My top ten 2015 Hong Kong movies list

The stars of my favorite Hong Kong movie of 2015

Last year, I viewed 33 Hong Kong feature length films and one short film anthology; 25 of which were released for the first time in Hong Kong in 2015.  In addition, since I returned from the Netherlands earlier this month, I've checked out three more 2015 Hong Kong movies -- two of which were released in cinemas when I was out of town.

I'll be honest: without those three extra films in the mix, I'm not sure that there would have been 10 Hong Kong films from last year that I would feel able to laud and recommend.  Put another way: I can state in no uncertain terms that 2015 has been one of the worst years for Hong Kong cinema in living memory; with certain movies and filmmakers -- including some big name veterans -- having made me question whether I still am a Hong Kong film fan.        
           

At the same time though, there's no question that I often feel more emotionally impacted by Hong Kong movies than the representatives of other national cinemas.  And I truly believe that my favorite Hong Kong film of 2015 is one of those that embodies some of the best elements of Hong Kong cinema, and can -- and will -- stand the test of time like many other wonderful movies that have come out from this part of this world:-

1) Little Big Master

My favorite 2015 Hong Kong movie by a country mile-- and that of a number of other Hong Kongers, as can be seen by it having been the only local film to have made the 2015 Hong Kong box office top ten -- has a title that makes it sound like it's a martial arts actioner.  But director-scriptwriter Adrian Kwan's Little Big Master actually is a warm drama about a big-hearted educator who eschewed prestige and fame in favor of becoming the sole full-time staff member of a village school with just five young students.  

The real-life daughter of a teacher, Cantopop megastar Miriam Yeung capably portrays the film's inspirational main character, who happens to be based on a real life individual.  Louis Koo has official second billing but is outshown not just by Yeung but the five little poppets who perfectly play the school's quintet of pupils and will get you crying plenty of tears, of sadness but also joy.    

2) 12 Golden Ducks

After trying her hand at playing a prostitute with a heart of gold in the first Golden Chicken, Golden Chicken 2 and Golden Chickensss, Sandra Ng decided to play a gigolo in my favorite Chinese New Year film of 2015.  For those who are not yet clear about this: the actress didn't play a cross-dressing prostitute in the movie; rather, she actually played a male sex worker -- and managed to pull of this role with quite a bit of panache as well good humor!  

Among the other amazing things about this Matt Chow-helmed and -scripted movie is that despite its production having gone down to the wire to make its festive season release date, it actually manages to tell a pretty coherent story about a man who really knows what women wants, and thus is able to give a good amount of them plenty of pleasure and happiness.  Then there is the matter of a large number and variety of stars -- among them Lisa Lu, Nicholas Tse and Vicki Zhao Wei -- being utterly willing to appear in what effectively is a gigolo comedy as well as festive offering! :O 

3) Ip Man 3

The third Ip Man movie starring Donnie Yen and directed by Wilson Yip may well be the final film of the hit franchise.  If so, its makers have said goodbye with a big bang at the box office, and by adding to the legend of the wing chun master by painting a three-dimensional portrait of Ip Man as a loving husband and father, and a pillar of the community willing to do what he can to protect his family, friends and neighbors as well as the reputation of his martial art.              

4) Ten Years

I'm not usually a fan of short film anthologies or omnibuses, finding their sections to vary in quality.  As it stands, there's one offering among Ten Years' quintet of short films by first-time and other fairly inexperienced directors that didn't do much at all for me.  But the strength of the political work's four other efforts more than make up for it; with the final two segments -- Chow Kwun Kwai's haunting Self-Immolator and Ng Ka Leung's moving Local Egg -- possessing imagery and ideas that will stay long in my memory.               

5) The Taking of Tiger Mountain

More than any other filmmaker, Tsui Hark it was who made me a born again Hong Kong movie fan back in the late 1990s, when I belatedly "discovered" cinematic masterpieces he had directed and/or produced such as Peking Opera Blues, Swordsman II, Once Upon a Time in China (particularly I but also II), Shanghai Blues, Dragon Inn, etc.  For much of the 21st century, however, I got to thinking that maybe he had lost his magic.  

But with this incredibly zany treatment of an apparently true story of a World War II-era PLA troop whose exploits had been previously commorated in such as a "classic" Commuinst Chinese opera, he's shown that he still is capable of great imagination and producing super fun films (like this Mainland China-Hong Kong co-production which was released in Mainland China in 2014 but only made it out to Hong Kong in early 2015, and is just too good to not include in this list because of a technicality)!

6) She Remembers, He Forgets

Before anything else: yes, I'm a fan of Miriam Yeung (ever since I met her in 2007 and she turned in a lovely performance in Hooked On You that year).  In all honesty though, it's the young stars of this bittersweet drama from Adam Wong and Saville Chan (whose previous efforts include 2013's The Way We Dance) who shine the most, with Ng Siu Hin (who also appears in Ten Years' Self-Immolator) making a particularly strong impression as one of a trio of local secondary students living in pre-Handover Hong Kong who dare(d) to dream.  With scenes set in the present day as well as in the past, this work gets its viewers nostalgically looking back but also still hoping for a better tomorrow.                 

7) Zhongkui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal 

With special effects used in 77 percent of its scenes, this fantasy film from cinematographer-director Peter Pau could easily be accused of style over substance.  Although I usually do care quite a bit about a movie's story, I have to admit to caring less about such as plot and character development in this offering about a hot-headed demon slayer, the beautifully icy demon he falls for and the receptacle for captured souls that he steals from the depths of hell, and more about being blown away by the film's super impressive and creative visuals!  One of the rare 3-D films (in the world, never mind the Chinese-speaking world) that I actually enjoyed viewing, I guess I liked that its look helped me feel like I had been transported to another realm, even if only for a couple of hours!

8) Two Thumbs Up              

 

This generally goofy movie from first-time director Lau Ho Leung can feel like a welcome blast from the past.  For one thing, it is one of those "everything goes" films that could be said to transcend genre rather than just be multi-genre -- or just plain doesn't know what genre it should stick to!  For another, like last year's Gangster Pay Day, it stars able veteran actors -- in this case, Francis Ng, Simon Yam and Mark Cheng as well as Leo Koo and Patrick Tam Yiu Ming -- and makes excellent use of their great chemistry.  Sometimes hard to follow (because of over-hyper jumping about between different times and countries), in the end it doesn't matter (that much).  Just go with the flow, and enjoy the ride while it lasts!       

9) To the Fore

Before anything else: I agree with everyone who thinks it ludicruous that this Dante Lam sports movie was picked as Hong Kong's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee; this especially as it came out the same year as Little Big Master, a film that could possibly have appealed to the kind of folks who voted Japan's heartwarming Departures an Oscar winner -- and also because Hong Kong is seen far less in this largely Mandarin-language film than Taiwan!  Casting all this aside though, what we've got here is an action movie with a twist; one in which the battles take place on the road among competitive cyclists rather than are waged by martial artists -- but delivers up quite a bit of adrenalized thrills nonetheless!

10) SPL II: A Time for Consequences

Before Ip Man 3 came along at the tail end of 2015, this Soi Cheang-helmed actioner probably would have been the favorite film of the year of those fans of Hong Kong cinema whose favorite genre by far is martial arts action.  Max Zhang can be seen in explosive action in this sequel-in-name-only to the 2005 SPL directed by the Ip Man series' Wilson Yip as well as Ip Man 3.  But it's Thai action superstar Tony Jaa and Hong Kong movie veteran Wu Jing who are this crime actioner's most showy performers, while the ever reliable Simon Yam is the film's dramatic anchor.

Ip Man 3, at long last! (film review)

The Hong Kong poster for Ip Man 3

 

Ip Man 3 (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2015)

- Wilson Yip, director

- Starring: Donnie Yen, Max Zhang Jin, Lynn Hung, Patrick Tam Yiu Man, Mike Tyson

 

In the year that's just passed, the Hong Kong box office increased its takings by 20 percent from the previous year -- but only had one local film in the top 10 list of box office hits.  And in keeping with this trend, pretty much all the movie talk I heard in the Big Lychee the week before I flew off to Amsterdam revolved around Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which had gone on general release here one day ahead of the USA (and on the same day as a bunch of other countries including South Korea, Britain and Malaysia). 

 

Since returning from the Netherlands, however, about the only movie I've heard anyone I've mentioned has been Ip Man 3.  Released in Hong Kong cinemas on Christmas Eve (and due out in selected British cinemas on January 15th, and American ones on January 22nd), this blockbuster crowdpleaser is the long-awaited follow-up to the first two Ip Man movies directed by Wilson Yip and starring Donnie Yen.  Released in 2008 and 2010, these period martial arts dramas gave the wing chun master who was Bruce Lee's master the Wong Fei Hung and Fong Sai Yuk treatment: i.e., turned the renowned kung fu master into a legendary personality.

 

I don't think that I'll ever forget the first time I saw Donnie Yen burst into wing chun action in the first Ip Man.  He really was that breathtakingly impressive.  And although Ip Man 2 was a lesser film overall than the original offering, the son of another genuine martial arts great (Bow Sim Mark) continued to impress in his fight scenes, with those waged atop a rickety table in the 2010 movie also being able to hold their own in the pantheon of amazing martial arts battles in Hong Kong movies.

 

Yen electrifies once more in Ip Man 3's action scenes expertly choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping, including those which has him going up against Mike Tyson (yes, the former heavyweight box office champion!) as well as others.  But this time around, the Hong Kong movie veteran also is able to show off his acting chops -- particularly in some truly tender scenes shared with Lynn Hung, who plays Ip Man's beloved wife Wing Sing -- in a film that contains a significant amount of moving drama along with kinetic action. 

 

In what may well be the final Ip Man movie for both the film's director and star, Wilson Yip appears intent on making a strong case for Ip Man having been a loving husband, caring father and pillar of the community as well as truly great martial arts practitioner.  Consequently, sub-plots in this film include one that relates to Wing Sing's well-being while the main story pertains to Ip Man going to the rescue after the future of the school attended by Ip Ching comes under threat when a shady American businessman (portrayed by Mike Tyson) covets its land and sends his goons (headed by an especially despicable character played by Patrick Tam Yiu Man) to do such as attack the headmaster (composer-character actor Tats Lau) and wreck the school's premises.

 

Taking place in Hong Kong, the action begins in 1959, with Ip Man firmly established in local martial arts circles, with a number of loyal students, and living comfortably with his wife and younger son Ip Ching (while his elder son by 12 years, Ip Chun, remained across the border in Mainland China).  Early on, a cocky young man known as Siu Lung (Little Dragon) to locals -- and Bruce Lee to much of the rest of the world -- is shown having his first meeting with Ip Man; one where the younger man is able to demonstrate that he has fast moves but Ip Man is able to establish that it's he who definitely is the master.   

 

Those who've viewed and remember Herman Yau's Ip Man -- The Final Fight (2013) will immediately get a jarring feeling, like they've entered a parallel Ip Man universe, because of the markedly different presentation of certain details and developments in the real-life individual's life -- with Wilson Ip's film appearing to be less historically accurate than Herman Yau's.  The truth of the matter is that in, and with, all of his three Ip Man films, Wilson Yip seems far more intent on turning Ip Man into a movie legend than adhering to actual historical and biographical facts. 

 

The director further shows his ambition by having both the film and its protagonist make socio-political statements.  Interestingly, those concerning "foreign elements" are done in such a way that even while they outwardly appear anti-Western, they can be "read" in such a way as to be, say, Mainlanders (much as anti-colonial criticism in pre-1997 Hong Kong movies could be seen in films ostensibly much more about Ming or Han vs Qing).

 

In any event, what's clear is that Ip Man 3 comes off best in its action scenes.  And while others (notably the impressive Max Zhang, playing another wing chun master, this one named Cheung Tin Chi) are sometimes given the showier, more fiery moves, it's beautiful to see how Yuen Woo Ping has ensured that it's Donnie Yen's Ip Man who is exemplary at utilizing wing chun's close combat principles when he fights.  

 

In crucial ways like this, the Wilson Yip-Donnie Yen duo easily bests all those other director-star pairs that have brought Ip Man to the silver screen.  Anthony Wong Chau San may have had more gravitas as Ip Man in Herman Yau's 2013 film, Dennis To's Ip Man more erudite in the same director's 2010 The Legend is Born: Ip Man, and Tony Leung Chiu Wai's Ip Man looked stylish in action in Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster.  But there's little doubt that the wing chun sifu portrayed in Yip's films by Yen is the most convincing martial arts master of them all.   

My rating for this film: 8.5   

Hou Hsiao Hsien's The Assassin, brought to the screen after 37 script revisions! (film review)

The kind of image that I don't think would look

out of place in Hou Hsiao Hsien's The Assassin* ;) 

The Assassin (Taiwan-Mainland China-Hong Kong-France, 2015)

Hou Hsiao Hsien, director and co-scriptwriter

- Starring: Hsu Chi (AKA Shu Qi), Chang Chen

Back in the late 20th century, when I was (still) living in Philadelphia, I learnt about the existence of Hou Hsiao Hsien and his films via two documentaries.  In both Stanley Kwan's Yang + Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema (1999) and Olivier Assayas' HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao Hsien (1997), for which he was the primary subject, the Tawanese auteur came across as articulate, interesting and actually pretty down to earth.  And my interest in both this filmmaker and his films were further piqued by seeing him onscreen in Shu Kei's Soul (1986).  

Thanks to a friend who was then living in Taiwan, I managed to get my hands on a Hou Hsiao Hsien DVD box set of his early works, including his autobiographical A Time to Live, A Time to Die (1985) and the seminal City of Sadness (1989).  Add in my counting a viewing of his Flowers of Shanghai (1998) at an art museum in San Francisco among one of the most awesome big screen viewing experiences I've had to date and I think it could safely be considered one of the director's fans, and for quite some time now.

Yet I couldn't conjure up much enthusiasm for Hou's latest cinematic effort, which had garnered major hype and a best director award for him at Cannes this year.  Upon reflection, I think one big reason was that I had a hard time imagining the Hou Hsiao Hsien I know making a great wuxia work (which was what The Assassin, whose titular character is a Tang Dynasty trained killer, had sounded like it would be).  And then there was my great dislike of the film's leading actress, one whose high pitched voice (at least when speaking Cantonese or English) has helped ruin films as diverse as triad drama Young and Dangerous 5 and arthouse offering The Island Tales for me.

Really, though, I should have guessed that Hou's adaptation of a 9th century Tang Dynasty tale would be more a period drama than swordplay actioner.  And I honestly wish that those of my friends who had seen the film before me would have let me know that Hsu Chi actually doesn't utter that many lines at all in it!  Instead, I got statements like "it's the kind of film one admires more than one likes" (this from someone on the polite side) and it's "dull and dry and ponderous and boring" (this from someone known for his colorful opinions!) -- and post viewing The Assassin, I know what they both mean.  

On the plus side, there are many noteworthy things about this work which was shot on location in Japan* as well as different parts of mainland China along with on sets in Taiwan, including Mark Lee Ping Bing's masterful cinematography and Hwang Wern Ying's classy costume and overall production design.  Also, part of me does admire its director for eschewing a conventional approach in his relating a potentially intriguing story involving a young woman (Hsu Chi) given to a nun with royal blood (Sheu Fang Yi) to be trained to become a ruthless taker of lives who is sent home years later to kill the region's ruler (Chang Chen), who just happens to be her cousin and also the man she formerly was betrothed to! 

On the minus side, however, there's no getting away from this film being not only slow-paced but also having an elliptical approach to storytelling that borders on the deliberately obfuscating (or perhaps this is the inadvertent result of the script having gone through 37 revisions!). To give just one example: the work is entitled The Assassin but it's only after the lead character appeared in a scene with a a masked female martial artist who had previously been briefly shown practicing her deadly skills that I got to realizing that they were not one and the same person!  (An aside to those who have viewed the film: please tell me that I wasn't the only one who took that long to figure this out!!)

To those who say that for films like these, the plot details don't matter that much in the overall scheme of things: I'm going to state that I actually may loathe being bored by a movie even more than feeling befuddled when watching (a good bulk of) it.  And that, alas, is what I have to conclude happened to me with The Assassin: because as much as I truly did appreciate its visual aesthetics (not least how much physical depth there appeared to be in what is, after all, a 2-D work), the fact of the matter is that -- and yes, I did look at my watch to verify this -- the first time I yawned during the screening, we hadn't even reached the 10 minute mark of this 107 minute work!

Perhaps the most damning thing I would say of this Hou Hsiao Hsien film though is that unlike those of his previous works which I have seen, the vast majority of characters in it don't seem to act like real people.  This feeling was brought home to me in one scene that doesn't involve any of the main personalities, during which a gaggle of young female entertainers chat happily while walking along a palace corridor -- for I got to noticing that it was one of the rare occasions in this work when the people on screen actually came across like they were acting naturally, and consequently seemed like actual humans rather than actors merely obeying cues in an artificially staged affair.

My rating for this film: 6.0

SPL II: A Time for Consequences (movie review)

Tony Jaa stars in a Hong Kong-mainland 

China co-production! :O 

 

SPL II: A Time for Consequences (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2015)

- Soi Cheang, director

- Starring: Tony Jaa, Simon Yam, Louis Koo, Wu Jing, Max Zhang Jin

 

Ten years ago, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung and Simon Yam starred in an action blockbuster directed by Wilson Yip that some Hong Kong film fans considered to be, in the words of one online reviewer, "Easily the best Hong Kong action film of the year".  Despite such accolades though, the crime actioner was unable to pass the HK$10 million mark at the local box office that constitutes financial success for Hong Kong movies.  So it's probably not that much of a surprise that SPL did not immediately spawn a sequel.

 

Unexpectedly, however, the summer of 2015 has seen the release of SPL II: A Time for Consequences. Even more perplexingly is this new crime actioner being pretty much a sequel in name only. And while it has Wu Jing fourth billed once more (though this time around, he actually gets a more memorable part), the production retains just Simon Yam of the 2005 film's three main stars and sees the original SPL's director taking the role of co-producer (with four others) and leaving the helming duties to Motorway's Soi Cheang.  In addition, Wu and Yam play different characters in SPL II than they did in the first SPL!  

 

Whereas Wu had played a bad guy in SPL, this time around, his character only pretends to be one.  An undercover cop, Kit was given a dangerous assignment by his superior officer Wah (Yam), who also happens to be his uncle.  So when the younger fellow goes missing, the older man has both personal as well as professional reasons for wanting to track Kit down and go to his rescue.

 

After his cover is blown and he's fingered as the person responsible for preventing the abduction of a man (Jun Kung) whose heart the chief villain -- a man who happens to have a physically weak heart -- wants transplanted to his body, Kit is punished by being given a false criminal identity and incarcerated in a Thai prison whose stylishly besuited warden (Max Zhang Jin) happens to not only be beholden to the evil Mr Hung (Louis Koo) but also be a black market organ dealer on the side.  

 

Accorded considerably worse treatment than the prison's other inmates, it looks like Kit has been dealt an extremely terrible and hopeless fate.  But as luck would have it, there's actually a guard in that horrible facility who's got a good heart along with pretty incredible martial arts abilities.  And while it initially seems that Chatchai (Tony Jaa) will do anything -- including close his eyes to injustice -- to ensure that he gets help to save his sick young daughter, he turns out to be a man with a conscience who will put the welfare of innocent others before even his beloved child and himself.

 

Considering that it's got two very capable action actors in Jaa and Wu in its cast, SPL II: A Time for Consequences sure does spend a lot of time on convoluted plottings that not only slow things down but often come across as far too contrived to be emotionally involving.  Furthermore, things are definitely not helped by the movie's top-billed dramatic -- as opposed to action -- actor being Louis Koo, who just does not have the requisite gravitas to either convincingly portray a top villain or be taken seriously while having the distractingly weird hairdo that he does in this film!

 

Fortunately for the film, the other significant cast members actually acquit themselves well dramatically -- and I mean those much better known for their action than dramatic work such as Jaa, Wu, Zhang, and Ken Lo (in a small but significant part as Chatchai's uncle and fellow prison guard), along with the consistently reliable Yam (who excels in a demanding, emotional, anchoring role).  And I'm sure there are a number of action movie fans who'll feel that the climactic action scenes were worth waiting for.  

 

Personally though, I would have preferred for the movie to have been about half an hour shorter, with certain dramatic scenes (such as those involving a nightmarish wolf or tree analogies) edited out altogether.  In addition, there are way too many coincidences in the story; and while Dante Lam was able to make use of notions of fate to good effect in The Beast Stalker, few of his fellow Hong Kong filmmakers have been able to do so in recent years, with many of these attempts coming across as not only overly contrived but just plain uninventive and old.       

My rating for this film: 7.0

My top ten 2014 Hong Kong movies list

My favorite Hong Kong film of 2014

Last year, I watched 47 Hong Kong films (including co-productions with mainland China, etc.).  That number is four less than the total number of Hong Kong films that I viewed in 2013.  But so is the total number of Hong Kong films released into Hong Kong cinemas -- with only 51 local films (yes, the same number as the total of Hong Kong films I viewed in 2013) having had commercial theatrical releases in 2014.

For those who know of Hong Kong cinema's regular output of over 300 movies annually in the 1980s and 1990s, 51 is an horrifyingly paltry number of films for Hong Kong to have produced in one year.  Yes, it's still more than many other territories -- but this is that whose film industry used to be unironically referred to as the Eastern Hollywood that we're talking about!  

Quality-wise, much of 2014 did not look like a good year for Hong Kong cinema, or those who remain its fans either -- and I have to admit that there were times when I came out of a screening almost in tears, so despairing as well as disappointed did I feel as a result of watching a film that was not as good as the star and/or respected names attached to it had promised that it would be.  

But in the last few months of the year, a number of Hong Kong films came along that made me have hope once more in the cinema whose output helped me to fall in love with Hong Kong all those years ago.  And yes, I definitely feel that I can recommend the following films that have made my top ten 2014 Hong Kong movies list!

1) Dot 2 Dot

This touching love letter to Hong Kong had its world premiere at the 2014 Hong Kong International Film Festival but I didn't view it until months later.  On paper, this drama revolving around a quiet returnee to Hong Kong from Canada and a shy Ph.D. newly arrived to the territory from China's Jilin Province doesn't sound all that intriguing or great -- what with it being an openly independent film by a first-time director that doesn't have any major stars in its cast.  But Amos Why's is a showcase of much that's good about the territory, its people and independent cinema.  Put another way, it's original, sincere and has compelling messages, not least for those who live in -- and love -- Hong Kong.

2)  My Voice, My Life

Chinese American filmmaker Ruby Yang, whose The Blood of Yingzhou District won the 2007 Best Documentary Short Oscar, returned to the territory of her birth, Hong Kong, in 2013. A distinguished fellow at the University of Hong Kong, she's partly been keeping busy by making an inspirational documentary about a group of secondary school students -- many of them from less privileged backgrounds, some of whom are seeing impaired -- along with those who got them involved in preparing for and staging a musical at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts.  Some of the individual story arcs may be predictable but it's also true that I ended up weeping with joy not just once but thrice when viewing this film!

3) Women Who Flirt

There are those who won't consider this romantic comedy centring on a woman who doesn't act like your stereotypical (Chinese) female to be a Hong Kong movie since lead pair Zhou Xun and Huang Xiaoming are mainlanders, and its tale takes place in Shanghai and Taiwan but not in Hong Kong.  There also are those who won't consider it a 2014 Hong Kong release on account of it opening in Hong Kong on January 1, 2015.  But the fact that Pang Ho Cheung is its director, and has enlisted the help of a number of Hong Kongers to do such as co-write the script with him, edit the work and compose the music for it, gets me feeling that there are indeed Hong Kong elements to this fun film whose heroine is extremely likeable, not least for not conforming to stereotypes of what an alluring Chinese woman should be like.  And it's also true enough that it opened in a number of territories (including Mainland China but also the US!) in late 2014!

4) Beijing Love Story

Mainland Chinese actor Chen Sicheng's directorial debut is another film that many people would not consider to be a Hong Kong movie -- and in this case, I think that there's indeed a case to be said for this being so.  At the same time though, the best part of this romantic film that tells the story of couples ranging from secondary students to those old enough to be their grandparents is undoubtedly that which has two stalwarts of Hong Kong cinema in Carina Lau and Tony Leung Ka Fai showing how charismatic they individually are and how winningly wonderful their chemistry, seen as long ago in 1993's He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father, continues to be.

5) Rise of the Legend

This latest cinematic reimaging of the Wong Fei Hung legend by Chow Hin Yeung (who now no longer wants to be known as Roy Chow) that went on general releaese in Hong Kong during the "Occupy" phase of the Umbrella Movement upset a number of people who think it anathema for the Cantonese folk hero to speak Putonghua. Consequently, they opted against checking the film out -- something that I reckon is really too bad because if they had done so, I think they would have found much to like and appreciate about this period martial arts drama, not least the socio-political and economic messages it contains that they undoubtedly would realize has pertinence to Hong Kong's current situation.

6) Aberdeen

The first Pang Ho Cheung film I viewed in 2014 was one which I initially came away feeling rather cool about but which I discovered that I appreciated upon thinking and reflecting more about it.  An examination of a family with roots in the southern Hong Kong Island town of Aberdeen (known as Hong Kong Tsai in Cantonese, a phrase that translates into Little Hong Kong), much of this star-studded, yet often understated, drama can also be extrapolated and applied to Hong Kong at large and its inhabitants.  Its messages may not be the most upbeat or inspirational but they are worth noting all the same -- and they look to bear notice of one of Hong Kong cinema's enfant terribles having grown up, or at least be capable of greater maturity than he usually is credited with.

7) Gangster Pay Day

There are a number of stars from Hong Kong cinema's glory days of which it could be said that viewers would be happy enough just to see and hear them reading a phone book.  And while this retro-gangster drama-comedy's proceeding never get that trivially boring, the fact of the matter is that one does start feeling just that about the likes of veteran cast members Anthony Wong Chau San and Carrie Ng over the course of watching them in action.  Sure, there's a sub-plot involving a bad Triad who causes trouble for the "good Triad" played by Wong that helps keep things exciting but it's also true enough that the best scenes of this veritable "blast from the past" of a movie are those where Wong and Ng are doing such mundane stuff as having dinner with each other and two other individuals who they clearly do care for!

8) Kung Fu Jungle

This Teddy Chen martial arts drama "had" me just by way of the generous amount of celebrity cameos to be found throughout the film and the sequence at the end which pays homage to Hong Kong martial arts movie heroes past and present.  But if that weren't enough, it also features some killer action from the likes of Donnie Yen, Wang Baoqiang and the array of kick ass opponents that the film's villain is presented with.  And while it does make some use of CGI, this film also has the likes of Charlie Yeung as well as Donnie Yen -- rather than just their stunt doubles -- going into the brown waters off Tai O... something that had me gasping with shock at the nerve, daring and sheer willingness of the stars to do what's needed for a movie that consequently felt more "authentic" in terms of its action sequences than many other Hong Kong films have in years!  

9) Golden Chickensss

This second follow up to Golden Chicken harks back to a time when Hong Kong filmmakers thought nothing of including comedy, drama, philosophy, vulgarity and pathos into a single movie.  Twelve years on after protagonist Ah Kam came into the limelight, she's ascended the professional ladder from prostitute to mamasan and in the meantime, the former "ugly duckling" actress who portrays her, Sandra Ng has cemented her status as Hong Kong cinema's reigning queen of comedy. Surrounding herself with established stars such as Nick Cheung and Louis Koo, Ng (who also produced the film) also shares the screen with Ivana Wong, whose first film this was, and showed much in it to have viewers looking forward to more movie appearances by the superstar singer.

10) The Crossing I

Upon coming out of the screening of the first installment in a planned two film period epic, I found myself rueing the fact that I will have to wait several months to view the concluding portion.  Like with his previous Red Cliff, I'm wowed by the grand scale and ambitious sweep of the work -- and reckon that only John Woo could have envisioned the often jaw-dropping battle scenes that feature so heavily in what, at least in this particular segment, is primarily a war movie.  And okay, yes, the romantic scenes often feel more clunky and forced than they should be.  But, this time around, they're not the most major parts of the work.  Also, as unlikely it may seem, I think this film features the best performance by Zhang Ziyi -- deglammed and actually signs of her having aged, but all the more admirable for this being so -- in a long while!  

Hong Kong movie heroes and the Umbrella Movement

A Bruce Lee quote looked upon as a good piece of advice

which I've seen posted at Admiralty and Mongkok

 What many people would love to see happen:

i.e., a hero like Wong Fei Hung

administering a beating to the wolf

For those who haven't realized: in recent years, most Hong Kong film folks have come to look upon mainland China as the biggest market for their products -- and it's the rare Hong Kong movie these days that's not a co-production with the mainland.  So there are economic reasons for many local filmmakers and stars keeping mum about the subject of the ongoing pro-democracy protests or, worse, coming out and making statements against the Umbrella Movement.

In this context, it's really a pretty big deal that the likes of Chow Yun Fat, Anthony Wong Chau Sang and Chapman To have spoken up and out in defence of the protesters.  And already, there have been calls by a Beijing mouthpiece for action to be taken against the pro-Occupy celebrities such as the banning of their works from being shown on the mainland and their being able to work there.

Showing why he's so beloved in Hong Kong (and by many others in other parts of the world), Chow Yun Fat has responded to the suggestion that he's on the mainland blacklist by saying "I'll just make less then"!  (In the linked article, Fat Gor also is quoted as stating that "I’ve met the residents [in the protest areas], the students — they are very brave and it’s touching to see that they’re fighting for what they want. The students are reasonable. If the government can come up with a solution that the citizens or students are satisfied with, I believe the crisis will end.")

And on Twitter, it's been reported that Anthony Wong Chau Sang has said that "If Chow Yun Fat is willing to make less money, I'll take a pay cut to star in Hong Kong movies"!  (Wong, more than incidentally, stars in Gangster Pay Day, a hybrid triad drama-comedy-romance going on general release in Hong Kong on October 30 which I believe that Hong Kong movies will love and hope that viewers will give good support to.)

For their stance and statements, Chow Yun Fat and Anthony Wong Chau Sang deserve to be hailed as Hong Kong heroes.  And while we're on the subject of Hong Kong cinema-linked heroes: kudos to Pang Chi Ming, a kung fu practitioner of more than five decades who also happens to be a fourth generation descendent of the great Wong Fei Hung, for pointing out -- in response to a pro-Beijing politician's assinine assertion that the umbrellas of Umbrella Movement participants were more aggressive devices than the tear gas used by the police -- that "an umbrella is used for self-defence in real gongfu (or kung fu), and is not an aggressive weapon"!

And speaking of martial artists: a friend of mine who has been spending a lot of time in the "Occupied" section of Mongkok told me, "I've never heard Bruce Lee quoted so much as the last few weeks; how can the police disperse a crowd that acts like water? They'll just come back."

An umbrella is used for self-defence in real gongfu, and is not an aggressive weapon, - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/east-asia/story/hong-kong-protests-descendant-legendary-master-wong-fei-hung-hits-back-ove#sthash.mNMtGgEA.dpuf

Crazy fun with South Korea's cookin' Nanta! :)

In the land of crazy food (yes, those are sausages and

chip combination concoctions there!)...

...there's also the crazy cooking-themed Nanta comedy show

(that, sorry, doesn't actually star Puppet Ponyo!)!

A few months ago, I went with my mother and a friend to see Jump!, a martial arts-themed physical comedy theater show that had travelled from South Korea to Hong Kong.  Based on my experience of having viewed that show and another similar styled one in Hong Kong's Detention, I figured that my mother and I also would get much out of checking out the granddaddy of these shows, one which has been running since October 1997 -- South Korea's Nanta.

On my 2009 visit to South Korea, I had seen ads for Nanta but had assumed that tickets needed to be booked way in advance for it.  But as I found out on my most recent vacation, if you purchase the tickets directly from the Nanta box office, you can only get tickets for the performances from 1pm of the very day of the show that you want to see!

Upon purchasing our tickets, my mother and I settled ourselves into the seats of the Myeongdong Nanta Theatre and got ready for what turned out to be a super entertaining show that combined elements of physical comedy, skillful acrobatics, magic tricks, audience participation and the distinctive Korean percussion music known as samul nori. 

South Korea's most popular show has a simple plot involving four chefs (one of whom is parachuted into the kitchen by way of his being the nephew of the restaurant manager) tasked with preparing a large number of dishes for a wedding banquet in the space of just one hour.  From time to time, they have to contend with the demands of the bad-tempered manager but mainly the quartet interact each other -- in ways that emphasize their distinct personae (of occasionally crazy senior chef, cute female chef, goofy younger chef and the new chef who needs to prove his worth to the others) and allow for lots of comic routines and relief.

Even while we laughed at the characters' slapstick antics though, we also couldn't help but marvel at the amazing abilities of the talented actors (and one actress) in this ultra fun show.  Not only are they adept comedians (with fantastic comic timing) but they also are able percussionists and possess knife skills that I think many actual cooks and chefs would be proud to have!  Oh, and the 20-something year old fellow who was the youngest of the performers also had amazing abs and a handsome face in the bargain!!

And for those who're wondering: you really don't need to know any Korean to enjoy a performance of Nanta -- or, for that matter, Jump. (And it's also the case that you don't need any Cantonese knowledge to have fun checking out Detention.)  This is not least because the show's 99% non-verbal... with far more beautifully rhythmic percussion sounds heard -- and physical gestures utilized -- than any actual words. :)

New York Chinatown at the Hong Kong Film Archive (film review)

I took just one trip to the Hong Kong Film Archive

during the 2014 Hong Kong International Film Festival

(but plan to head there a few more times later in this month)

New York Chinatown (Hong Kong, 1982)
- From the Ways of the Underworld: Hong Kong Gangster Film as a Genre program
- Siu Wing, director
- Starring: Alan Tang, Melvin Wong, Maria Chung

Hong Kong cinema is under-appreciated in its home territory.  It's bad enough that the film companies have not thought to preserve a lot of products, with the results including there now reportedly being only one original print copy left of He's a Woman, She's a Man (a film made only 20 years ago, lest we forget) and no complete print copy left of New York Chinatown (though, fortunately, enough of it left to merit a rare screening at the Hong Kong Film Archive) -- but, also, that not that many people bothered to turn up to view the rare 1980s Hong Kong film that looked to have been shot entirely on location in New York.

Sure, this explosive crime actioner in which gang war breaks out in New York's Chinatown is no cinematic masterpiece -- but it stars a suave English- as well as Cantonese-speaking Alan Tang (who a webmistress of a website devoted to him labelled "The First Prince of Hong Kong") and is a pretty entertaining watch, especially for those people who've been to the Big Apple and/or are fans of that American city!

Tang portrays an honorable dai lo (which literally translates as "older brother" but in crime films, means Triad boss) whose followers include a Columbia University graduate student (and yes, New York Chinatown has scenes shot on the campus of that Ivy League university!) and a chubby cook who marries a Cantonese-speaking buxom American blonde who clearly loves him very much.  Going up against him -- and bidding to wrest control of all of New York (more specifically, Manhattan) Chinatown -- is a rival played by Canadian Chinese actor Melvin Wong who's as mean, greedy and ruthless as Tang's character is generous and compassionate.

The distinct feeling I got while viewing this movie was that New York was chosen as its setting because it allowed the filmmakers to go crazy on the gun front and not just restrict themselves to fights involving bare hands and, at most, knives and choppers.  Put another way: there is plenty of gunfire in this movie, including on the very streets of Chinatown that are explicitly identified -- ones like Canal Street, Mott Street and the Bowery -- though there's also a pretty cool martial arts fight that takes place between a kung fu sifu and a crooked New York cop.

On the subject of location IDs: there's unintended humor in a typo turning Jersey City into Versey City more than once in the film whose English subtitles also are the worst I've seen in years.  It also almost goes without saying that the movie's plot is basic, the depictions of many of the characters are, to put it mildly, politically incorrect as well as show off some of the worst aspects of humanity, and that I'll be nice and ascribe some of the editing weaknesses to sections of the film having gone missing.

Nonetheless, there's a vibrant energy and playfulness in New York Chinatown that many contemporary Hong Kong crime and action films could benefit from.  Watching this 1982 movie, I got to thinking that Hong Kong cinema may have matured in the intervening decades -- but it also shows its age by often missing that youthful verve that made so many of its earlier films fun.

My rating for this film (viewing experience): 7.5

My top ten 2013 Hong Kong movies list

The film that gets my vote for favorite

2013 Hong Kong movie viewed last year

In 2013, I viewed 51 Hong Kong films. Of these, 30 were Hong Kong films that were released for the first time last year.  For the record: these films did not include Stephen Chow's Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, the top grossing film of 2013 on the mainland and the third highest grossing Chinese language film at the Hong Kong box office last year -- because, in all honesty, the trailer was so awful looking that it put me off checking out the movie!

Also for the record, I did watch Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster -- but, in all honesty, the more I think about it, the less I like it.  And so upset as well as disappointed was I by it even early on that I couldn't bring myself to listen for several months to the Original Soundtrack of the other Wong Kar Wai films I have in my CD collection!

Having got that out of the way, here's what did make my top ten 2013 Hong Kong movies list:-

1) The Way We Dance

In stark contrast to The Grandmaster, the more I think about The Way We Dance, the more I love this Adam Wong dance drama which had its world premiere at the 2013 Hong Kong International Film Festival  (HKIFF) but which I only decided to watch upon learning that it would also be the opening film of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's laudable HK Cine Fan program that was launched in April shortly after the 2013 HKIFF!

Full of life, energy and enthusiasm, this film comes across as a veritable breath of fresh air -- and can surprise and shock viewers with its general quality as well as novelty like a jolt of electricity.  On a personal note, I was truly flabbergasted when, upon meeting and interviewing Adam Wong for the second time in some five years, he not only remembered me but a Shunji Iwai film we had talked about at our first encounter!  Oh, and lead actress Cherry Ngan is truly very sweet -- and I was won over by her as a person as well as an actress!! 

2) Unbeatable

In 2013, Unbeatable was one of two films that I got to view before it was actually completed and then again at public screenings after it had been completed.  While the first of these films was seriously awful when viewed early on and still flawed after it had been declared ready to be viewed by the general public, this action drama that centers on a middle-aged former boxer who finds redemption in an unlikely setting and way already looked pretty good to me at the initial screening and continued to impress upon repeat viewing.

My favorite Dante Lam film since 2008's Beast Stalker, Unbeatable boasts a winning performance from Nick Cheung and a strong one as well from Taiwanese actor Eddie Pang (who is far more impressive here than in Stephen Fung's overly-gimmicky Tai Chi Hero and ambitious but still flawed Tai Chi Zero).  And who've have thought that a Hong Kong-Mainland China co-produced movie that's largely set in Macau would make such great use of a cover version of Simon and Garfunkel's sublime The Sound of Silence?

3) Ip Man -- The Final Fight

In my top ten 2008 Hong Kong movies list, I rated Wilson Yip's Ip Man at number 3 (after Ann Hui's The Way We Are and Dante Lam's The Beast Stalker). For 2013, there's another Ip Man film in the third spot of my list -- only this time, it's directed by Herman Yau and stars Anthony Wong Chau San as a noticeably older version of the wing chun master than the one portrayed by Donnie Yen.

Although Ip Man - The Final Fight does possess its share of action, it -- as is to be expected, considering who are its director and lead actor -- shines more during its dramatic moments that are infused with a nostalgia for an old Hong Kong that many viewers never got to experience.  This being said, the sparring match between Ip Man and Timmy Hung's character, and also that between Master Ip and the martial arts sifu essayed by Eric Tsang, are -- to my mind -- wonderful examples of cinema along with the first time that one sees Donnie Yen in action in the 2008 Wilson Ip movie.

4) Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon

Once upon a time, Tsui Hark was far and away my favorite Hong Kong filmmaker.  This, after all, is the director of Peking Opera Blues, Shanghai Blues, Once Upon a Time in China and producer of Swordsman II, Dragon Inn, etc., etc. that we're talking about. However, in the 21st century, he's had more missteps (including Time and Tide, The Legend of Zu and Missing) than hits (Seven Swords?  Detective Dee and the Phantom Flame?).

So it was with low expectations that I went into a viewing of Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon -- only to find that I prefer this prequel to the 2010 period detective movie, and -- at the risk of bemusing and offending fans of the Cantopop Sky King -- Taiwanese actor Mark Chao as Detective Dee to Andy Lau!  Also, not only are this 2013 film's version of Detective Dee's deductions, the film's special effects and action choreography impressive but this offering generally just comes across as more entertaining and fun!

5) Control

Kenneth Bi's action thriller which stars Daniel Wu as an insurance salesman who gets blackmailed by a man he's never met into committing various crimes opened in Mainland China at the tail end of 2013 but only in early 2014 in Hong Kong.  Sadly, it didn't perform well at the mainland box office and has gotten negative reviews from many critics, including in Malaysia and Singapore, where it also was released before Hong Kong.

For my part, however, I really got much out of my viewing of this film -- not least because, bucking the trend of many films opening strongly but then ending disastrously, I thought it got better and better the further along into the story that it went.  Without getting too specific about its conclusion to make avoid spoiling the film: I got chills down my spine at how seemingly disparate elements satisfyingly came together at the end -- in a way that recalled The Beast Stalker some five years ago now.      

6) May We Chat

This sophomore effort from Philip Yung won't have a commercial run until later in 2014.  But late in December 2013, there were several cinema screenings of May We Chat -- that, from what I can gather, took place in order to make sure that it qualifies for this year's Hong Kong Film Awards.

While I'm not sure that this raw drama about three troubled teenaged females who befriend one another via a smartphone chat app will come away with any honors, I'd definitely state my having been very impressed by the performances of Heidi Lee, Rainky Wai and Kabby Hui, the film's three hitherto unknown lead actresses. An apparent updating of the story of the Lonely Fifteen characters first portrayed by Irene Wan and Peter Mak back in 1982, much of the film feels very contemporary even while there are sections that do hark back to the way things were -- also troubled but perhaps not as harsh as it now can be.  

7) Hotel Deluxe

Although it's officially not part of the All's Well Ends Well series, this Chinese New Year comedy resembles those other festive works -- not least because they all come out of Raymond Wong Pak Min's stable, has him and other familiar faces, such as Sandra Ng and Teresa Mo, in its cast, and has a story that places an emphasis on family affairs that involve not just one or two but three generations of individuals.  

To ensure that the old formula does not become stale though, the film has a different setting from Raymond Wong's other Chinese New Year films: namely, a luxury hotel in a scenic part of Mainland China, albeit one that looks to be almost entirely staffed by Hong Kongers!  And while the old hands do serve up some laughs, the heart of this 2013 film actually comes courtesy of younger individuals -- specifically Ronald Cheng (who I must admit to having a soft spot for, and believing really can act) as well as the oft criticized Fiona Sit (who undoubtedly can annoy in certain movies but actually doesn't in this one).   

8) Tales from the Dark (Part 1)

A three part anthology with different directors for different sections (and a follow up anthology that generally is no as good), Tales from the Dark (Part 1) is made up a trio of supernatural themed stories adapted from novelist Lilian Lee's works. The first, directed and starring Simon Yam, mainly goes to show that Simon Yam the actor could benefit from some reining in -- to ensure that he doesn't over-act -- that Simon Yam the director failed to do.  

Fortunately, things pick up considerably in the section of the film directed by Lee Chi Ngai and starring Tony Leung Kar Fai, Kelly Chen and Cherry Ngan that may not be super scary but still is actually pretty entertaining.  Far more horrific is the episode helmed by Fruit Chan which features memorable performances by Dada Chen (who announced her retirement around the time of this film's release, only to reverse her decision months later) and Siu Yam Yam, one of the rare Hong Kong actresses whose post-Shaw Brothers film career looks to be better than her Shaw Brothers one as well as managed to have found respectability several decades after being known primarily as a soft porn star.

9) Doomsday Party

2013 saw a number of notable directorial debuts -- with the more high profile ones including those by Juno Mak (Rigor Mortis), Flora Lau (Bends) and Charlie Yeung (Christmas Rose). For my money however, the most impressive by far was that of the little known Ho Hong, whose Doomsday Party reminds me in some ways of Fruit Chan's seminal Made in Hong Kong as well as certain early Hong Kong New Wave efforts.

A multi-character ensemble drama set in a Hong Kong full of people troubled by economic and other woes,  it can feel heavy-handed at times in terms of its treatment but there's no mistaking that it has a message and an urgency to it that makes one realize that its director isn't just making a film to make money, for personal development or "for art's sake". What a pity then that it didn't appear to connect with a sufficiently large audience. Put another way: this was a film that -- and in Ho Hong, a director who -- deserved better.

10) Blind Detective

Milkway Image doyen Johnnie To delivered two very different films in 2013.  The more serious, set-in-the-mainland Drug War has earned critical raves, including from respected film scholar David Bordwell. In contrast, the more comedic -- and demented -- Blind Detective was panned by many, including Film Business Asia's Derek Elley, who awarded it a seriously low 2 out of 10 rating.

Still, I genuinely prefer Blind Detective to Drug War -- and not just because this film that reunites Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, and with director To, for the first time since 2004's Yesterday Once More, is vastly more Hong Kong in feel. Also, while I grant that this film revolving around two detectives (one blind but capable, the other seeing but more enthusiastic than actually able as far as detecting goes) is generally higher volume than is optimally comfortable, the fact of the matter is that it possesses some incredibly funny scenes -- including the one in a Macau casino in which Sammi Cheng's character tries her damndest to piss off Lam Suet's -- that are guffaw-inducingly entertaining! :D