[3:30
PM] COP
ON A MISSION I knew nothing of this film before
entry into the crimson studded theatre. Many people
were chatting about the film beforehand, my partner
in crime said it was like THE MISSION, so I was quite
intrigued to see the film.
 |
The
film has a very distinct feeling behind it. At first,
it grabs you with an opening scene of well, a claustrophobics
nightmare. Then arrives the usual "Why did he end
up in this?" rotten predicament. For reasons I will
not divulge, Mike is suspended from his crime unit.
But rather than being fired, his boss chooses to
send him into the gang world as an undercover agent.
Stereotypically, he begins at the bottom of the
mob ranks and when he helps save the bosses wife's
life, he starts to become the Man. What ensues is
the standard, "I'm the good guy, but I like all
the bad boys toys" premise. There is a lot of action
in the film as well. Though, very short lived and
shot with the premise of making an impact on the
viewer's in mind. With that said, I don't watch
Hong Kong cinema for its dramatic qualities but
rather for it's aesthetics (i.e. guns, kung fu and
porcelain lovely dolls). But I will say that, as
you've heard everywhere else, Eric Tsang was great
in his villainous role - especially after thinking
of him as a comedian.
[5:30
PM] COMEUPPANCE
This film was packed! Maybe due to it being played
on the festivals opening night…
 |
The
first thing that startled me about this film was
the poor quality of the print. It was PAL bad. And
I'm not talking Malata, I'm talking Sampo bad. Anyhow,
this second triad themed film of the night was a
real treat for me… and the other three people in
the audience. The film started with a twist in that
instead of the triads doing the killings it's the
triad heads which are being targeted by poisonings.
Along with the opening poisoning, a journalist decides
to write a newspaper serial about this situation.
Soon after, the popularity of it rises. Then the
things he starts writing in the serial begins to
unravel more and more by occurring in real life.
To say anymore would spoil it for you but the story
pretty much unravels from this point. While I found
the story to be very original, I did have some major
problems with the film. For one, it's very dialogue
intensive and there are a lot of miniscule interactions
between characters in the film. So unless you're
fluent in Cantonese, it's probably going take two
or three viewings to understand what is going on.
Also, the last twenty minutes really seemed to drag.
But this was probably due to my constant staring
at those Laos girls sitting in front of us.
Saturday,
March 9th
[4:00
PM] GOODBYE
MR. COOL I was very excited to see this film
as I'd heard ravings about the YOUNG AND DANGEROUS
series, but never had the pleasure of viewing them.
The Ekin fans were definitely in the house. They
had one of his CD's blaring on the speakers! The
screening itself took place in the same theatre
that COMEUPPANCE did a week earlier with exceptionally
good picture quality this time around.
The story was nothing revolutionary. Ekin Cheng
is a waiter at the Kowloon Café, but it turns out
that he is a hardened criminal trying to escape
the ghosts of his past. And proving that women are
the most devilish of all things in the world, his
ex stops by, played by Karen Mok and looking very,
very, very fine as usual, trying to get him to convert
back to his old badass self instead of the boring
drought he has become. And if that wasn't enough,
he finds out that he has a son (Don't you hate when
that happens?). This further makes his soul want
to be at peace. Soon, ghosts from his past, in the
form of triad members, come back into his life to
complicate things even further.
There's a lot to like about this flick, it's definitely
not two dimensional. There's a great mix of action,
drama, and even some great comic relief. The cinematography
was also definitely above par for a Hong Kong production.
Also, the relationship between Ekin's character
and that of his son is really well played, even
though it has been used in this fashion many times
before.
[6:00
PM] HIT
TEAM The second viewing of the evening was Hit
Team. Something amazing happened here: an employee
gave the crowd a more important notion that there
would be a Stephen Chow Retrospective in November
and STEPHEN CHOW would be there IN PERSON!
And as memories of SHAOLIN SOCCER and GOD OF COOKERY
flowed into our heads, the lights dimmed and we
were treated to the film……
Now those of you who have seen HIT TEAM already
know this, but the production values for this film
for being on that side of the Pacific, are outstanding.
The pace of the film as well as the score and the
cinematography are all worthy of lower budget Hollywood
productions. The story is great because it intertwines
two heroes with really different agendas and mindframes,
very reminiscent of HARD BOILED. The first is Daniel
Wu's character which heads up a special unit group
which tackles the issues of weapon smuggling. They
are the so called "Hit Team". The other is a group
of renegade cops who have broken into a black market
smuggling ring in order to gain money to help a
fellow officer get a life-saving operation. Naturally,
the two must cross paths.
The worst part of this film is not knowing who to
root for. On one hand, the hit team is just too
cool not to like, but then again, Alex To's group
of renegade cops had a real great mission and are
all just as likeable. The tension between the two
leaders is fantastic to say the least. It really
rekindled my thoughts off John Travolta and Nicholas
Cage in FACE / OFF. Another really, great thing
about the film are the shoot-outs and action sequences.
They're not overlong or too stylized but are paced
well and seem to be suited perfectly for the audience
of the film. The ending is also… well, go see it!
Saturday,
March 16th
[4:00
PM] WU
YEN The only thing I knew about this flick was
that Johnny To was taking a turn at a romantic era
piece. With the opening remarks about the film,
I soon learned that this tale was based on an old
Shanghinese tale called "The Devious Fox Spirit."
And in this movie, the fox spirit is played by Cecilia
Cheung. Her role in the film is that of a deviant.
She has to pull every trick in the book in an attempt
to stop the "Great Warrior" played by Sammi Cheng
from fulfilling her destiny of marry the emperor.
But the best thing about this film is the multi-acting
skills of Anita Mui and Cecilia Cheung. Through
the duration of the film, they play male characters!
Anita plays both an elder emperor and a younger
descendant. Cecilia plays a fairy and a "masculine"
man trying to get it on with Sammi Cheng's character.
But the one thing that really does it for me in
the film is the lush visual palette and how Mr.
To worked it into a slapstick comedy. This is definitely
a change of pace for all involved in the project.
The only downside is that they spend a lot of time
developing unnecessary story dynamics which makes
the flick drag on a bit.
 |
[6:00
PM] GREEN
SNAKE Having never seen what many people feel
is a classic in Hong Kong cinema, I was thoroughly
excited to see this baby on the big screen. Apparently
so were a lot of other people because the place
hadn't been this packed since its opening night.
The thing that struck me about this film was how
much it fit the Asian film stereotype. It's an out
of this world fantasy with a lot going on in a little
time. Basically, there is a green snake, Maggie
Cheung, and a white snake, Joey Wang. They played
half human/half snake ladies who can appear as smoldering
seductresses. The problem comes in after ten centuries
when white snake starts evolving into a human being.
A Buddhist monk becomes angry at this fact and ensues
to cause trouble for the pair.
I
really didn't get why this film is considered a
classic, the chemistry between the two leads is
fantastic and the comedic relief in the film is
wonderful! But other than that, I found it tepid
and drab.
Post
Festival Thoughts
Overall, I had great experience this year. The selection
committee did a great job selecting contemporary
films this year, a direct decision from what I'm
told. The seating went well, no oversells like previous
years. And most importantly, I was glad to be in
an arena with my fellow Asian film fans in tow.
I do think though the center could improve upon
their festival. It's a horrible thing to have to
drive into Chicago on a Saturday afternoon, especially
when you have to do it every week. It'd be real
nice if they would have compacted the festival into
two days of viewing. Forums with people within the
Hong Kong film festival would've been nice as well.
I guess I just want the thing to be more of an event!
Besides that, the center did a great job of presenting
these films and I'd like to thank them for giving
people like me the opportunity to see these films
on the big screen.
Special
Thanks
J. D. Nguyen………...I want credit for the quote
Sarah Tse…………… for the ride
Iris Segrado………… for the ride home when Sarah got
angry
and ditched me for saying I'd dump her for Cecilia
Cheung
The Faye Wong/Zhang Ziyi Boys
Related
Links The Festivals Site
http://www.artic.edu/webspaces/siskelfilmcenter/hong_kong.html
The Gene Siskel Film Center
http://www.artic.edu/webspaces/siskelfilmcenter/
Andrew Borja
04/25/02
