Shock Wave 2: Andy Lau Back in the Blast Suit

Frankly, the bomb squad is probably the only department of the Hong Kong Police Force that hasn’t generated complaints for brutality so it makes sense that Andy Lau’s newest film involves bomb disposal. Of course, he has been here before, playing bomb squad Superintendent JS Cheung in Shock Wave. His story was pretty self-contained, but the franchise continues with a thematic sequel, in the tradition of the Overheard films. However, Lau’s new character is much darker and more conflicted this time around in Herman Yau’s Shock Wave 2, which releases today on VOD.

Nobody was better at disarming bombs than Poon Shing-fung, not even his partner Tung Cheuk-man. Tragically, it will be Poon’s career that will be cut short when the two are suddenly engulfed by a hidden bomb, after defusing two explosive booby-traps. Despite a prosthetic leg, Poon exceeds all the physical requirements to return to service, but the brass will only give him a desk job. Soon, Poon is consumed with self-destructive anger and anti-social resentment.

He is also quite suspiciously found knocked unconscious at the site of a hotel bombing. Rather inconveniently for everyone, the resulting shock wave left him in a state of complete amnesia. His old colleagues suspect he was working with the anarchist terrorists known as Vendetta, but we have to believe he was really working under deep-cover to infiltrate them, right?

Believe it or not, the handling of the amnesia angle is somewhat original and pretty intriguing. This being a Herman Yau film, a lot of stuff gets blown-up—in this case, a whole lot. However, the timing of Shock Wave 2’s apocalyptic images of mass destruction terrorism problematically come at a time when the puppet Carrie Lam regime is hyping up the threat of terror to justify Beijing’s draconian National Security Law. Yet, the truth is the law is being applied to forbid Hong Kongers from reading certain books, viewing certain movies, and voting for genuinely democratic candidates—none of which would prevent any of the crimes depicted in this film. As a result, there is a disingenuous vibe to the SW2 and its timing.

Andy Lau gives one of his best performances in recent years, seething with existential rage as Poon. Nevertheless, Lau’s fans have been disappointed by his cautious wait-and-see attitude during the height of the 2019 demonstrations and it was less than thrilling to read he serenaded the CCP at its anniversary bash. Again, seeing him now turn up in a “terrorism” thriller sets off alarm bells.

NYAFF ’17: Dealer/Healer

“Cheater” Chen Hua will completely reform himself, but he still associates with known felons. Sometimes, he serves as their substance abuse counselor. Other times, he is recruited by the Hong Kong police to serve as an arbitrator and peacemaker among warring drug gangs. Thugs and coppers do not intimidate him, but winning back the great love of his life might be beyond his powers in Lawrence Lau’s based-on-a-true-story Dealer/Healer (trailer here), which screens during the 2017 New York Asian Film Festival.

“Cheater Hua,” as most people call him, really is based on dealer-turned-counselor Peter Chan Sun-chi, who serves as executive producer. As a teen, Cheater Hua and his mates Cat and Bullhorn ran wild through Kowloon Walled City as the top dogs in the 13 Warlocks Gang. As they didn’t mature into young men, they started to take more professional roles in the HK drug trafficking industry. They were also junkies, which the clean and sober Cheater Hua contends is more honest than substance-free pushers hooking customers without sharing the junkie experience.

For a while, Cheater Hua really starts to make a name for himself, despite all his junkie weaknesses. For reasons we can never fathom, his straight, long-suffering girlfriend Carol continues to support him. He even browbeats her into working as a dancehall hostess, which was not prostitution, but still highly stigmatizing at the time. As is happens, the night she decides she has had enough is also the night Harley, a former cop-turned-minor-druglord decides to set him up for a fall. However, he gives him an escape-hatch that nonetheless results in a five-year stint in prison.

When he gets out, Carol is long gone, but he finds Cat and Bullhorn. After helping them kick their habits, he becomes a legit counselor. He also stays on good terms with Harley, as well as the senior detective, who always rather fancied Carol. It is only when his do-gooder fame spreads internationally that Cheater Hua finally meets her again, but those fences will be hard to mend.

Dealer/Healer is largely a predictable redemption story, but the period look is impressively detailed. The way it recreates Kowloon Walled City is frankly amazing. It is hard to imagine living inside, but people did—thousands of them. Renee Wong and the design team are scrupulously faithful to the limited photos of the hulking enclave, creating an environment that feels more closely akin to Bladerunner than a traditional gangster movie.

Boy oh boy, is the wardrobe ever accurate to the period as well. In all honesty, Louis Koo rocks the Andy Gibb wig, but Sean Lau Ching-wan’s younger-days wig is distractingly awkward in its perch. Still, Sean Lau has the right grit and gravity for Cheater Lau. Zhang Jin (stone-cold awesome in Kill Zone 2) and Gordon Lam are rock-solid as Cat and Bullhorn. Jiang Yiyan silently levels one devastating indictment after another, simply with her eyes and body language. However, Louis Koo upstages everyone as the ultra-sly and unrepentantly roguish Harley.

Chan Man-keung’s screenplay could have used a sharper edge, but cinematographer Zhang Yin makes it a sight to behold. The Hong Kong cityscapes and mountain views are lovely, but it is the grubby, overwhelming images of Kowloon Walled City that really define the film. Recommended as a remarkably well-rendered period crime drama, Dealer/Healer screens Monday (7/10) at the Walter Reade, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

Call of Heroes: High Noon in Republican China

This time around, action film specialist Benny Chan wears his Spaghetti Western influences/homages on his sleeve, but Sheriff Yang Kenan is cut from cloth much closer to Gary Cooper in High Noon. Yang is given a grim ultimatum: release the murderous son of ruthless warlord Cao Ying or the town of Pucheng will face the consequences. Slowly his neighbors turn against their sheriff, but at least the high plains drifter will throw-in his lot in with Yang in Chan’s Call of Heroes (trailer here) releases today on DVD and BluRay, from Well Go USA.

Dedicated schoolteacher Bai Ling (that’s her character, not the actress) leads a small group of children to sanctuary after the sadistic and entitled Cao Shaolun attacked their school in an act of terror. Following her to Pucheng, Cao kills Bai and two others before Yang captures him. Of course, he is sentenced to death, because he is guilty as sin, but representatives of the Cao forces still demand his freedom. They promise to leave the town undisturbed if they comply, but Yang knows that is a lie. So does Ma Feng, a wandering warrior who has some complicated history with Cao’s Colonel Zhang Yi. He also had some chemistry with Bai, but he realized it too late.

It might be Republican era China, but the dramatic vocabulary of Call is pure spurs-and-saddles American western. It starts at the top with Sean Lau Ching-wan, who is all about a man having to do what a man has to do. He has grit and gravitas worthy of Cooper or Alan Ladd, but he is no superman. He is flesh-and-blood, maybe even distantly approaching middle age, which makes his character so heroic yet relatable.

Eddie Peng Yu-yen continues to mature into a legit action star, showing plenty of chops, but also mixing in a comparatively light sprinkling of physical humor. In all honesty, the growth he has shown since his early teen rom-coms has been impressive. Wu Jing and Xing Yu add plenty of real deal martial arts authenticity as Zhang Yi and hired muscle Wong Wai-fu, respectively. Returning to the sort of villainous roles that actually suit him so well, Louis Koo hams it upshamelessly and goes way-the-heck-and-gone over-the-top as Cao Shaolun—and it’s a blast to watch. Yuan Quan adds some glamour and shows some decent moves of her own as Yang’s wife Chow So-so. In fact, Master Sammo Hung keeps everyone on their toes as action director, choreographing some spectacularly cinematic yet still bone-crunchingly old school martial arts sequences.

Just about every element in Call is borrowed from another film, but it is all executed at a very high level by a superstar ensemble, seen at the peak of their powers and playing to their strengths. For martial arts connoisseurs, it might not be the greatest film they have ever seen, but it is a guaranteed sure thing. Easily recommended for fans of Lau, Peng, Koo, and Hung, Call of Heroes releases today (12/6) on DVD and BluRay, from Well Go USA.

HK Cinema at SFFS '16: Insanity

You would think Hong Kong would be tougher when it comes to criminal insanity defenses, but Fan Kwok Sang still manages to beat the rap for killing his wife by pleading temporarily nuts. His good luck continues when he is placed under the care of the highly esteemed Dr. Chow Ming-kit, who cures him in three years. Or does he? Chow will start to wonder when Fan gets involved with another suspicious death in David Lee’s Insanity (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Hong Kong Cinema at the San Francisco Film Society.

The trauma of losing his son essentially broke Fan’s grip on reality. Suffering from extreme paranoid schizophrenia, he finally just snapped, defenestrating his long suffering wife from their apartment window. Dr. Chow eventually pieced together his fractured psyche and proscribed a full battery of anti-psychotics to keep them glued in place. Being ever so progressive, Dr. Chow periodically checks in with Fan. Usually that means dropping by the restaurant where Fan works with his grossly under-appreciated fiancée, Shum Po-yee.

When Fan accidentally kills a creepy homeless guy on the roof of his building, Dr. Chow is his first call. Fearing the scandal of a supposedly cured patient committing a homicide (justifiable or not), Chow encourages him to take flight. Oh by the way, Fan just happened to mention he’d stopped taking his meds. As the cops start swarming and his colleagues’ suspicions mount, Chow decides to cure Fan once and for all, with special round-the-clock one-on-one immersion treatments. Of course, there will be unforeseen complications to their marathon analysis session.

Frankly, anyone who has seen a lot of psychological thrillers should be about twenty minutes ahead of the script (co-written by Lee, Bullet Vanishes helmer Law Chi-leung, and uber-producer-director Derek Yee). However, the first-rate work of Sean Lau Ching-wan as Fan still makes it worth the price of admission. It is a remarkable performance, implying much under vastly differing circumstances. Yet, he is always so tragically human and sad. Mainland superstar Huang Xiaoming also stresses out pretty impressively, but Nina Paw Hee-ching might out do both of them as Fan’s unhinged mother-in-law. Plus, Michelle Wai adds some red hot nuttiness in a memorable extended cameo as Mona, the patient who develops an unhealthy attachment to Dr. Chow. Fortunately, Alex Fong is also on hand to keep things real as Chow’s deputy-rival, Dr. Liu.

Even if you have a hunch where Insanity is going, it is still entertaining to watch Lee and his cast revel in the conventions and trappings of the genre. Chan Chi-ying duly cranks up the noir with his atmospheric cinematography, in the Robert Burks tradition. At times it is almost shamelessly over the top, but that is part of the fun. Recommended for fans of head-spinning head-shrinker thrillers, Insanity screens this Friday night (9/23) as part of the SFFS’s annual Hong Kong Cinema series.

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.