NYAFF ’18: Gatao 2

Back in the day, it meant boss or community leader, or so the president of the North Fort crime syndicate tells it. Those days are gone. Now “Gatao” means gangster and the thugs from the upstart Jian Company intend to live up to everything the word entails in Yen Cheng-kuo’s Gatao 2 (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival.

As the operational leader of the North Fort syndicate, Ren would very much like to take over the turf of the North Town gang, but President Gui insists they must honor the agreement he made with North Town’s late president. Jian Lui, Ren’s sworn brother from their school days is under no such constraints. Suddenly in the gangster business, he moves quickly to consolidate the Taipei narcotics trade.

Ostensibly, he offers to cut North Fort in on the action, but he knows neither Ren or Gui wish to be involved in the dirty business. Shrewdly, he acts like the offended party, as he moves to undercut North Fort’s support. Gui even insists on restraint when the Jian outfit kills one of Ren’s men. The loyal Gatao tries to toe the line, but it is not long before gang wars erupt on the streets of Taipei.

We’re talking about those crazy street fights, where they hang out the baseball bats and machetes and then just charge at each other. There is in fact plenty of action in Gatao 2, but there is also a clash of codes and strategies. Whatever it is that you like in gangster movies you can find here. Fans should also rest assured, no prior knowledge of Gatao 1 is required to enjoy the self-contained sequel. However, it is worth noting 1 featured former child star Yen Cheng-kuo (who appeared in The Sandwich Man), while he helmed 2. His involvement with the Gatao duology happened after he served ten years in prison for a kidnapping-extortion conviction. So yeah, maybe he can relate to the subject matter. Regardless, he can stage a heck of a street brawl.

Gatao 2 is the sort of grand gangster im/morality tale we haven’t had for a while. Jack Kao (one of the few holdovers from the previous film) sets the tone from the top as the stubbornly principled President Gui. Collin Chou (from The Matrix and The Four franchises) is spectacularly villainous as the snappy dressing Jian. Chang Zhang-xing memorably stirs the pot even further as Ren’s troubled soldier, Po, but it is Wang Shih-hsien who really anchors the film as the flinty Ren, who temperamentally stands equidistance between the fiery Jian and the reserved Gui. Wang also plays it understated, but you can always see the gangster in him.

For regular patrons of NYAFF, Gatao 2 should be a no-brainer. It has veteran Taiwanese screen actors, large-scale beatdowns, shadowy conspiracies, and multiple betrayals. In other words, it is a lot of good clean fun. Very highly recommended, Gatao 2 screens on the Fourth of July at the Walter Reade, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Daughter of the Nile

The heroine of the long-running manga series Crest of the Royal Family is a lot like the British nurse in the Outlander franchise, but she traveled back to ancient Egypt. Young Lin Hsiao-yang both identifies with her and fantasizes of being her. However, she is very definitely stuck in the present day of mid-1980s Taipei in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s unfairly overlooked (including by Hou himself) Daughter of the Nile (trailer here), which returns to theaters for its 30^th anniversary, freshly restored in 4K.

Sadly, Lin’s eldest brother died sometime before the film commences, but his loss is constantly felt throughout the narrative. He was the only family member who could keep their middle sibling Lin Hsiao-fang in line. Brother Fang was always a thief and a gambler, but he was good to their mother during her fatal struggle with cancer and also looks out for his little sisters reasonably well. His gangster-gigolo friend Ah-sang is a different story, but Sister Yang falls for him anyway.

For a while, Ah-sang expatriates to America, but it was apparently a bad experience. Lin’s brother paid for the return ticket, but neither speaks of it in any great detail. Ah-sang comes home just as the gang appears poised for success, having opened an upscale restaurant as a semi-front. Yet, Ah-sang’s erratic nature and Hsiao-fang’s increasingly compulsive gambling threaten everyone’s future.

It is strange Nile became the red-headed step-child of Hou’s filmography, because it feels like a perfectly representative example of his style. He would touch on somewhat similar themes in Millennium Mambo, but it would be particularly interesting to watch this film in dialogue with Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day. Both films follow disadvantaged high school students relegated to the night sessions of over-crowded facilities, as they engage it varying degrees of crime. Although the political situation was much more relaxed in the 1980s than the late 1950s, a reckless accusation could still lead to dire consequences.

Poor Taiwanese pop star Lin Yang got a bad rap for her lead performance as Lin Hsiao-yang. Her work is tightly controlled and so restrained she can hardly breathe, but that makes her character so terribly human. Ultimately, it is quite a poignant portrayal. Hou regular Jack Kao is also terrific as the charismatic but self-defeating Hsiao-fang. Yet, Li Tan-lu steals so many scenes as their grandfather, he continued on to play several more grandpas in subsequent Hou films and served as the subject of his bio-pic, The Puppetmaster.

Even in Taipei, the eighties looked like the eighties. In fact, it is a very 1980s kind of story, focusing on several young people struggling to make good while holding together some semblance of a family. This was the Hou film that almost got away, but fortunately it has been restored and given a second chance to resonate with viewers. Highly recommended, Daughter of the Nile opens this Friday (10/27) in New York, at the Quad Cinema.

NYAFF ’17: The Gangster’s Daughter

A teenage girl needs her father, especially one as headstrong as Shaowu. Granted, not having Keiko around spared her some awkward career days at school, but she really is a chip off the old block. They will finally get a chance to make up for lost time in Chen Mei-juin’s The Gangster’s Daughter (trailer here), which screens during this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

Growing up on remote Kinmen Island, Shaowu is a bit of a wild child, but she has one true friend. Therefore, when a high school bully pulls a mean prank on her, Shaowu settles the score in a way the old man would appreciate (high noon, a pale of livestock dung). Unfortunately, the jerkweed is politically connected, so Shaowu is trundled off to live in Taipei with the father she only briefly reconnected with at her mother’s recent funeral.

At first, Shaowu has trouble making new friends, but the remainder of Keiko’s clan just adore her. He is sort of an emeritus gangster, who largely occupies his time managing the karaoke club hosted by his lover, Coco. She is still young enough to look good on his arm, but mature enough to take a mothering interest in Shaowu.

Of course, a gangster will be a strict parent, because of the things they’ve seen. Keiko is particularly old school when it comes to drugs. He won’t allow his associates to participate in the dirty business whatsoever and he certainly won’t stand for them in his house. Unfortunately, his recently returned senior has plans for a major new narcotics venture.

Gangster’s Daughter is a wonderfully wise and forgiving family drama that just so happens to have a good deal of gangster action and skullduggery. Frankly, it would pair up perfectly with the masterful Mr. Six, which is high praise indeed, but warranted. It is a poignant film in many ways, both for the genuinely engaging father-daughter relationship and the passing of an era and a value system.

Jack Kao has appeared in several Hou Hsiao-hsien masterworks, but Keiko might just be the role that defines him. There is nothing cutesy or predictable about his performance. He is hardnosed all the way, but also warm and humanistic. Likewise, Ally Chiu is fiery and vulnerable as Shaowu, whose normal teenaged angsts are compounded by circumstance. Stephenie Lim Mei-ching is also altogether engaging and grounded as Coco, the entirely cliché-free gangster’s girlfriend.

Gangster’s Daughter is too honest for easy quirkiness or cheap sentiment. Yet, it still manages to sneak up on viewers. First it charms and then it lowers the boom. It is probably one of the most accessible films at the festival, yet the diehards should still dig its gangster business. Affectionately recommended, The Gangster’s Daughter screens this Saturday (7/1) at the Walter Reade, as part of the eagerly anticipated 2017 NYAFF.