The Grandmaster.

I must admit that this is the very first time I have been disappointed with a movie directed by one of my favourite directors Wong Kar-wai. Since falling in love with the man unique style in 2004 with 2046 and watching nearly his entire repertoire feature films since including Fallen Angels (1995), As Tears Go By (1988) and Chungking Express (1994), even his first English language film My Blueberry Night’s (2007) was very good. Here comes ‘the but’. His latest movie, for which he also wrote the story, The Grandmaster (2013) is a martial arts drama based on the life story of Ip Man a Chinese martial artist who specialised in Wing Chun ‘a form of self defence utilising both striking and grappling while specialising in close range combat’ or so I'm told. Ip Man was also credited with training global martial arts star Bruce Lee.

 

Gong Er.

I think if was aware of these facts before I watched the movie then it may have been more enjoyable, as it was it had a very jumbled narrative which at times made it difficult to understand what was going on. The most enjoyable scene in the film is at the end where we witness a verbal love scene between Ip Man and Gong Er that is reminiscent of Wong Kar-wai’s previous work.

A very inviting brothel.  

The film stars one of my favourite Chinese actresses Zhang Ziyi as Gong Er whose previous movies have included The Road Home (1999), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002), Purple Butterfly (2003), 2046 (2004) and the Academy Award winning Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). Tony Leung who has worked with the director on six other occasions and also appeared in Infernal Affairs (2002) and the erotic thriller directed by Ang Lee Lust, Caution (2007) that won him two Best Actor Awards portrayed Ip Man.

Zhang Ziyi at the films premier. 

Underwater Love (Onna no love)

The Kappa are well known creatures in Japanese folklore. Dwelling in rivers and swamps. They have beaks, turtle shells and scalps that must be watered. Mischievous being’s they like to challenge people to sumo or pull them in the water. Their favourite food is cucumber.

 

Asuka and her Kappa.

Shinji Imaoka latest feature film Underwater Love (Onna no love) 2011 is a unique mix of musicals and soft-core porn known as pinku eiga (pink films) in Japanese cinema. It tells of a love affair between the thirty something Asuka and a Kappa.  Asuka’s life is mapped out in front of her; she comfortable has a job in the local fish factory and is engaged to her boss. That is until one day she walks by the lake near her factory and meets her first Kapper, who turns out to be a boyfriend from her schooldays who was drowned when he was seventeen.

 

Asuka gets intimate.

Described at its World Premier at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival as "A spectacle of songs and sex that is at once zany and erotic”. This visually striking film has behind its camera Wong Kar-wai’s regular cinematography Australian born Christopher Doyle and some great music by Berlin based Stereo Total.

 

European Poster.

As a blogger it’s my job to occasionally bring you movies that may never have appeared on your cinematic horizon and I would guess that Underwater Love is one such film. Don’t be put off by the pink film tab, it has form and boundless energy about people who seem to love and enjoy life which is brought out beautifully in Imaoka experimental mix of musical and the pink genre.  As Midnight Eye’s Tom Mes opined in his review of the best Japanese Film’s in 2011 “touching, beautiful and whimsical” I could not agree more Tom, it’s a movie that deserves an audience.

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.