[KFCC] Jiang Hu Review

Story: On the night of the birth of his first son, Triad Leader Hung (Andy Lau) finds out that an assassin will attempt to kill him within 12 hours. Fearing for his best friend’s life, Lefty (Jacky Cheung) urges Hung to leave to New Zealand to start a new life. Hung has other plans though and decides to stay in Hong Kong to protect himself, his family, and his business while Lefty begins to take matters into his own hands and searches for the masterminds behind it all. Elsewhere in town, the young and determined Turbo (Edison Chen) and Yik (Shawn Yue) get word that their boss (Chapman To) will be drawing “do-or-die lots” to give someone the sought after opportunity to kill the big boss.

Review: Not since Wong Kar-Wai’s AS TEARS GO BY have we had the pleasure of seeing, now veteran actors, Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung grace the same screen. Thankfully we have the luxury of seeing them in a triad film once again. This thought initially grabbed my attention and had me hooked immediately after I saw the trailer online months before the film’s release. Hong Kong cinema is in dire need of help at the moment and without any more INFERNAL AFFAIRS sequels to look forward to, there seems to be a lack of hope in HK film currently. JIANG HU was to be my last hope in the future of Hong Kong cinema.

“If you draw that lot, you get one foot in hell and it’s either king or corpse.”

Typically triad, yakuza, and mafia films deal with this issue of “out with the old and in with the new.” Jiang Hu is no exception. In this case Hung and Lefty are the “old” and Turbo and Yik are the “new”. The latter group is willing to subject themselves to fate to see whether they will become the king or the corpse. King would mean that they would not only survive, but complete their task and ultimately obtain fame, fortune, and power. Corpse would either mean they did not succeed in relinquishing the “old,” or maybe they did and were later killed because of it. Although this concept may be a disappointment to some, it should definitely be expected by now, especially from Hong Kong, because we all know that once they find a tried and true method that works ($$$) they will abuse it to no end. What was really important at this point was how Director Wong Ching Po (Fu Bo) was going to execute this entire idea.

With hopes that the film would be well made and somewhat unique despite the subject matter, I believed that I would enjoy it with ease. After the first ten minutes I began to notice that there was an overwhelming sense of awkwardness. Consistency was nowhere to be found which became apparent when the 80’s style eccentricities and comedy attempted to shine in a dark story with dark textures. The director did not attain a sense of realism with this, instead he created an uncomfortable and weak introduction that ultimately led to a weary and flawed film. These 80’s eccentricities that I speak of were not abundant by any means, but they did not seem to fit this particular film and were not easily overlooked, or even enjoyed as much as they were in Hong Kong films between the 1970’s and 1980’s. They seemed to stick out like a sore thumb.

Another major complaint that I have is that the film felt like it was lacking valuable information related to the characters and story. Part of this is most likely due to the fact that Jiang Hu’s original cut was nearly twenty minutes longer and contained a scene where Turbo is forced to have sex with a dog. As disgusting as this may sound, I am one that would love to see the film as it was meant to be seen -- beastiality and all. It does not make sense why so much was cut out of the film because Turbo’s love scene could not have been longer than a minute or two. The rest of the edited footage must have contained pertinent information that would have aided the story’s overall development and flow. One particular area would be the sappy and downright retarded love story between Yik and a prostitute named Yoyo. More in-depth explanations about the characters played by Eric Tsang and Benny Tsui would have also been very helpful. Too many unanswered questions.

Negative thoughts seem to reign at this point, but I did find some aspects of the film that I did enjoy. Three come to mind. The first is definitely the cinematography. There were a number of innovative and unique shots that came from time to time. These shots felt refreshing and new which was needed to help cover the fact that the story itself lacked in originality. The second enjoyable aspect is the editing. When combined with the music and photography it flowed like butter during many scenes and helped to create an atmosphere of shear coolness that the story and cast seemed to have difficulties managing on their own. The third enjoyable aspect is the length of the film. Thank god it was less than ninety minutes.

Admittedly I have to say that I am disappointed overall but you don’t have to be. If you know and understand beforehand that Jiang Hu does not share the same rich caliber as Infernal Affairs (despite the fact that most of the same cast was used again) you can eliminate the majority of the hype and hopefully appreciate the film more for its simple entertainment values. I, on the other hand, expected more of an intelligent movie comparable to Infernal Affairs. As I mentioned before, I was very excited to see Jacky Cheung in a film once again even though he didn’t have nearly enough screen time to capture his innate acting abilities. Let it be known that the real shining star was definitely Shawn Yue whom I truly look forward to seeing more of in future works, so long as they are not sequels to Jiang Hu.

Though it was lacking and slow it can be viewed as a learning experience for the young director Wong Ching Po. I will still continue to anticipate all future efforts of his with excitement because I feel he does have potential. With time and experience he will undoubtedly reach new heights. But as for Jiang Hu, if I had to determine whether I felt the film itself was “king or corpse,” I would unfortunately have to go with “corpse.”