same thing.

Produced by HK action auteur Johnnie To, Punished is quite restrained compared to his thematically related Vengeance. Indeed, Punished is more in the tradition of the moody, psychologically tormented first Death Wish film, rather than the body count-generating sequels that followed. Still, Chor has a job to do and he is the man to do it.

To regular (including in the aforementioned Vengeance) Anthony Wong is about the flintiest, steeliest older cat appearing in film today. He makes Tommy Lee Jones look like a weak-kneed old softy. While as hardnosed as ever, Wong (as Wong) forcefully conveys the father’s grief, guilt, and existential self-doubt, shockingly so, in fact. Likewise, Richie Ren (another To regular) is quite compelling and grounded as the avenging everyman anti-hero, Chor. Law and screenwriter Chi Keung-fung wisely hint at his checkered past and strained personal relationships instead of spelling out his back-story in painful detail. When the game is on though, he is all business. In the solid supporting ensemble, Maggie Cheung Ho-yee (the other one) also makes a strong impression as Wong’s smart, sophisticated pseudo-trophy wife.

While Ren administers some serious beatdowns, Punished is really a dark morality play about the ultimate costs of retribution. It might end on a nakedly manipulative note, but Wong and Ren totally sell it, nonetheless. A raw, muscular film, Punished is definitely one of the highlights of the SFFS’s HK series. Highly recommended, it screens Saturday night (9/24) at the New Peoples Cinema.

Johnnie To’s Vengeance

Imagine if Elvis had made a Shaw Brothers’ kung fu movie. Okay, maybe it is not quite that epic, but any collaboration between HK action auteur Johnnie To and French rock icon Johnny Hallyday is still seriously cool. Indeed, fans of To’s hardboiled spectacles will not be disappointed in Vengeance (trailer here), an official selection of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, which opens this Friday in New York at the IFC Center.

Tragedy brings Frenchman Francis Costello to Macao. His son-in-law and young grandsons were mercilessly gunned by triads, while his daughter just barely clings to life. The coppers are useless, but Costello gets a break when he witnesses a hit squad wrapping up a job in his hotel. Rather than dropping a dime, he offers them a contract: his family’s killers, whoever they might be. Further complicating matters, a bullet long lodged in Costello’s brain will eventually rob him of his memories. For a chef though, he sure knows his way around guns.

Essentially, Vengeance is another reworking of the formula To perfected in films like Exiled and The Mission, with a crew of hired guns, led each time by the steely Anthony Wong, turning against their underworld patron, as usual played by Simon Yam, to help a fast friend. In To’s case, the variations on the theme are always richly satisfying. Again, he demonstrates a knack for elevating familiar action set-ups to grandly theatrical heights.

Arguably, the flinty Wong is the best action actor working in international theater today. All kinds of bad, his intense screen presence compares with Eastwood in his prime. As for Hallyday, he seems to be channeling old school noir Robert Mitchum as the grizzled father out for revenge. He has the goods.

To really brings out the inner fan boy in HK film lovers (such as myself). Riddled with style, but following directly in tradition of great samurai and ronin films, his gangsters live outside the law, yet scrupulously observe their own code of honor. Thanks to the inspired addition of Hallyday, Vengeance ranks as one of his best. Highly recommended for those who enjoy artfully rendered movie mayhem, Vengeance opens this Friday (12/10) in New York at the IFC Center.