A Simple Life.

A Hong Kong drama that felt more Japanese than a Chinese was this weeks Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club offering. A Simple Life (2012) showing for one night only, turned out to be a real treat. Based on the true-life experiences of Roger Lee, the producer of the film, it’s about a retainer who had served the same upper middle class family as housekeeper and nanny for 60 years. Ah Tao now has only one member of the family to look after as most of the others have emigrated to America. Roger Leung, a busy producer working in the Chinese film industry, still relies on the services of Ah Tao for all his house hold tasks until one day he returns home to find that the old servant has suffered a stroke and has been rushed to hospital where she announces that she wants to retire and spend the remainder of her life in a nursing home. Its now that Roger realises how much he relied on Ah Tao and more importantly how fond of her he was. A beautiful loving ‘mother and son’ relationship develops between the two, and it’s this relationship that forms the backbone of our film.

Our host for the evening was Julie McMoran who introduced the film telling us a little about the Hong Kong/Chinese film industry and how movie making in Hong Kong had changed considerable since the 1997 hand over of the island to China. The fear is that China will excerpt more and more control over Hong Kong’s film output and eventually take over its complete film industry. Also the takeover has presented problems with censorship with the mainland imposing more political control.

She also informed us that Ann Hui directed the film who has worked in the industry for 30 years making 26 films but is little known in this country through lack of exposure. 65 year-old Hui originally studied at the London Film School for two years before she returned to Hong Kong to take up a post as assistant to the Chinese film director King Hu before becoming a vanguard of Hong Kong’s New Wave in the 1970’s a movement that draw attention to realist contempory social matters.

A beautiful loving relationship gradually develops.

In this relationship drama you are allowed the time to really get to know the characters and one can’t help observing the empathy the director has for the elderly inmates of the nursing home all of which are treated with gentle concern. Beautifully observed and extremely moving without being overtly sentimental Ann Hui can also be very proud of the performances she elicited from all concerned. But special mention must go to the two main leads Deannie Ip, someone else not particularly well known in the UK, deservedly won a Best Actress Award at this years Venice Film Festival for her very believable and poignant portrayal of Ah Tao putting many better known actresses in the shade. The part of Roger Leung was played by the Hong Kong born actor Andy Lau who most of us will know from films like Wong Kar-wa’s As Tears Go By (1988) Johnnie To’s Fulltime Killer (2001) Infernal Affairs (2002) and of course the award winning House of the Flying Daggers (2004). One of the points noted in the discussion that followed the film was the role food played and may put you off ox tongue for life but don’t be put off this wonderful film. This is the third week of the Film Club and we have been very lucky with the choice of films thus far. 

The film swept the Hong Kong Film Awards.

As Tears Go By.

Ah Wah and Ngor.

Considered as a energetic reworking of Martin Scorsese’s 1975 classic Mean Streets Wong Kar-wai's directorial feature debut As Tears Go By (1988) revolves around a small time gangster, Ah Wah, who spends most of his time trying to keep his ‘brother’ Fly (Jacky Cheung) out of trouble to the detriment of his on/off love affair with his cousin Ngor who has recently arrived to stay in his flat to be close to the hospital where she is receiving treatment for an illness. For Wong it’s a relatively conventional Asian gangster film made before he linked up with cinematographer Christopher Doyle and before he developed many of his trademarks that were to become pronounced in his breakthrough film Chungking Express (1994).

Rival gangster meet to sort out there differences.

The film stars Andy Lau, best known for his roles in films like Fulltime Killer (2001), the Infernal Affair’s trilogy (2002-2003) House of the Flying Daggers (2004) and the recently released A Simple Life (2011), as Ah Wah with Ngor played by Maggie Cheung who was born in Hong Kong but raised in England and has appeared in four other Wong Kar-wai movies Ashes of Time Redux (2008), 2046 (2004, In the Mood for Love (2000) and Days of Being Wild (1990). She has also appeared in two of her ex-husband’s Olivier Assayas films Irma Vep (1996) and Clean (2004).

Maggie Cheung.

Focusing on vengeance and violence this tough gritty movie has a different feel to his later films but is none the worse for it, in fact it’s a great deal better that a lot of other Asian gangster movies and certainly would appeal to lovers of that genre along with Wong’s many fans.

Andy Lau.

Fallen Angels.

Wong Kar-wai has directed some of my favourite foreign movies including 2046 (2004) and In the Mood for Love (2000), which incidentally was the highest placed film from this century in the recent Sight and Sound critic’s poll. Then of course there’s the magnificent Chungking Express (1994), this romantic love story was Wong’s breakthrough film set in and around Hong Kong’s infamous Chungking Mansions, a vast complex of shabby hostels, bars and clubs. This stylised film tells the stories of two lovelorn cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung) and the women with whom they become involved: a mysterious blond wigged drug dealer, Brigitte Lin (the Chinese Greta Garbo) and an impulsive young dreamer Faye Wong (Hong Kong’s foremost female rock star known as the Mandarin Madonna). Coincidently this film was Brigitte Lin’s last, retiring to get married, and Faye Wong’s first. 

The mesmerising Michelle Reis.

Takeshi Kaneshiro with Charlie Yeung.

His next film the award winning Fallen Angels (1995) was originally intended to be the third act of Chungking Express but the first two parts turned out to be so well balanced, one story in the daytime the other at night and was also longer than expected therefore it was decided to expand the third part as a stand alone film and is now regarded as a sequel or a companion piece to the original movie. Wong describes this story as the other side of the can with a large amount of role reversal for example Takeshi Kaneshiro (Wu Xia 2011, Red Cliff 2008, House of Flying Daggers 2004) plays one of the policeman in the first film, in this one he plays the mute criminal, a role which needed him to express his emotions and performance through movement. Other characters involved are a contract killer, Leon Lai, his beautiful agent, Michelle Reis, the manager of the Chungking Hotel, again played by its real life manager and various other kooky love interests including Charlie Yeung and Karen Mok. The story, like most of Wong’s films, is not really important; we are talking style over substance here and none the worst for it. You’ll also notice a Fassbinder touch with the use of mirrors, the odd use of black and white, some fantastic camera angles, as well as Wong’s other normal distinguishing traits.

Killer and his Agent.

Why do I love Wong Kar-wai’s films so much? On the simplest level they just arouse such cinematic emotion while watching them you could almost masturbate over their brilliance.  This Shanghai born Hong Kong filmmaker is the most stylish director on the planet, using the coolest looking actors and actresses who can surmount the improvised scripts, also preferring to use the same team of technicians, we get ‘out of this world’ soundtrack’s that even put’s Tarantino in the shade, an expressionistic colour palette which in many of his films make’s Hong Kong’s neon lights look more appealing then any country side scenery and with gorgeous cinematography by the Hong Kong based Australian born Christopher Doyle make Wong’s films completely distinctive.  Even when he shifted to an English language speaking film with My Blueberry Nights (2007) he did not stray from his successful filmmaking formula.

Always the coolest of casts.

Sparrow

Chief Sparrow Simon Yam

The mysterious Kelly Lin.

Sparrow" is Hong Kong street slang for "pickpocket" and this film from Johnnie To is about a gang of four such sparrows. They work together as a team lifting wallets from unsuspected tourists until one day the mysterious and beautiful Chun-Lei suddenly appears, requesting the gang to steal a key for her. They find her request irresistible. However the set-up begins to unravel itself when they complete their task, realizing that the exotic beauty has been slowly leading them onto a path of no return.

Johnnie To shot Sparrow (2008) during work on other projects and therefore took a total of three years to bring to fruition. Its stars To regular Simon Yam as the leader of the criminal gang and Kelly Lin as Chun-Lei who was in Johnnie To’s collaboration’s with Wai Ka-Fai, Mad Detective (2007) and Fulltime Killer (2001). This light hearted comedy is not what I’ve come to expect from the brilliant Hong Kong mucho action director, believe me you don’t normally describe the mans films as romantic and emotionally expressive? As with all his films its well made and the cinematography shows both old and new Hong Kong to its advantage, but nowhere near his best work.

Asian Movie Go Round.

Recently Love Film have been bombarding me with various Asian films, that admittedly were on my rental list, which allows me to ramble on about a selection of films rather than one at a time.

Missing 2009.

The first movie was from South Korea and based upon a true story involving a 70 year-old fisherman who killed four women between in 2007 but the events we see played out on the screen during Missing (2009) have been fictionalised but we do get to see the fisherman right at the very end of the film! Directed by Sung-Hong Kim and starring Chue Ja-Hyeon as Hyeon-jeong who fears the worst when her sister goes missing whilst on a trip? Through the modern medium of her sister’s mobile phone she discovers that the last place her sister stayed was a small countryside community.  Deciding to travel to the village she visit the local police station to enlist help but without any evidence help is not immediately forthcoming. Following some local enquiries a witness comes forward that has seen her sister near the home of an elderly reclusive chicken farmer called Pan-Kon. She tracks the man down little knowing that her own decent into hell is about to begin. This well made exploitation film is well worth your time as long as your prepared for some brutal and disturbing scenes.  It’s not in the same class as Memories of Murder (2003), another true life South Korean serial killer mystery, but give it a try.

Fatal Move 2008.

Dennis Law, the Hong Kong filmmaker and not the Manchester United footballer, produced two of Johnnie To’s best Hong Kong gangster movies Election (2006) and Election 2 (2007) the yardstick for Asian gangster films. Law followed these with Fatal Move, which he wrote, produced and directed. It stars Sammo Hung (Enter the Dragon 1973) and Simon Yam (Naked Killer 1992, Fulltime Killer 2001, Election 1 and 2 and Vengeance 2009) and was filmed on location in Hong Kong in 2008. It focuses on a Triad gang led by brother’s Lin Ho-Lung and Lin Ho-Tung (Hung and Yam) that faces a series of double crossings and violent misfortunes. Its one of those movies your not always sure who’s on who’s side? Great action scenes with loads of violence that never seems to ease off, but if I’m truthful a little too long at close on two hours.

Shinjuku Incident 2009.

Former Shaw Brothers actor Tunc-Shing Yee, known as Derek Yee, now concentrates on screenwriting and directing rather than appearing in movies. His 2009 film Shinjuku Incident stars the Hong Kong born Jackie Chan, normally seen in martial acts action roles, in a rare straight acting role. As the film opens we see hundreds of Chinese refugees wash up on the Japanese shoreline, survivors of what looks to be a shipwreck. These people were traveling on the promise of a better life but quickly realise that they face only prejudice and oppression. Chan plays a law abiding farm worker known as Steelhead who has come to Japan to find his childhood sweetheart but discovers that she has married a Yakuza underboss portrayed by the good looking Japanese actor Masaya Kato. Disillusioned by his discovery Steelhead turns to petty crime, which eventually escalates to murder and joins with other itinerant Chinese to form a tangible opposition to the Yakuza criminal empire within the Shinjuku district deep in the heart of Tokyo.  Yee’s film makes an accomplished job of highlighting the friction between the two differing cultures depicted, although obviously represented through a violent criminal world. With it’s great story line, plenty of action and excitement its certainly a film I would whole heartedly recommend to fans of the genre.

Welcome to Dongmakgol 2005.

While we are on the subject of Asian movie’s Alec Barclay recommended a South Korean war film that I have finally got around to viewing this last week. Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005) is set during the Korean hostilities in 1950 in a remote mountain village, you guest it, called Dongmakgol. For some reason, that’s never explained, it’s completely isolated from the outside world and has no idea that there’s a war going on.  Into this remote community come an American fighter pilot whose plane crash-landed, three retreating North Korean soldiers, and two members of the South Korean army who are lost. During fracases between the two set’s of Korean soldiers a grenade destroys the villages food store, feeling a sense of guilt the visitors decide to stay and help the locals rebuild the decimated building. During the work they slowly forget their hatred for one another and build a sense of friendship. Meanwhile back at the U.S. command it’s believed that there is a major North Korean military presence in the area where the plane went missing and they decide to mount a major air strike. In order to spare the village from complete destruction, the soldiers decide to act together to divert the attack. Also known as Battleground 625 it has the normal Korean sense of the absurd but is a strangely uplifting, surprisingly good anti-war movie with some very sad and moving moments. It’s narrative is reinforced by some believable characterisation including the “crazy village girl” played by Hye-jeong Kang who won Best Supporting Actress at the South Korean Grand Bell Awards in 2006.

Fulltime Killer

For many years professional assassin O (Takashi Sorimachi) has resided in an isolated world of killing and loneliness, which only becomes worse after the death of his love, Nancy. But his life begins to change once he meets the innocent Chin (Kelly Lin). Chin, hired to clean O’s apartment has never met her employer. However, soon the flamboyant and reckless Tok (Andy Lau) enters Chin’s life with a mission–to unveil O’s identity and usurp his place as the number one sharp-shooting assassin in the game.


Another Hong Kong gangster type thriller from Johnnie To, Fulltime Killer (2001) is based on a book by another HK filmmaker Edmond Pang Ho-Cheung. Some great action scenes between the two assassins but with its convoluted plot not Johnnies best work.

Vengeance

The French Elvis (1960s)

1963 was the first of my three visits to Saint Tropez in the South of France during the 1960’s. It was there that I first heard of the rock singer Johnny Hallyday. To describe him, as a big star in France at that time is a real understatement, his picture was every where, his records playing on radio and on every jukebox in every café and bar. He was known as the French Elvis and did not retire from performing live until 2007. Since the 1980’s Hallyday has appeared in around a dozen movies, the best known in this country is probably L’Homme du Train (2002) in which he starred along side Jean Rochefort as the mysterious stranger Milan. A great film, very well acted by the two leads and well worth a look if you have never seen it.

Francis Costello

Cult Hong Kong movie director Johnnie To has now cast the great singing star in his latest action packed gangster thriller Vengeance (2009). Hallyday plays Francis Costello a chef and former hit man who travel's from Paris to Macau to avenge the contract killing of his daughters husband and her two children, his daughter Irene played by Sylvie Testud (Lourdes 2009) lays badly wounded in a hospital bed. Costello enlists the help of three professional gunmen to assist him on his violent quest.

This French and Hong Kong co-production is Johnnie To’s first English speaking movie. Filmed on location in Macau and Hong Kong it has the look of comic-book noir coupled with To’s normal western style modern HK gangster film. One of the best action directors working today and if your not familiar with his work may I suggest you sample some. My recommendation would be Mad Detective (2007) Exiled (2006) both of which I have rambled about previously.