The long-delayed, star studded Where the Wind Blows badly disappoints (Film review)

A film I finally viewed some two years 

after I first heard of -- and wanted to view -- it

 

Where the Wind Blows (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2022)

- Philip Yung, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Du Juan

 

Back in March 2021, that which already was being described as "Philip Yung's long-awaited follow-up to the critically acclaimed Port of Call" (2015) was scheduled to have its world premiere at the Hong Kong International Film Festival and be that fest's Opening Film (along with Septet).  Days before the fest commenced though, news came of Where the Wind Blows having been pulled from the program due to unspecified "technical issues"; which many took to mean that it had encountered censorship problems.  And it wasn't until the next Hong Kong International Film Festival (some 15 months later) that it finally was screened in public.

 

There may have been a typo involved but, apparently, between 2021 and 2022, Where the Wind Blows gained one minute of running time (to make it 144 minutes in total length).  When viewing this period crime drama about two real life Hong Kong cops who were famously corrupt and rich which covers a time period from the 1940s through to the 1990s though, I found myself wondering how much of the original film had been edited out (to do such as pass the censors both in Hong Kong and Mainland China) and, also, suspecting that bids to please (or, at the very least, placate) the authorities may have played a role in making the final product as all over the place as it is.

 

Or am I being too generous in ascribing one of Where the Wind Blows major weaknesses to censorship problems?  Here's the thing: It may have an incredible cast (headed by Aaron Kwok, playing the notorious Lui Lok; and Tony Leung Chiu Wai, portraying his less flashy partner in crime, Nam Kong), and many other attributes of a blockbuster production.  But this sprawling, meandering work, which rather improbably, was Hong Kong's entry this year for the Best International Feature Film Oscar also has a number of fault: including a multi-stranded story that can feel all over the place along with factual errors that grate (such as British characters played by American and Antipodean-accented actors) and took this (re)viewer right out of the wanna-be epic (especially during a near farcical scene involving not only dancing in the street but snow in urban Hong Kong!).

 

One might consider it already overly ambitious to make a movie spanning some five decades but director-scriptwriter Philip Yung also decided to add romantic stories to the drama and intrigue enveloping the lives of two individuals who really can come across as larger than life.  Thus it is that Lui Lok not only is shown going from righteous young cop to one far more bent on acquiring vast sums of money than upholding the law but also having a number of love affairs, including with the woman he ended up marrying (played by Du Juan) but also earlier in his life (essayed by Jessie Li); with Nam Kong similarly shown evolving from a straight arrow, sharpshooter of a police cadet to a smooth-talking senior police officer -- at ease speaking English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Teochew alike -- whose polished facade belies his losses in life, including the woman he aored to another man.

 

While I am usually in favor of women having not insignificant roles to play in a film, I do think that Where the Wind Blows would have been better served without the scenes and subplots involving them.  As it stands, they are among the movie's cringiest.  (Speaking of which: I know that Aaron Kwok is famed for his dancing but I really could have done without the scene involving Lui Lok performing a tap dance to impress the woman he was wooing.)  Perhaps the time spent on the romances could have been better used to flesh out the characters of the men who currently are too much like cyphers (despite being played by capable actors such as Patrick Tam Yiu-man, Michael Chow, Louis Cheung and Tai Bo).  

 

About the only supporting actor in the Where the Wind Blows who comes out with real credit is Michael Hui, playing an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) officer who delivers a bravura speech in English, filled with declarations about Hong Kong that came across as genuinely heartfelt.  If only there had been more of moments and scenes in the movie that felt substantive and like they truly had something to say.  Instead, too much of this undoubtedly flawed work  didn't feel all that emotionally engaging; and, in fact, left me largely cold, underwhelmed and downright disappointed.

 

My rating for the film: 5.5