There
is a great deal of deliberate confusion regarding non-controversial adult,
amniotic, umbilical, and pluripotent stem cell treatments and the hot-button
issue of embryonic stem cells. Ringo Lam is about to muddy the waters even
further. “Ex-stem cells” (or super-stem cells, depending on the translation)
are the Macguffin of his latest action film. What are Ex-stem cells? They are
extra-special and can apparently cure cancer just by looking at it. Where do
they come from? Essentially from the late Prof. Poon’s missing research
journal. The private Sky One clinic is carrying on his work, but his protégés
have very different goals in Lam’s Sky on
Fire (trailer
here),
which opens this Friday in New York.
After
losing his wife to cancer, Chong Tin-po considers his work as chief of security
for the Sky One clinic a personal calling. It is a big job protecting the Mainland
skyscraper facility, but he is a hardnosed kind of guy. However, the events
that follow the theft of a shipment of Ex-stem cells shakes his faith in the
clinic director, Tong Wing-cheung, who sends along some suspiciously thuggish
back-up for the recovery operation. Chong also cannot help feeling for Chia-chia
and his step-sister Jen. They came from Taiwan seeking treatment at Sky One for
her late-stage cancer, but threw their lot in with the hijackers when the
clinic gave them the run around. At least Chong still trusts Gao Yu, Tong’s
estranged wife and partner, who also studied under the murdered Prof. Poon.
Arguably,
Sky is over-stuffed with supporting
characters and the ending is supposed to be cathartic, but it is highly
problematic from a moral-ethical perspective, if you think about it for more
than two seconds. On the plus side, Daniel Wu pretty much puts the world on
notice he can take all the steely cool-as-Elvis action protagonist gigs Andy
Lau is aging out of, ever so disgustingly gracefully. As Chong, Wu broods,
runs, and fights convincingly and looks good doing it.
Zhang
Jingchu also adds some tragic grace as Gao Yu, even developing some
tantalizingly ambiguous chemistry with Wu. Joseph Chang Hsiao-chuan and Amber
Kuo are enormously likable as the Taiwanese step-siblings, but she really ought
to look for a good action role (like fellow Tiny
Times co-star Mi Yang throwing down in Wu Dang), or risk getting type-cast as a cute but passive victim.
