Tan Chu Mui's Barbarian Invasion doesn't come across as a vanity project despite her starring in, directing and scripting it! (Film review)

 

An evocative poster for a hard to categorize movie!

 

Barbarian Invasion (Malaysia-Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2021)

- Tan Chui Mui, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Tan Chui Mui, Pete Teo, Bronte Palarae, James Lee

 

Before anything else: this film is officially listed as a co-production but Barbarian Invasion is, for all intents, a Malaysian-made film, with a "Who's Who" of Malaysian independent cinema involved in its production in front of the camera behind the scenes.  However, it was largely financed with Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese money (including that emanating from the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society) -- and this might have played a part in a substantial amount of its dialogue being in Mandarin/Putonghua and Cantonese (even while the first lines spoken in the movie in Bahasa Malaysia and the film's dialogue also includes Hokkien, Tamil, Burmese and English).    

Also, despite their possessing similiar titles, Tan Chui Mui's film has very little in common with the 2003 Oscar-winning entry from Canada entitled The Barbarian Invasions.  Also, Barbarian Invasion also has nothing to do with the movements of Germanic peoples which began before 200 BCE and lasted until the early Middle Ages, destroying the Western Roman Empire in the process.  

 

Instead, it takes its name from the Hannah Arendt quote about how "Every generation, civilization is invaded by barbarians - we call them 'children'"!  And for the record, the first lines of dialogue in Barbarian Invasion are indeed spoken by a child: specifically, Yu Zhou (played by Nik Hadiff Dani), the young son of Moon Lee (portrayed by director-scriptwriter Tan Chui Mui), a woman looking to relaunch her acting career after becoming a mother and divorcee who was (is) the muse of famous director Roger Woo (essayed by Pete Teo).  

Since Yu Zhou is one of the more annoying child characters I've seen in a film of late, I'm glad to state that he is not in the limelight for much of the movie.  At the same time though, he is an important presence in the movie in that, early on, Moon is shown letting him pretty much rule her life and, in the second part of the film, his absence greatly impacts her course of action.  Still, the further one goes into Barbarian Invasion, the more it becomes evident that the film is about Moon and her finding herself again after years of being a mother and wife made her feel more like a vessel of, or adjunct to, another human being -- something that Tan Chui Mui knows from personal experience. 

Lest this all sound too philosophical or metaphysical, here's pointing out that Barbarian Invasion also features a lot of cool and intense action: with Moon's comeback role requiring her to undergo intensive training in various martial arts (including Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Krav Maga (the Israeli art of self-defence), Muay Thai, taekwondo and boxing) under Master Loh (impressively portrayed by the versatile James Lee) and there being a number of scenes in which Moon shows what she's learnt, including when trying to teach a good Samaritan (played by the charismatic Bronte Palarae) how to defend himself from those who might want to stab him in the back rather than "just" give him a good slap.  (And no, it's not a coincidence that the film's lead character has the same name as 1980s Hong Kong action movie actress Moon Lee!)

 

Speaking of actresses who have graced Hong Kong action movies: I couldn't help but think of Tan Chui Mui's Malaysian compatriot, Michelle Yeoh when seeing Tan performing martial arts moves in certain Barbarian Invasion scenes.  At the same time though, I found myself noting that Tan appeared far more willing to look (physically) bad than Yeoh for the sake of her at.  And yes, I do think that Tan's willingness to "uglify" herself on screen does help prevent Barbarian Invasion from being the vanity project that one worries that this film would be upon hearing that it stars the woman who also is its director and scriptwriter (and, also, was mainly shot in a small town in Terengganu, Malaysia, close to Tan's hometown of Sungai Ular)!    

More than incidentally, I must admit to hesitating a bit to check out this movie since I had been extremely underwhelmed by Tan Chui Mui's debut film, Love Conquers All (2006).  But I'm very glad I did though: this not only because the multi-lingual and -genre Barbarian Invasion is one of the most genuinely Malaysian movies I've seen in a while but also because it's a thoroughly engrossing cinematic work that is absolutely unafraid to wear its transnational pop cultural knowledge (with fun references to Hong Kong movies, South Korean cinema and Hollywood, etc.), general intelligence and impassioned heart on its sleeve.  

 

My rating for this film: 8.0