Three Films Make A Post: Don't Ask Him Where He's Been

Dragonball Evolution (2009): I've never been too much into the manga/anime this is based on, but I'm also not filled with the burning hatred some people seem to feel for it, so I'm (for once!) in the convenient position of being an impartial judge of a film's artistic merits. I'm not quite sure about the film's moral reprehensibility or irreprehensibility, but I'm sure Roger Ebert has already spoken his verdict about that element and also decided if the film is proper WASPy art or not. Surely everyone needs the expert opinion of an old, rich white guy about that.

Anyway, being neither old nor rich, and therefore quite disqualified for being judgmental about morality and art, I can only tell you that Dragonball Evolution consists of one third teenage wish fulfilment and two thirds silly nonsense. I'm pretty sure I would have appreciated the wish fulfilment part when I was a teen. Fortunately, I'm still able to appreciate the silly nonsense, or rather, the excitement the film shows about being perfectly silly nonsense. When you go into Dragonball Evolution with the right expectations (which is to say, expecting it to be rather silly and nonsensical), it's a blast.

 

Legion (2010): Just watch The Prophecy instead.

 

Malefique (2002): Unassuming and clever low budget film about four prisoners who find the journal of a black magician/serial killer in their cell and try to use it as a way to escape. Surprisingly, spells containing the names of Cthulhu Mythos creatures aren't exactly healthy for the user.

Malefique is a very character oriented film, carried by strong acting and a sense for the macabre and the bizarre. It would be a contender for the position of "secret horror classic", but sabotages itself with an ending right out of the "ironic punishments for beginners" book the guys making the Wishmaster films left lying around. Sometimes, a bad ending doesn't hurt a film much, but in Malefique's case it shows the film to be less intelligent and more conventional in spirit than I had assumed it was. It is still a film worth watching.

Speaking of conventional, director Eric Valette has gone on to make the terrible remake of One Missed Call. Sometimes, things are worse than one expects.

 

Technorati-Tags: american movies,french movies,fantasy,horror,action,in short,james wong,eric valette,chow yun-fat

In short: The Occupant (1984)

aka The Tenant

Canadian Chinese grad student Angie (Sally Yeh) comes to Hong Kong to study Chinese superstitions. Her budget for her trip isn't much to speak of, and so she's quite happy that she's able to get a ridiculously cheap furnished apartment instead of an overpriced hotel room.

There's a good reason for her new place's low prize, though - it is haunted. What begins harmless enough with a little table moving and ghostly singing rises to threats of ghostly possession. The ghost of singer Lisa Law (Mak Git-Man) seems obsessed with repeating the murder suicide that cost her life through Angie.

Fortunately two creepy stalker guys - the cop Valentino (Chow Yun-Fat) and the "funny" used car dealer Hansome Wong (Raymond Wong) - have fallen in love with Angie and are willing to help her out with her problem. Valentino even has an ex-cop friend (Lo Lieh) turned priest who can do a little exorcising.

The Occupant is an early work in the long and complicated career of director Ronny Yu. It's more a comedy than a horror film, but it doesn't succeed all that well as either horror or comedy.

The comedy bits are less inane and slapsticky than typical for Hong Kong comedies, so they should be easier to stomach for someone with as little tolerance for these things as I have, but what is on screen often just isn't all that funny. I mean, making fun of Raymond Wong's character can only get us that far.

The horror part of the film on the other hand isn't very exciting either. The usual child-friendly ghosting is present, but fails to excite or interest much.

Still, watching it isn't all that painful an experience. There's nothing really bad about the film, the problem is that there isn't anything really good about it either, leading to a film that's just somehow there to while away 90 minutes without making much of an impression.

 

Technorati-Tags: hong kong movies,ronny yu,chow yun-fat,sally yeh,raymond wong,in short,horror,comedy

The Postman Strikes Back (1982)

In the early phase of the Chinese republic, when most of the country is controlled by warlords, a certain Mister Hu (Eddy Ko, who will not turn out to be an evil Japanese ninja, oh no) hires a small group of men to transport four chests containing something of utmost importance secretly to the warlord who controls the strategically valuable Laome Pass.

These men are the courier Ma (Leung Kar-Yan) whose profession is slowly becoming obsolete with the growing availability of the railroad, a young thief named Yao Jin (Yuen Yat-Choh), Ma's good friend, the alcoholic and slightly mad explosives expert Bu (Fan Mei-Sheng - and is this how you'd want your explosives expert?) and the professional gambler and cool scarf-wearer Fu Jun (a young and skinny Chow Yun-Fat - count those rips!).

As it goes in films like this, the men soon get some female company in the form of Guifa (Cherie Chung before she was too annoying), who has a crush on Ma, but nominally just wants his help to get to Shanghai and a Miss Li (Guk Ching-Suk), whom they save from bandits.

The small party will have to brave many dangers in the form of bandits, revolutionaries (which in this case means democrats), nature, and a violent past that will come to haunt Yao Jin and Fu Jun with even more people out to kill them. Would you believe there will be small buds of love growing? That the men will become friends despite all their differences? That there will be betrayal, blood, and tears?

Yes, it's one of those films, but it's a good one of its type, with a script that doesn't shy away from cruel, sometimes unfair consequences for characters' actions unlike a comparable Hollywood script would do.

Stylistically, Postman is quite different from the better known, frenetically paced supernatural wuxia that would come later in director Ronny Yu's career (or the films he has made in Hollywood, for that matter), mostly utilizing actual locations instead of beautifully artificial sets and running along at a leisurely pace instead of jumping screaming in your face. I think the film is influenced by the more historically minded Spaghetti Western of Leone and Corbucci, sharing some plot points I'm not going to spoil, certain parts of their visual style as well as a similar outlook on history, although it never gets as explicit about Yu's own politics as some of Corbucci's works do about their director.

The action is mock realistic and quite bloody, but fortunately not so realistic as not to throw things like pick-a-back fu, shawl fu, a magnetic ninja or rat grenades at the viewer when it is deemed necessary and most certainly not willing to give up on a spectacular set piece for stupid things like the laws of physics.

The actors are all game, with a young Chow Yun-Fat doing some neat cigarette acting and Eddy Ko being his typical evil and untrustworthy self, and the rest of the cast acquitting themselves with the dignified professionalism of people who simply know how to do their jobs.

Despite its stupid title, The Postman Strikes Back is a very fine film, not as spectacular and complex an historically minded martial arts adventure as Once Upon A Time In China perhaps, but still worth it.

 

Technorati-Tags: chow yun-fat,ronny yu,hong kong movies,martial arts,adventure,reviews,leung kar-yan,eddy ko,fan mei-sheng