Maggie Cheung Double Feature at the Roxie

Last week, I stopped by the Roxie to see a Maggie Cheung double feature.  It was presented as part of a Staff Picks series where Roxie staff members choose a film(s).  I cannot recall which staff member chose the films but Executive Director David Cowen introduced the films.

Irma Vep starring Maggie Cheung; directed by Olivier Assayas; French & English with subtitles; (1996)
The Heroic Trio starring Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh & Maggie Cheung; directed by Johnny To; Cantonese with subtitles; (1992)

I believe the choice was Irma Vep but Cowen augmented the choice with The Heroic Trio because the latter film is referenced in the former.

A few observations:

I'm surprised how many people don't know what a double feature is.  I heard both people in front of me in line ask if they could buy a ticket for only one film and cashier explained what a double feature is.

A few years after filming Irma Vep, Maggie Cheung married Irma Vep director Olivier Assayas.

Irma Vep was the first time I have heard Maggie Cheung speak English.  Surprisingly she spoke with an English accent which I later learned was due to her having lived in England between the ages of 8 and 18.

Irma Vep is an anagram for vampire.  The slender plot of the film has Maggie Cheung playing herself - a Hong Kong actor named Maggie Cheung who is in Paris to film a remake of Louis Feuillade's silent serial Les Vampires.  Why would they cast a Chinese woman (with limited language skills) to play a French vampire?  In the film, it is because the director (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is infatuated with Cheung based on her performance in The Heroic Trio.

Anything beyond this plot description is superfluous.  The production of Irma Vep (the film within the film) is chaotic and dysfunctional.  There is sniping, backstabbing, the director goes missing and Cheung seems to fall under the spell of vampire on the set.

 Irma Vep is one of these films that kind of meanders and is punctuated with memorable scenes (many with Cheung wearing a latex bodysuit modeled on Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman costume).  There is a amusing interview where a journalist interviews Cheung.  He launches into a diatribe of state sponsored films which are targeted towards the intelligentsia before singing the praises of Schwarzenegger and Van Damme.

Assayas positions the camera intrusively as if we are eavesdropping on the conversations.  I'm not sure how much of Cheung's performance is improvised or revealing of her true personality but Irma Vep's Maggie Cheung is a winsome & appealing woman as she tries to navigate the bizarre situation she has found herself in.

I have a suspicion that Irma Vep is a film that would benefit from repeat viewings.  It's likely littered with French film references that I didn't catch.  For example, I suspect that criticism of Léaud's character's films is really criticism of Jean-Luc Godard's work.  I'm sure the film must have seemed like a welcome change of pace for Cheung who was cranking out HK action and wuxia films at a prodigious pace in the first half of the 1990s.

Even without an intimate knowledge of the French film industry or the source material, Assayas' skill & vision as a director come through clearly in Irma Vep.

Maggie Cheung in Irma Vep

The Heroic Trio was directed by Johnny To and features an impressive cast of Chinese actresses - the late Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh & Maggie Cheung.  Mui who died at the age of 40 in 2003, is largely forgotten today.  In The Heroic Trio, she was the best known of the three lead actresses and her character was first among equals.  That Yeoh and particularly Cheung are heralded among their cohort of Chinese actresses make one wonder what Mui would have accomplished.  She was cast in Zhang Yimou's hit film House of the Flying Daggers (2004) but dropped out due to her failing health.

In the pantheon of great HK action films, The Heroic Trio is pretty far down the list.  It did well enough to merit a sequel but it felt more like a gimmick to get three attractive actresses on screen together.  Mui plays a police inspector's wife who has undergone rigorous training in martial arts.  When needed, she dons a mask and fights crime under the sobriquet of Wonder Woman.

Michelle Yeoh begins the film as the villain (Invisible Girl), the chief lieutenant of an evil master.  She uses an invisible cloak to kidnap male babies because her master has some plan to install the child as the next emperor of China.  In a subplot, Invisible Girl is Wonder Woman's younger sister who didn't make the cut with sifu who trained Wonder Woman.  They are estranged when the film begins.

Maggie Cheung plays the roguish Thief Catcher, a shotgun wielding, dynamite throwing, motorcycle riding, booty shorts wearing bounty hunter.  In another subplot, Invisible Girl & Thief Catcher trained together under the evil master but Thief Catcher has escaped his evil reach to make her living cashing in bounties.

The three converge when a high ranking police officer hires Thief Catcher to recover his kidnapped son.

The film is a series of fight scenes separated by flashbacks.  The action choreography isn't quite up to To's best work.  There are a few scenes that appear silly (typically at Thief Catcher's expense) but the film holds together as well as can be expected.  Eventually, Invisible Girl is convinced to join the other two in their battle against the evil master.

Watching The Heroic Trio is closer to an amusing check off on my cinematic bucket list than a rewarding film experience.

Maggie Cheung in The Heroic Trio

Chinese Thanksgiving

Lately, I've been forgetful.  I had a business trip where I thought I was booked at the Marriott but in fact, my reservations were at the Hilton.  For Thanksgiving, I thought I had booked a flight to visit my father on Thanksgiving Day but in fact, I had booked the flight for the day after Thanksgiving.  Fortunately, my father made me aware of this on the day before Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, that was too late to wheedle a Thanksgiving dinner invitation from anyone.  For the first time in my life, I spent Thanksgiving Day alone.  With my gym closed, I was left with few options to amuse myself.  I ended up doing laundry and going to the movie theater

I watched two Chinese films on Thanksgiving Day.  In the morning, I went to the AMC Metreon to see Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2.  In the late afternoon, I went to the Camera 12 in San Jose to see Women Who Flirt.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 starring Louis Koo, Miriam Yeung, Gao Yuanyuan & Vic Chou; with Daniel Wu; directed by Johnnie To; Cantonese & Mandarin with subtitles; (2014)
Women Who Flirt starring Zhou Xun, Huang Xiaoming & Tang Sui; directed by Pang Ho-cheung; Cantonese with subtitles; (2014)

I wasn't particularly bullish on either film but I went to see them mostly based on their pedigree.

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I saw Don't Go Breaking My Heart at the 2011 Hong Kong Cinema series presented by the San Francisco Film Society.  Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 is the sequel to that film.  When I read about 2, I wondered if I had seen the original.  I had to confirm it by searching this blog.  During the sequel, they showed some clips from the original as flashbacks which I recalled.  I can say that Don't Go Breaking My Heart was a barely memorable romantic comedy about a love triangle between Louis Koo, Daniel Wu & Gao Yuanyuan.  At the end, Wu's character (Qihong, an architect) wins the heart of Zixin (Gao) over the financier Shen-Ran (Koo).  Despite my luke warm reception, it was a major box office hit in China.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 opens with Zixin engaged to Qihong and a month out from her wedding.  Unemployed in the financial industry, Zixin is able to land a job at Yang Yang Yang's (Miriam Yeung) firm which is coincidentally across the street from Shen-Ran's new offices.  Despite Shen-Ran's womanizing, he and Yang begin a romance and form a high-powered couple.  Shen-Ran is unaware that Zixin works in Yang's office & Yang is unaware that Zixin used to be involved with Shen-Ran.  Simultaneously, Yang begins a friendship with Zixin's brother Paul (Vic Chou) that develops into something more than platonic.  Yang is unaware that Paul is Zixin's brother but after seeing him with Zixin at a bridal gown store, she mistakes Paul for Zixin's groom.  Zixin is unaware her brother is seeing Yang and Yang is, at least initially, unaware that Paul even knows Zixin.  For films like Don't Go Breaking My Heart and its sequel, half the humor is in maintaining these charades with the multiple & simultaneous exposure of the lies guaranteed.

The farce escalates in both emotions and escapades until a climactic showdown on Zixin wedding day.  In an attempt to win Zixin, Shen-Ran climbs the exterior of the high-rise building where Zixin & Qihong's wedding & reception will be held (on the top floor natch).  I won't give away the ending in case there is a Don't Go Breaking My Heart 3 but I will say that I was disappointed in the ending.  Specifically, some of the choices made by the characters seemed disingenuous with what had occurred before.

Like most HK comedies, Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 has zaniness in spades.  Miriam Yeung's Yang seemed particularly unsuited to be a CEO of a boutique trading house who hires Zixin based on her incorrect assessment of the stock market and depends on an octopus to predict stock market movements a la Paul the Psychic Octopus.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 didn't make much more of an impression on me than Don't Go Breaking My Heart.  Miriam Yeung who is quietly becoming one of my favorite HK actresses, acquits herself satisfactorily.  Actually, the entire cast is game but the plot doesn't quite serve them well enough.  I will readily admit that something may be lost in the cultural translation.

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I went to see Women Who Flirt despite a lackluster preview reel mainly on the strength of director Pang Ho-cheung's track record.  With Women Who Flirt, I've seen five of his last six films (Love in a Puff, Love in the Buff, Vulgaria & Aberdeen are the other four) and have enjoyed them all to varying degrees.  Of the five Pang film aforementioned, I enjoyed Women Who Flirt the least.

The premise of Women Who Flirt is that Angie (Zhou Xun), a young woman who has harbored a not-so-secret crush on Marco (a former classmate and current co-worker) discovers that he has a serious girlfriend.  Marco (Huang Xiaoming) has put off Angie's romantic advances for years with various excuses but at the heart of it, he thinks of her as "one of the guys."  Angie enlists the help of her best friend May (Sie Yi Lin) in launching a counterattack to win Marco's affection.  May assembles the Barbie Army, a team of young, attractive women (who look like they could be Chinese fashion models) to tutor Angie under the project codename "Women Who Flirt."

What follows is an amusing battle of feminine charms.  Marco's girlfriend Hailey (Tang Sui) is the exaggerated stereotype - baby voice, manipulative, coquettish, etc.  Angie is no match for Hailey who would be a 4 star general if she joined the Barbie Army.  Although silly and vaguely reminiscent of a Hollywood romantic comedy of the 1950s, Women Who Flirt hides a deeply cynical view.  It's clear that Angie is the only adult in the film and her efforts to transform herself into a sexualized and infantilized entity are offensive for both the attempt and the end goal.  Why she would want to be with a slacker and idiot like Marco is beyond me.

However, I must admit that as a broad comedy, Women Who Flirt has its moments.  Zhou & Huang as Angie & Marco have tangible screen chemistry and the Barbie Army's machinations are absurd enough invoke laughter.  At times, Sie Yi Lin as May came close to stealing the film.  Her caterwauling of "I hate you!" was memorable indeed.

At its heart, Women Who Flirt displays a palpable contempt for the women who behave like these women and by extension, the men who are attracted to them.  I guess that is understandable but the film makes it appear as though this behavior is the norm or the standard to which young Chinese women aspire and that may be the real object of the film's contempt.

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I notice the Camera Cinemas is showing a few Chinese films in the upcoming weeks.

On December 12, Back in Time (Congcong Nanian) is opening.

On Christmas Day, Love on The Cloud (Wei Ai) is opening.

Women Who Flirt's run at Camera 12 has been extended through at least December 11.

2013 Hong Kong Cinema

The San Francisco Film Society kicked off their Fall Season with the 2013 Hong Kong Cinema series.  There would be five additional series in their Fall Season focusing on films from Taiwan, Zurich, France, Italy and the Bay Area.  All told, I would see 32 films between the six series.

The HK series ran from October 4 to 6 at the Vogue Theater.

I saw six films in the series:

Bends starring Carina Lau & Chen Kun; directed by Flora Lau; Cantonese and Mandarin with subtitles; (2013)
Blind Detective starring Andy Lau & Sammi Cheng; directed by Johnnie To; Cantonese with subtitles; (2013)
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin starring Gordon Liu; directed by Liu Chia-liang; Cantonese and Mandarin with subtitles; (1977)
The Last Tycoon starring Chow Yun-fat, Monica Mok & Sammo Hung; directed by Wong Jing; Mandarin with subtitles; (2012)
The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter starring Gordon Liu; directed by Liu Chia-liang; Mandarin with subtitles; (1984)
Conspirators starring Aaron Kwok & Nick Cheung; directed by Oxide Pang; Cantonese and Mandarin with subtitles; (2013)

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The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter were screened in tribute to Liu Chia-liang who died earlier this year.  Actor, stuntman, screenwriter, director, fight choreographer, Liu was a HK/Shaw Brothers/kung fu film legend.  Both films starred Gordon Liu (Kill Bill) and I couldn't help but wonder if that was also a tribute to him.  Acquainted but unrelated to Liu Chia-liang, Gordon Liu (real name Liu Chia-Hui) had a stroke last year and has been partially paralyzed since then.

I've been trying to see and appreciate more martial arts films lately.  The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter are acknowledged classics in the genre.  I didn't really get into either film.  Of the two, I preferred The 36th Chamber of Shaolin which focused on a young man (Gordon Liu) who hides from an invading army at a Shaolin monastery.  Initially wanting to learn enough kung fu to take revenge against the men who killed his teacher, Liu is forced (sometimes unwittingly) to train just like the other monks.  He shows a natural talent for kung fu, eventually inventing the titular 36th chamber (each chamber corresponds to a level of instruction).

The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter involves the two surviving sons (7 to start) of a honorable general.  The general was the victim of royal court intrigue and accused treason.  He and five of his sons were killed while resisting efforts to arrest them.  I think Liu is #6 son.  #5 son survives but has gone mad a result.  Liu is on the lam and again he take refuge in a Shaolin Temple.  This time, he cannot have a sword in the temple so he practices with a pole (hence the title).  The most memorable fight scene involves wooden wolves.

Two months after seeing the films, I am conflating the events of the films because of their similar plotlines.

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Blind Detective looked like a big budget film.  Starring Andy Lau (one of the biggest HK movie stars) and directed by Johnnie To (one of the biggest HK movie directors), the plot to Blind Detective was reminiscent of the plot to Mad Detective (co-directed by To).

Lau plays Johnston, the eponymous, visually handicapped private detective.  He makes his living by solving crimes and claiming the reward money.  His "frenemy" is Szeto (Guo Tao), his former police partner before he was blinded.  Aware of his sleuthing prowess, Szeto follows Johnston around and swoops in at the last minute to "solve" the case and save the police department money by not having to pay Johnston.

Sammi Cheng is Ho, a detective on Szeto's detail who is mightily impressed by Johnston's detective skills.  She takes a leave of absences and hires Johnston to find a classmate who disappeared when she was in grade school.  Johnston seems more interested in milking Ho (who is independently wealthy) for as much food and money as he can.

Blind Detective is a romantic comedy with a lot of slapstick added for good measure.  Lau and Cheng have made several popular films together including Love on a Diet.  Ho is shrill and irritating.  Cheng seems to be yelling all the time.  I quickly lost any sympathy for Johnston.  Since it is Lau and Cheng, there is some chemistry between Johnston & Ho but I lost all interest between the 130 minute film ended.

Similarly The Last Tycoon looked like a pretty big budget film.  Chow plays Cheng Daqi, a Shanghai gangster from the 1920s and 1930s.  We watch his rise and fall played out against the backdrop of Imperial Japanese aggression in China.  Sammo Hung plays Cheng's gangster mentor.  There is a love triangle between Cheng and a singer and childhood sweetheart who is now married to a prominent anti-Japanese political figure.  I saw homage to Casablanca and some too-much-by-a-half CGI effects of the bombing of Shanghai.

The Last Tycoon had some interesting scenes and scenery but it lost my interest well before it ended.

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That leaves my two favorite films of the Hong Kong series.

Bends was the opening night film of HK series and also screened at the 2013 Mill Valley Film Festival.  Carina Lau plays Anna, the wife of a wealthy HK businessman.  Chen Kun is Fai, her chauffeur.  They both have problems although they go to lengths to avoid discussing them directly with each other.  Anna's husband is missing, she can't get in contact with him, his business offices are abandoned and her credit cards have been cancelled.  Fai is a HK citizen but he, his wife and their daughter live across the border in Shenzhen (mainland China).  That's because his wife doesn't have a HK passport.  To add to his troubles, she is pregnant with their second child and they don't want to pay the fine.  He is trying to get false paper so she can deliver the child in HK.

The film focuses on these two increasingly desperate people as they struggle to maintain their lifestyles.  Fai is dependent on Anna.  Early on in the film, he asks for an advance on his salary so he can grease the skids to get his wife over.  Anna struggles to maintain the appearance that everything is alright as she sells her belongings.  Fai is not innocent either as he takes Anna's luxury sedan to a chopshop and swaps out the expensive ABS brakes with a cheaper model.  Although ambiguous, Anna's home is broken into and Fai or the departed Filipina maid are the main suspects.

Sparse in dialogue, we see the desperation in both actor's facial expressions and behaviors.  There is a surprise ending which puts a fine point of the issues of class divide which pervade the film.  Bends is a quiet and contemplative film which can be interpreted as a critique of modern day China or taken at face value as a film about two lives which are upended.

Bends has an enviable pedigree.  Noted cinematographer Christopher Doyle (In the Mood for Love and just about every other Kaw Wai Wong film) was the director of photography for Bends.  Carina Lau (no relation to director Flora Lau) is the wife and long-time girlfriend of Tony Leung Chiu Wai who has appeared in several Kar Wai Wong films.

Conspirators is anything but quiet and contemplative.  It's a taut action thriller.  Malaysian born, ethnic Chinese Chan Tam (Aaron Kwok) returns to Malaysia to find out who killed his parents 30 years ago.  Tam is a private detective in China but he needs a local contact so he hires local PI Zheng (Nick Cheung).  Zheng has his own issues - his brother is in prison, he is trying to get him out, he is a little shady and has strained relations with the local cops and gangsters.

I didn't find this out until after watching the film but Conspirators is the third and final film in a trilogy directed by Oxide Pang and starring Aaron Kwok as Tam.  The first two films, The Detective (2007) and The Detective 2 (2011) set up some of Tam's backstory which involves his parents' dealing with smugglers or drug dealers.  Conspirators works as a stand alone film although Tam's motivations may had more resonance if I knew more of his history.

Conspirators is an entertaining and well made action thriller with appealing lead actors.  I've become something of a Nick Cheung fan since seeing him in The Beaststalker a few years ago.

Almodovar & To at the 4 Star

I forgot to mention in this post that the screening of The Way, Way Back was my first visit to the Landmark Guild in Menlo Park.  In fact, I believe that was the first time I have ever stopped at an establishment in Menlo Park.  I've driven through a few times but never visited a business or residence in Menlo Park.  The Guild is an older, worn-down, no-frills theater which reminds me most of the recently departed Bridge Theater on Geary in the City.  The Bridge had an elevated mezzanine above the entrance to the auditorium.  The Guild is not split level.  It only has one level which was not very raked.  I remember thinking the slope of the cement floor was unusually flat for a movie theater.

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I'm So Excited! starring Javier Cámara, Cecilia Roth, Lola Dueñas & Raúl Arévalo; directed by Pedro Almodovar; Spanish with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website
Drug War starring Louis Koo & Sun Honglei; directed by Johnny To; Mandarin with subtitles; (2012) - Official Facebook

The Spanish title of I'm So Excited! is Los amantes pasajeros.

I saw both I'm So Excited! and Drug War at the 4 Star.

Many, many years ago (in the 1990s I'm certain), the Roxie had a Pedro Almodovar series.  I remember seeing Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón.  I went for many years without seeing an Almodovar film after that.  In 2011, the Castro ran a  multi-day series of his films.   Since seeing six of his film in that series, I consider myself a fan of his work.

It is with considerable disappointment that I say that I didn't enjoy I'm So Excited!.  The reason I appreciate and enjoy Almodovar's films is that he expertly mixes complicated narratives with melodrama and absurdist humor.  He is like a master chef making some complicated sauce with many ingredients.  Watching his artistry and skill as a director is part of the enjoyment of an Almodovar film.

I'm So Excited! is a lightweight sex comedy about an airplane whose landing gear is stuck while in flight.  The first class stewards are all gay men; one of the pilots is gay and the lover of the chief steward.  The co-pilot is bisexual.  Everyone in coach class is gassed unconscious so the only people aware of the impending crash landing are the stewards, pilots and first class passengers.

One by one, we learn their life stories - the high end prostitute, the disgraced banker, the assassin, the virgin, etc.  Almodovar throws all the balls in the air and I waited for him to juggle them but instead they just fell to the ground and rolled away.  I'm So Excited! is weighted too heavily towards the farcical and not enough towards the melodramatic.  It suffers in comparison to my favorite Almodovar films and that may be unfair to I'm So Excited!.  As the business phrase goes, "It is what it is."  How can it be anything other than what it is?  The film is what it is and as Popeye said, "I yam what I yam."  I'm a little loopy from to many consecutive days of posting.  I can only evaluate the film from what is becoming my embarrassingly large catalog of films seen.  By those standards, I'm So Excited! just doesn't make the cut.  I wonder how objective my standards are in this case.

Similar to Almodovar, it was a Johnny To series (at the PFA) which cemented my love of his films.  Since that 2008 series, I have seen several films directed and/or produced by To.  Also like Almodovar, To has a distinctive style such that a To film is immediately recognizable to the initiated.

Drug War is a slight departure in style to To's earlier works but I'm glad to say it is quite satisfying.  Sun Honglei is Zhang Lei, a police captain.  He arrest Timmy Choi (Louis Koo), a drug kingpin who wholesales crystal meth.  Facing a death sentence, Choi agrees to turn snitch for Zhang.  Choi is the middleman for a drug deal involving a crime syndicate and a smuggler with a fleet of ships.  Zhang pretends to be one when meeting the other and vice versa.  As the movie progresses, Zhang becomes suspicious that Choi may renege on his deal.

In typical To fashion, he introduces some colorful characters.  Zhang is a no-nonsense cop and Choi plays his cards close to his vest but there is a whole panopoly of memorable criminals.  Choi has two deaf mutes who work for him who are pretty handy with a gun and they have a stockpile of them.  HaHa's (the smuggler) name is indicative of his frequent and loud laughing with Zhang doing a spot on impersonation of Hao Ping who plays HaHa.  Choi's Uncle Bill is the front man for a crime syndicate including the always memorable Suet Lam.

The violence crescendos twice from what I can recall.  First, the two deaf and dumb guys shoot their way out of a warehouse while a SWAT team is raiding it.  The finale consists of an extended running gun battle which involves a school bus full of schoolchildren.  These two scenes leave no doubt that To has not forgotten which side his bread is buttered on.

As I mentioned Drug War is a slight departure from To's earlier action films.  Drug War tones down the stylized violence and invests more time in the details of the plot to the point that it feels like a procedural for the first hour.  The two scenes where Zhang assumes false identities and mannerism are quite a showcase for the actor's skills.  Rather than visibly emotional, Zhang and Koo play their characters as cool, close to the vest and in control of themselves despite the tremendous pressure they are under.  This makes Drug War more of a thriller than an action film.

Whereas I'm So Excited! seemed like a misfire or step backward for Almodovar, Drug War seemed to signal a slight change in direction for To (at least in his action films) which has barely slowed him down.

Hong Kong Cinema

The San Francisco Film Society has moved into their new venue at New People/Viz. SFFS has also kicked off their fall season with a new series called Hong Kong Cinema. They screened seven HK films in three days (September 23 to 25).

HK Cinema is the newest addition to the SFFS Fall Schedule. It augments established fall series such as Taiwan Film Days , (October 14 to 16) French Cinema Now (October 27 to November 2) and New Italian Cinema (November 13 to 20).

French, Italian, Hong Kong & Taiwan? Can't we get a Japanese series going at the Japanese owned and themed theater in the heart of San Francisco's Japantown?

I caught four films during the HK series.

Mr. and Mrs. Incredible starring Louis Koo & Sandra Ng; Cantonese with subtitles; (2011)
Punished starring Anthony Wong & Ritchie Jen; Cantonese & Mandarin with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart starring Louis Koo, Yuanyuan Gao and Daniel Wu; directed by Johnnie To; Cantonese & Mandarin with subtitles; (2011)
City Under Siege starring Qi Shu & Aaron Kwok; directed by Benny Chan; Cantonese with subtitles; (2011) - Official Facebook

Johnnie To produced Punished and shares directing credits with Ka-Fai Wai on IMDB for Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.

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I didn't like Mr. and Mrs. Incredible. The premise was that two Chinese superheroes meet and fall in love. They move to a small village and live quiet lives while hiding their superpowers. A martial arts tournament is held in their small town which results in them having to come out of retirement.

That premise seems ripe with possibilities but Mr. and Mrs. Incredible mainly went for slapstick comedy. The didn't have much in the way of wire action or general action scenes. There was some CGI, jokes about getting old and a lot of gaudily dressed Chinese kung fu masters bickering with each other. I wasn't too impressed with Mr. and Mrs. Incredible so I won't spend much time on it.

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Punished is a revenge flick. It reminded me of any number of Korean films where revenge seems to be a genre. It was not as graphic as the Korean films (although programmer Rod Armstrong said the film skipped the Chinese film ratings process). The film was predictable but had a few things going for it. First, Anthony Wong plays a real piece of work. He plays Mr. Wong, a shady businessman who drives away his family, tries to bully some villagers so he can get their land cheap and carries a grudge.

Wong's college-age daughter, Daisy (Janice Man), is in her rebellious phase as she snorts coke, hangs out with the wrong crowd and torments her stepmother. Daisy is kidnapped and eventually found murdered. This results in Wong dispatching his bodyguard/driver/security chief (Richie Ren) on a bloody revenge spree.

Punished isn't bad and has a few heart-poiunding scenes. Considered as a whole, it comes up short compared to other Chinese action films. The gold standard for gritty Chinese action films is The Beast Stalker (2008).

The villains in Punished were one-dimensional. Daisy was an interesting character. Her behavior was such that I thought she may have been involved in her own kidnapping but her early death limited her role.

That leaves Anthony Wong running roughshod over everyone and Richie Ren dutifully avenging Daisy's murder. There were also some visually stunning scenes set at Salar de Uyuni, a Bolivian salt flats.

I can't say I disliked Punished but it feels like a near miss to me. If Johnnie To had directed (as opposed to produced), the film may have closer achieved its potential.

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For the most part, I liked City Under Siege. An immoral circus troupe come into contact with gas cannisters left by the Japanese in WWII. The gas gives whoever is exposed to it superhuman strength, aggressiveness and transforms their bodies. The performers decided to use their new powers to rob banks and commit mayhem. Sunny (Aaron Kwok), the good natured clown is only partially affected by the gas. He teams up with Qi Shu (Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, Blood Brothers, Confession of Pain, Three Times & The Transporter) as a television news reporter and Wu Jing & Zhang Jin Chu as a romantic pair of government agents who are trained to fight superhuman opponents.

City Under Siege was directed by Benny Chan who also made Shaolin which I was lukewarm about. Chan shows an aptitude for action scenes. City Under Siege delivers many entertaining fight sequences. Kwok shows some comedic skills Colin Chou as the leader of the circus gang shows some range as a psychotic killer with a desire for normalcy.

Although something of a lightweight film, City Under Siege achieved what it intended to achieve...namely numerous action scenes, Qi Shu looking radiant, a dash of comedy and more action scenes.

Why did I expect more of Mr. and Mrs. Incredible than City Under Siege? I'm not sure.

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Johnnie To directs a romantic comedy! That sounds like a joke; like Quentin Tarantino directing a children's movie. However, as SFFS head programmer Rachel Rosen stated while announcing the film, To has directed romantic comedies before. I'm too lazy to look them up on IMDB but it doesn't surprise me. To's action films usually have a bittersweet romance as a subplot.

To discards all his typical tropes for Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. He does cast Suet Lam in a supporting role. They heavyset Lam is usually cast as a heavy (literally and figuratively) gangster with a sense of humor and soft spot in his hearts. I guess To is casting against type when he casts Lam as the nervous #2 of the company where suave Daniel Wu is the CEO and Yuanyuan Gao is the ernest staffer who is the object of his affection and jealousy. For her part, Gao vacillates between her boss and the sensitive but recovering alcoholic architect she has befriended (Louis Koo).

As Gao allows both relationships to develop, the men get anxious and frustrated. I won't give away the finale but Wu and Koo mutually escalate their mating rituals in an attempt to marry Gao. The film portrays one character better than the other but Gao's character was ambivalent towards the two which leads to some uncertainty in my mind.

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart is a sweet comedy. At times, it was a little too cloying. Gao's inability to make a decision (the decision was obvious to me) began to irritate me a little. Most of all, I was surprised at how comfortable To appeared in the romance/comedy genre. There wasn't a gun or gangster to be seen. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart is my pick of the series.

The Sparrow Has Landed

Yesterday, I saw Baby at the 4-Star Theater. I noticed that they had sandwich board sign on the sidewalk with a movie poster for Sparrow. That Johnnie To film was my favorite from the Chinese American Film Festival in November. Granted, I only saw three films at the festival but I caught several films from the Johnnie To retrospective at the PFA earlier this year. I've become a fan of To's works and Sparrow is no exception.

Sparrow, which is part comedy & part quasi-musical, tells the story of a gang of pickpockets that go up against a gangster (and former pickpocket himself) to win the freedom of the gangster's mistress. It sets up an improbable but entertaining climax set in a downpour involving rival gangs of pickpockets using razor blades to steal the key to her freedom. Filmed in Hong Kong over a three year period, Sparrow is a visual tribute to the Hong Kong that To grew up in but is fast giving way to modernization.

"Sparrow" is a slang term for a pickpocket. I think in Gangs of New York, Leonardo DiCaprio's narration describes Cameron Diaz's character as a sparrow. In that film, she was posing as a housemaid while stealing valuables from her employer although I think she was a pickpocket as well.

Here is a link to a CAAM posting announcing Sparrow's opening at the 4-Star.

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Let me write a quick note on Baby which was described as an Asian American Boyz n the Hood by me (and later I discovered the film poster). I saw Boyz n the Hood when it came out in 1991. Actually, I remember seeing it in 1992 in Vancouver, British Columbia. That film deeply affected me probably because I had not seen gang life depicted so powerfully. I can't say realistically because I've never been in "da hood."

For some reason Baby was set 20 year ago. The action alternates between 1986 and 1993, I believe. It didn't really add much to the script except to allow for 80's cars and pagers to be prominently featured. Regardless, I think I'm jaded about films about gang life. I can't point to anything wrong with the film but it wasn't as powerful as I was expecting. Ron Yuan, as Baby's gangsta mentor, stood out in the cast. With a melodic voice, pumped up biceps and the 80's hair metal look, he cuts a wide swath through the film.

Baby wasn't a bad way to spend a rainy, Sunday afternoon but it reminded me of muscle car not firing on all cylinders - it's still a sweet ride but you can feel that it's not running quite right.

Taking Inventory as of June 22

Excluding Hole in the Head, I haven't seen that many films since May. I did see two "major blockbusters."

Contempt with Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, and Fritz Lang; directed by Jean-Luc Godard; French with subtitles; (1963)
Iron Man with Robert Downey, Jr., Jeff Bridges, and Gwyneth Paltrow; (2008) - Official Site
The Ipcress File with Michael Caine; (1965)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Harrison Ford; (2008) - Official Site
Election; Cantonese with subtitles; directed by Johnny To; (2005)
Triad Election; Cantonese with subtitles; directed by Johnny To; (2006)
Exiled; Cantonese with subtitles; directed by Johnny To; (2006)

Hole in the Head
Tokyo Gore Police; Japanese with subtitles; (2008)

The Johnny To films are part of a retrospective at BAM/PFA (Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives). I ended up buying a membership. It saves me $4 per film. I'll have to see 13 films in a year to make the membership pay off. It'll be difficult because I don't get over to Berkeley often but I get a tax deduction and am supporting their worthy cause. From their website:

The Pacific Film Archive was conceived as an American version of the Cinémathèque Française in Paris—a center committed not only to exhibiting films under the best possible conditions, but also to increasing the understanding, appreciation, and preservation of cinema through its study center, collections, and publications.

I've seen two To (pronounced Dough) films previously - Running on Karma at a IndieFest a few years back and Breaking News at the Balboa a couple years ago when it was still a rep house. At the time (I saw Breaking News after Running on Karma), I didn't realize the two films were directed by the same person. In fact, Johnny To wasn't known to me at the time. Now that I've seen three more films by To, I realize that these earlier films were different from his later works. Running on Karma was a comedy with Andy Lau in a rubber bodybuilding suit. He plays a disgraced monk working as a male stripper. He crosses paths with a female cop and then things become metaphysical. Breaking News was about a hostage situation where the police and the criminals use modern technology and today's media culture to manipulate the public's opinion of the situation. Having seen these films, I wasn't sure what to expect of these other To films. To has developed quite a reputation in the past few years so I was looking forward to them.

Election, Triad Election and Exiled inhabit the world of Chinese gangsters. Triad Election is the sequel to Election and tells the story of the rise and fall of a Hong Kong gangster. In this tale, Chinese triads elect their "Chairman" for two year terms without the possibility of re-election. It seems unlikely that gangsters would voluntarily cede power after two years but that is the premise. In Election, Simon Yam and Tony Leung Ka Fai are vying for the top spot. Simon Yam's character wins the election but Tony Leung won't abide by the results. Leung's actions are unprecedented and threatens to destroy the delicate balance between the rival gangs. The key to holding power is a baton that signifies the power of the Chairman. After the election, Yam and Leung send their henchmen out to retrieve the baton - Yam to consolidate his power and Leung to give validity to his contesting the election. Ultimately, Yam gets the baton and he forges an uneasy truce with Leung...until Leung suggests that they be co-chairs. Although there is some violence, this film is about setting a mood. In that sense, it is not unlike The Godfather - a lot of men adhering to the customs of their community which includes violence.

Triad Election was my favorite of the three To films I saw in June. Set two years after Election, Yam's term is about to expire and he is seeking to break with tradition by running for a second term. Standing in his way is Jimmy Lee (portrayed by Louis Koo). Lee is a successful businessman with barely concealed triad roots. When his highway project is derailed, he is forced by circumstances and a shady Chinese government official to run in the election. This sets Yam and Koo on a collision course. This films had much more graphic violence. Koo's ruthlessness is something to behold. There is a horrific scene where he amputates the limbs from one of Yam's goons. He does it to make a point to the others that he will not let anything get in his way. The pièce de résistance was taking a meat grinder to the severed limbs and feeding the ground meat to some German shepherds. Yam and Koo deliver strong performances. Yam was the calm, voice of reason in Election who was not above using violence when necessary. In Triad Election, he has let power corrupt him and his ambitions overwhelm his discretion and better judgment. Koo is a cool-headed and cold-blooded gangster who exhibits some Yam's original level-headedness. The film sets Koo up for a different endgame than Yam so it's a variation on the familiar movie theme of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Exiled has more stylized violence than any of the other To films I have seen. It reminded me of a John Woo film - slow motion gun fights and debris flying from bullets striking wood. Anthony Wong steals the movie as one of the five gangster friends. He wears a white-wall haircut, sunglasses and a bulletproof vest and he has gangster attitude to spare. The film defies logic at times but this is really a buddy film with a redemption theme layered on top. The basic premise is that two gangsters are sent to kill one of their friends. Two other gangster intervene to stop them. Collectively, the five men were boyhood friends and they look for a way to provide for the marked one's wife and child. The rest of the film is them executing their plan with varying degrees of success.

There is one more To film scheduled - Mad Detective on June 27.

When I went to see Election and Triad Election (they were shown as a double feature), it was during the height of the Berkeley tree sitter standoff. PFA is just down the street from Memorial Stadium on the UC campus. If you are not familiar with the tree-sitters, they are a group of student/activists that have lived in some tree on the UC campus for 18 months or so. The university wants to cut down the trees to build an athletic training facility. The tree sitters want the trees to stay and the facility to be built elsewhere. They built an elaborate tree house complex and pulley system to distribute food and water to several trees. The campus police have allowed them to stay unmolested but earlier this week, police began to dismantle their treehouses and forcibly removing the protesters. There were news helicopters hovering over the campus when I cut through to get to PFA.