One of the 22 Hong Kong movies I viewed for the first time in 2021
Limbo (Hong Kong, 2021)
- Soi Cheang, director
- Starring: Gordon Lam Ka-tung, Cya Liu, Mason Lee
It's been more than a month since I viewed Limbo but I can still vividly recall its look, feel and story. I also remember how intense the experience of viewing this Category III-rated crime drama was -- so much so, in fact, that I actually lost my appetite for a few hours and didn't feel ready to have my dinner until late at night after attending an afternoon screening of this cinematic offering which most certainly is not for the faint of heart!
Based on a novel (Wisdom Tooth) by Mainland Chinese writer Lei Mi but with a tale that director Soi Cheang recognized would be hard to film in Mainland China, Limbo was filmed in the helmer's home city of Hong Kong. But few Hong Kong residents would recognize the movie's actual locations; and this not just because this film was shot (by veteran cinematographer Cheng Siu-keung) in black and white. Specifically, the Hong Kong of Limbo is far more filthy and garbage-strewn than is the case in reality; with the overall look of the movie's settings bringing to mind the nightmarish landfill that featured in Soi Cheang's Dog Bite Dog (2006) more than any actual Hong Kong street and space that I've personally been on and in.
An even greater shock for this (re)viewer was how utterly brutal some of the action scenes in this film featuring a clearly very angry main character are. Gordon Lam Ka-tung turns in an incredible physical performance as Cham Lau, a veteran cop who nurses a grudge against Wong To (portrayed by the very impressive Cya Liu), a young sometime substance abuser who, when driving while high, ran into Cham's wife and left her in a vegetative state. Placed on a team investigating a wave of serial killings of young women headed by rookie inspector Will Yam (played by Mason Lee -- Ang Lee's actor son!), Cham effectively goes off the rails and goes off in hot pursuit of Wong To when he discovers that she's back on the streets after serving her prison sentence.
Cham's dogged chasing of Wong To and manhandling of the not-at-all tough-looking lass after catching up with her is quite something to behold. But that turns out to just be the "appetizer" in terms of the often pretty horrific action served up in Limbo as Cham and Will probe and plunge into the underbelly of a city that looks broken, mad, and inhabited by broken, psychologically damaged souls -- among them Coco (Fish Liew), a drug dealer who is missing a hand, and Akira Yamada (played by Hiroyuki
Ikenuchi), a Japanese man who's overstayed in the city and now ekes out a living as a waste picker -- with the luckless Wong To reluctantly dragged along for the ride.
Can this dystopian vision be read as Soi Cheang's commentary as to the current (psychological) state of his native city? I'll leave others to draw their own conclusions about this. But what I'll say is that what you've got in Limbo is an indisputably Hong Kong work by a filmmaker in top form and distinctive vision.
After getting its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival last March, Limbo also played at a number of film festivals abroad (including the Far East Film Festival at Udine, where it came away with the Purple Mulberry award) before finally opening in Hong Kong in late November. Despite having a Mainland Chinese actress as its leading lady, I do not foresee it ever playing in Mainland China.
And, frankly, I think this says something positive about both Cya Liu and Limbo as a whole. With regards to the former: it means that it wasn't commercial pressure that got her this meaty but also super demanding and punishing part. With regards to the latter: this means that the filmmaker wasn't so restricted in where he could take the story. And indeed, Soi Cheang's produced a work that's fiercely no-holds-barred and unformulaic, bleak and harsh but also thrilling, and absolutely memorable.
My rating for this film: 8.5
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