It has been more than a decade since Dragon Tiger Gate hit the cinema screens of Hong Kong and China. Released in 2006, Dragon Tiger Gate, also known as Lung Fu Moon, helped breathe new life into the world of martial arts; creating an air of excitement and intrigue about learning and refining martial arts and its ability to help the fight for justice and honor. The film scooped more than HK $12m at the box office and its success led to reports that the cast and crew were in talks to expand the plot with a sequel, although as yet these plans have not come to fruition.
The inclusion of one of Hong Kong’s most celebrated action movie stars, Donnie Yen, was an inspired move on the part of director Wilson Yip. For many years, Yen has been praised for helping to raise the profile of mixed martial arts (MMA) and cementing it in mainstream popular culture in China and further afield. More specifically, Yen has been credited with the popularization of martial art Wing Chun, encouraging the formation of many Wing Chun academies throughout China and elsewhere in the continent. Since the early 2000s, Yen has been one of the most prominent Asian film stars. Everything that he has touched has pretty much turned to gold and Dragon Tiger Gate is no different.
The storyline of the movie is influenced by the popular Hong Kong manhua Oriental Heroes by artist Wong Yuk-long. For those not acquainted with the concept of a manhua, these were traditional Chinese comics designed across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan which were used to portray society and life in the Far East. Oriental Heroes was centered around the concept of young people growing up on publicly-funded housing estates in Hong Kong, fighting crime and surviving gang warfare. Although the protagonists of many of these stories were forced to exhibit antisocial behaviour, they regularly did so in the name of social justice and equality.
In the titular film, Dragon Tiger Gate is a martial arts academy designed to teach the skills of martial arts in order to uphold society and thwart the triads from attempting to run the town. The academy was teeming with youngsters, many of which had been orphaned by the triads, and the film follows closely the fortunes of three young fighters who are in a constant state of flux with their personal and literal demons. Some of the fast-paced, frenetic fight scenes are a joy to watch and choreographed to the nth degree. The impressive athleticism shown by the likes of Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse – of The Bullet Vanishes fame – is one of the main reasons why Dragon Tiger Gate is so revered by the MMA community. The tale proves that martial arts is not about who can injure their opponent more, it’s about humility and respect.
For film fans who take Dragon Tiger Gate at face value, you will quickly appreciate it as a vibrant, kinetic action movie that you can rarely take your eyes from. Excuse the fact that the film’s producers went a little over the top when it came to CGI effects in the latter part of the movie, this is high-octane martial arts at its very best.
The Bruce Lee Connection
Donnie Yen has made a real impact on popular culture in China specifically, but there is no other martial arts professional that has had a global impact quite like Bruce Lee. His death, 42 years ago, left a crater in the hole of martial arts fanatics around the world. The significance of his hit movie Enter the Dragon, should never be forgotten. Before this movie, there had obviously been martial arts movies released, but none managed to resonate with the world quite like Enter the Dragon. It deservedly catapulted Bruce Lee into the eyes of the West, but despite his larger-than-life personality, the stigma that remained in Hollywood post-Vietnam meant that no producer had the vision to cast Lee in a starring role. That fact was exacerbated and made even more tragic by his sudden death at the tender age of just 32.
Nevertheless, the Bruce Lee phenomenon has rightly left an indelible mark on popular culture as we know it. Martial arts have become more of a lifestyle than a fad, weaving its way into our everyday lives in so many ways. Let’s look at some of the most common martial arts influences on pop culture worldwide today.
Cross-training
Martial arts films have helped inspire a new age of fitness regimes to blossom, namely cross-training. Cross-trainers, like martial artists, believe that general fitness is a prerequisite for good self defense. One cannot depend on technique or luck when defending themselves on the street; having a base level of fitness provides the foundation to survive an attack. Cross-training approaches are becoming increasingly popular in military environments and in professional sport. Cross-training is an art form too that has transcended the ages. Look back to the hit film 300 and you’ll notice the chiselled stomachs of the Spartans who relied solely on cross-training to stay in shape.
Those who enjoy martial arts movies have increasingly sought to hone their skills virtually on their favourite beat’em up video games. Tekken 7 is the ninth instalment in a long line of fighting games developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment. By October of 2017, Tekken 7 had sold more than two million copies globally. The game’s focus on one-on-one battles is inspired by that of martial arts, using smart finishing moves to see off opponents. It is also said that the first Mortal Kombat video game was designed based on martial arts actor, Jean Claude Van Damme, with protagonist Johnny Cage arguably modelled on the Belgian. Meanwhile, Dragon Tiger Gate has also had a card game named after the 2006 hit movie, with the game first coming to prominence in Cambodia. The game resembles Casino War and baccarat and asks punters to bet on the winning hand rather than try to get their own hand to win.
A New Wave of Martial Arts Icons
Jean Claude Van Damme has often spoken in glowing terms of Bruce Lee’s influence on his own personal acting style. At the time of martial arts’ explosion on the cinema screen, Van Damme admitted he was not in the necessary physical shape to achieve such greatness. He spoke of being awe-struck by Enter the Dragonwith Bruce Lee’s appeal the new benchmark for Van Damme to aspire to in his own acting career. Van Damme became an icon in his own right for his karate, kickboxing, Muay Thai and taekwondo skills and some 58 movies and countless television appearances later – including his latest in a Coors Light commercial – he remains a huge influence.
That’s just three key influences of martial arts movies before we’ve even scratched the surface on the explosion of UFC MMA, its influence on band culture in the music industry and so much more. Martial arts as a concept is here to stay.
For various inexcusable reasons, last year I omitted posting a list of the best movies bore witness to in 2016. Thankfully 12 months on, looking back over my movie viewing habits of 2017, I can safely say there’s definitely been more good than bad. And when it was good, it was really good. So it seems apt to once more pull together a summary of titles I found myself categorizing as top drawer slices of cinema, for reasons as various as the genres represented.
I’ll also be including a bonus entry, which we’ll call the clunker of the year (which is putting it politely), for that special movie we likely all watched at some point that should be classified as a crime to celluloid. In an ideal world I’d like to think everyone’s own list would likely share the same nomination as my own, but in the unlikely event you feel you saw something worse, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.
Of course the same goes for any movies you feel may have been missed overall. While I watch a lot, I’ll be the first to admit there are always titles that slip through the net, such is the case that if you commit to watching every new movie that comes out, you’ll likely never have time to watch anything else. Which brings me to the usual disclaimer that the list is of movies I watched for the first time in 2017, not just movies that were released that year.
As is the COF tradition, the movies will be listed in order of release, so without further ado, let’s begin.
Extraordinary Mission (2017, China) – A movie that seemed to be largely ignored upon its release (though thankfully it’s now been picked up by Crimson Forest Films, who’ll be releasing it stateside on February 6th), most likely due to its decidedly ordinary title, and similarities to Dante Lam’s Operation Mekong. It’s a shame, because those who did ignore Extraordinary Mission are missing out on a simmering undercover thriller, anchored by stellar performances from Huang Xuan and Duan Yi-Hong. Building up to a fantastic 25 minute action finale, the gritty and grounded approach that directors Alan Mak and Fletcher Poon apply to proceedings, proves to be a winning one.
Wolf Warrior 2 (2017, China) – If someone had told me at the beginning of the year that one of my favorite movies would be a Chinese action flick, I likely would have laughed. If they’d gone on to say it would be a sequel to a movie I suggested China could force people to watch as a form of torture, delirium would be a real possibility. However, Wolf Warrior 2 proved to be that rare treat – a sequel that blows its completely forgettable predecessor clean out of the water, likely with an RPG fired from a mile away. Containing one ludicrous action sequence after another, executed with a refreshing lack of CGI and performed poker faced, Wu Jing’s bombastic Africa set sequel delivered everything he should of first time around, and maybe even a bit more.
Okja (2017, South Korea/USA) – Director Bong Joon-ho’s sixth feature length movie sometimes felt like it had more attention given to the controversy it caused at Cannes, around if a Netflix original production should be allowed to compete, than it did the actual movie itself. Now that the furore has died down, hopefully Okja will be recognized for the masterpiece that it is – a genre bending road trip about a little girl and her friendship with a genetically modified super-pig. Indeed, as odd as it sounds, the likelihood is that without Netflix, Okja would never have been made. Joon-ho said himself he was given carte blanche to make the movie how he wanted, a luxury that for many directors these days is a rarity, and the end result was well worth it.
The Foreigner (2017, UK/China) – The announcement of any new Jackie Chan movie these days comes with a certain amount of trepidation, as his Mainland pandering, and what appears to be a ‘say yes’ attitude to every role he’s offered, often result in viewing experiences akin to a train wreck. However the news that he was teaming up with Casino Royale and Goldeneye director Martin Campbell, and actor Pierce Brosnan, raised many fans hopes for a return to form. Those hopes didn’t prove to be in vain, with The Foreigner delivering Chan’s best performance in years, providing the perfect complement to a seething performance by Brosnan, as a politician with a dark past rapidly catching up with him.
A Single Rider (2016, South Korea) – The last decade has seen Lee Byung-hun headlining everything from sprawling historical epics, to intensely violent revenge thrillers, so to see him returning to the kind of drama that he originally started out in was always going to be a curiosity. Playing a salary man who’s just been made jobless, when the firm he works for declares bankruptcy, he heads to Sydney, Australia where his wife and child have been living for the past 2 years. However the possible affair he witnesses his wife having proves to not be the only surprise he’ll come across, in a low key tale of reflecting on what it means to regret, and doing something about it while we still can.
Karate Kill (2016, Japan) – With Kurando Mitsutake’s 4th feature everything that’s old is new again. For those that miss the wild 70’s karate flicks of Sonny Chiba, in all of their flesh baring, eye ball popping exploitation goodness, Karate Kill is the fix you’re looking for. Mitsutake fills his latest with a debut lead role for karate black belt Hayate, fan favorite Asami, and AV actress Mana Sakura. Throw in liberal doses of karate induced dismemberment, along with plenty of gratuitous nudity, and it’s enough to make any discerning fan question if what they’re watching was in fact made in 2016. Thankfully it was, which hopefully means we can see more pairings from Mitsutake and Hayate in the near future.
Harmonium (2016, Japan) – Writer and director Koji Fukada takes the most Japanese of genres, the family drama, and puts it through the wringer in Harmonium. A quietly dysfunctional family’s daily routine is interrupted when a mysterious stranger, played with an understated intensity by Tadanobu Asano, turns up on their doorstep, and the father invites him to stay with them. What the relationship is between Asano and the father is slowly revealed through the course of the movie, which never rushes its pace, and when the truth is on the table it leads to unexpected and devastating consequences. Fukada crafts a tale which, while having no clear resolution, stays in the mind long after the credits role.
The Truth Beneath (2016, South Korea) – The sophomore feature from director Lee Kyoung-mi, The Truth Beneath eschews the comedic tendencies of her debut, and instead takes us on a darkly psychological journey of a mother attempting to track down her missing daughter. While the missing child plot is a familiar trope within the thriller genre, here it takes us down a rabbit hole of long kept secrets and dangerous lies, which bubble to the surface in increasingly violent and cruel ways. Anchored by a career best performance from actress Son Ye-jin, with a supporting turn by the late Kim Joo-hyuk as her husband, The Truth Beneath is a standout in recent Korean cinema.
I Am a Hero (2015, Japan) – Frankly I never expected to be declaring a Japanese zombie movie as one of the best the genre has to offer, with decidedly low budget and uninspired splatter flicks dominating the country’s output for a long time, but I Am a Hero bucks the trend. Based on a manga, about a down on his luck manga artist being caught up in the middle of a zombie outbreak, director Shinsuke Sato shows a refreshing restraint from using CGI, instead reverting to practical effects that allow for proceedings to get decidedly messy. Cue plenty of exploding heads, and possibly the most reluctant saviour to ever grace the screen, as our hero struggles with his moral conscience because he doesn’t have a permit to use his shotgun in public.
Metro Manila (2013, UK/Philippines) – Philippines cinema has slowly but surely been gaining international recognition in recent years, and this co-production with the UK is one of the most clear examples to see why. Helmed by British director Sean Ellis, and filmed almost entirely in Tagalog, the tale of a country bumpkin who takes a job as an armoured truck driver in Manila slowly evolves from a humanist drama, into the heist thriller it’s (somewhat misleadingly) billed as. Filmed in a way that makes the crowded streets and slums of the city just as much of a character as the actors populating it, Metro Manila builds to a satisfyingly bittersweet conclusion.
R100 (2013, Japan) – To say that comedian turned director Hitoshi Matsumoto has an eye for the weird and the wonderful is probably the understatement of the year (and yes, I know it’s only January). While he was last on international radars with his 2007 kaiju comedy Big Man Japan, 6 years later proved that he was still capable of grabbing the world’s attention with the BDSM themed R100. A play on Japan’s rating system, technically it means that nobody under 100 should watch the movie, and if you’re asking why, then the bombardment of latex clad ninjas, leather bound dominatrixes, and excessive saliva usage should soon answer your question. Hilarious from start to finish, R100 is probably the most unique movie you’ll ever see.
Holeaka The Trap (1997, South Korea) – Back in 1997 the Korean Wave, that was well and truly underway in the early oughts, had yet to kick off, and as such a large portion of pre-2000 Korean cinema has remained relatively inaccessible. Hole is one such production that deserves any movie fans attention, a kind of Monster-in-Law but played as a psychotic thriller, as the mother who’s a little too close to her son for comfort attempts to see off the prospective bride, in increasingly violent and shocking ways. With echoes of Hitchcock’s best work, director Kim Sung-hong crafts a satisfying exercise in tension and domestic horror, one which he hasn’t been able to match since.
Return Engagement (1990, Hong Kong) – Before Chow Yun Fat was Chow Yun Fat, there was Alan Tang. An actor who had been around since the mid-60’s, Return Engagement would be his 4th to last screen appearance, and it’s a good one. Playing a gangster searching for his daughter in Hong Kong, after spending 10 years in a Canadian prison (never mind that the daughter is now 18, despite being 2 at most when he was jailed, it’s HK cinema after all!), director Joe Cheung crafts a surprisingly effective drama with the material. However everything is thrown out of the window for a hilariously OTT bullet riddled finale, the type that HK cinema of the time excelled in, as Tang and Andy Lau take on a pre-Full Contact psychotic Simon Yam.
Brotherhood aka Code of Honour (1987, Hong Kong) – Half the reviews on the net for this one, ok, make that almost all, tend to focus on the fact that it’s marketed as a Chow Yun Fat movie, despite the fact he’s only in it for 5 minutes at most. Get past the false advertising, and you’re left with a gritty HK gangster flick that relies more on fists and feet than its bullet riddled heroic bloodshed brethren, with Law Wai starring as the adopted son of an aging triad leader trying to go straight. Featuring a number of brutal beat downs (including a wince inducing use of a fork), and a particularly intense performance by Dick Wei in a rare good guy role as a determined cop, what you’re left with is an underappreciated gem of 80’s triad goodness.
Suddenly in the Dark (1981, South Korea) – A genre bending piece of early 80’s Korean cinema, Suddenly in the Dark on the surface announces itself as a horror movie, as a well-to-do couple take in a housemaid whose parents died in a fire. However when it’s revealed the maid is the daughter of a shaman, combined with a creepy wooden doll she carries around, the wife begins to question her true motives, suspicious that she’s out to seduce the husband. Frequently veering into the territory of psycho-sexual thriller, Suddenly in the Dark offers a snapshot of everything modern Korea was afraid of at the time, as the traditional shamanism it saw as a remnant of the past proved it couldn’t be buried so easily.
As promised, this year we have a bonus entry for the Worst Movie Watched in 2017, and the proud recipient of the award goes to –
Kung Fu Yoga (2017, China) – Only the second movie to receive a 1/10 rating in my tenure of writing for COF (the first, for those wondering, was Steven Seagal’s Contract to Kill), Kung Fu Yoga is the very definition of an unwatchable mess. Stanley Tong’s first movie in 12 years shows he’s clearly forgotten how to direct (some would argue he never knew to begin with), as we have to endure a 62 year old Jackie Chan eyeing up Bollywood actresses, running away from a variety of CGI animals, and extolling the virtues of the Chinese government. Featuring very little yoga, but plenty of banter about how China and India are very alike and should be good friends, Kung Fu Yoga is the cinematic equivalent of an elephant standing on your crotch for 2 hours.
That’s a wrap for this year, so here’s hoping 2018 provides as much viewing goodness as its predecessor, both in terms of new releases and unearthed classics. For now though, from the crew at COF we’d like to wish everyone a healthy and prosperous year ahead, and thanks for your continued support.
Director: Lee Kyoung-Mi Cast: Son Ye-Jin, Kim Ju-Hyeok, Kim So-Hee, Shin Ji-Hoon, Choi Yu-Hwa, Kim Min-Jae Running Time: 102 min.
By Paul Bramhall
There’s been a refreshing surge of female talent in Korean cinema during recent years, particularly behind the camera. Movies like Shin Su-won’s Madonna, and Jeong Joo-ri’s A Girl at my Door, are arguably highpoints of the country’s output in the post-2010 era, and in 2016 the director of Crush and Blush, Lee Kyoung-mi, returned with her sophomore feature. Titled The Truth Beneath, Kyoung-mi’s second feature sees her step away from the black comedy tropes of her well received debut, and delve into what, on the surface at least, appears to be a kidnap drama.
Kyoung-mi notably worked on the script for Park Chan-wook’s penultimate chapter in his Vengeance Trilogy, with 2005’s Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The iconic director was suitably impressed enough that he stepped into the producers chair for the first time to finance her debut, Crush and Blush, and also contributed to the script. In a continued reversal of their original roles, Chan-wook also contributes to the script for The Truth Beneath, as does his regular collaborator Jeong Seo-kyeong, who also worked on Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, as well as the auteurs latest The Handmaiden.
The Truth Beneath is anchored by a performance from popular actress Son Ye-jin, star of The Pirates, and most recently an unfortunate turn in the abysmal China and Korea co-production Bad Guys Always Die. Thankfully here any previous mishaps are more than made up for, and much like Kyoung-mi did for Gong Hyo-jin in Crush and Blush, here the she also coaxes out what could well be considered a career best performance from Ye-jin. Playing the wife of a political candidate campaigning for an upcoming election, her world is turned upside down when their teenage daughter goes missing with just over 2 weeks to election day.
The husband, played by Kim Joo-hyuk (Confidential Assignment), is understandably thrown into a panic. However it’s not the first time for the daughter to play truant, and when his campaign advisors suggest that they keep the disappearance under wraps for at least a couple of days, much to Ye-jin’s dismay he decides to follow their advice. So the stage is set for a dark drama about a family dealing with a missing daughter, set against the political climate of the campaign trail. The Truth Beneath looks to deliver a solid outing for the genre it sets the expectation of falling under, however once Ye-jin decides to start looking into her daughters disappearance herself, it soon becomes clear that we’re going to be getting something much more.
If any comparisons could be made, Kyoung-mi’s latest feels like a less sweat drenched variant of Tetsuya Nakashima’s The World of Kanako. Just like Nakashima framed events from the perspective of the missing Kanako’s father, played with an unhinged intensity by Koji Yakusho, here the perspective is switched to the viewpoint of the mother. While a parent looking for their missing child is a well-worn genre trope, the real comparison point is the unexpected truths which begin to bubble to the surface, which soon see their lead characters freefalling down a rabbit hole of madness and violence.
The Truth Beneath is really about Ye-jin’s transformation from a well-to-do wife of a politician, to a vengeance filled force of nature who emits a palpable sense of danger. The tone that Kyoung-mi establishes occasionally echoes Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, as we get brief moments that bring to mind Chan-wook’s earlier work, indicating a flair for storytelling that’s evidently always been there. As an audience, watching the past slowly being unwrapped through the eyes of Ye-jin constantly keeps us guessing as to her mental state. There are times when the narrative appears to veer into delirium, which peaks with Ye-jin visiting a shaman, in the hopes that supernatural forces can point her in the right direction.
Credit should also go to Shin Ji-hoon, who plays the missing daughter. A multi-talented performer, Ji-hoon is both a K-pop singer and a figure skater, and here makes her acting debut. Despite her lack of experience in the acting field, she delivers a stand-out performance. As the missing daughter her character initially seems to be a minor one, however as Ye-jin looks to uncover more about her daughter’s life outside the walls of their family home, she gets several extended flashback scenes which are crucial to the narrative. The nature of these flashback scenes effectively portray everything that Ye-jin had, intentionally or not, being living in ignorance of, and the truth found in them is what triggers her subtly powerful transformation.
The editing compliments the trauma of Ye-jin’s mental state through a number of different techniques, from shots played in reverse to fast paced intercuts, the sense of confusion and panic is truly felt, and is offset by the quietly static shots of Ye-jin staring at herself in the mirror. Indeed one of the biggest strengths of The Truth Beneath is the way it looks, from the way shots are framed to the set design, it’s a sumptuous affair and one that’s always reflective of what’s taking place in the narrative. Even small details, such as Ye-jin’s choice to wear a colourful dress to a funeral, carry with them a strong visual impact. It’s rare to see a movie that has an aesthetic so closely tied to the story its telling.
If any criticism could be made, it’s that the tonal shifts occasionally take some unexpectedly wide swings. Specifically relating to a couple of instances were comedy is injected into such serious subject matter, it’s not that the attempts at humour miss the mark, but more a question of if they really belong in such a scenario. However, these random opportunities could well be argued to add to the slightly off-kilter feel that’s increasingly evoked as proceedings progress, and again bring to mind the dark humor of Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The only difference here is that the subtlety is dropped for a more in-your-face approach, but I have a feeling it could be exactly what Kyoung-mi intended.
By the time events barrel towards a suitably surprising conclusion, the narrative throws the past and the present on the path of a head on collision, leaving all of the truth that had been hidden for so long laid bare on the table. How each of the main characters react to it is what makes the closing scenes so tense, as violence, regret, and ambition collide in a way that ensures we’re never certain of what’s going to happen from one second to the next. The Truth Beneath doesn’t bale out during its conclusion, forcing everyone accountable for the events which have been uncovered to face the consequences of their actions, and it’s the better movie for it.
It’s been a while since a Korean movie has delivered that real punch-in-the-gut feel which leaves you reeling once the credits roll. In 2003 OldBoy did it, in 2009 No Mercy did it, and in 2016 I can say The Truth Beneath did it. Whatever genre Kyoung-mi decides to delve into next, her talent for being able to juggle so many of them within a single narrative ensures that it’ll be one to watch. From a political drama, to a kidnap thriller, to a mysterious whodunit, to a psychological suspense, Kyoung-mi navigates Ye-jin through all of them, with the audience never far behind. There were a lot of highs in Korean cinema during 2016, and The Truth Beneath is right up there with them, maybe even at the top.
“Keep Calm and Be a Superstar” Chinese Theatrical Poster
On January 18th, Hong Kong star/recording artist Eason Chan (Office, Dream Home) is delivering kung fu slapstick with Keep Calm and Be a Superstar(read our review), a fun-filled comedy from director Vincent Kok (Gorgeous). With its obvious references to Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master and Police Story, expect what the film promises: The laugh of your life.
Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years. Vol. 1 | Blu-ray (Arrow Video)
RELEASE DATE: February 13, 2018
On February 13, 2018, Arrow Video is releasing the 4-disc Blu-ray + DVD set for Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years. Vol. 1 – Seijun Rising: The Youth Movies. Read the official details below:
Making their home-video debuts outside Japan, this diverse selection of Nikkatsu youth movies (seishun eiga) charts the evolving style of the B-movie maverick best known for the cult classics Tokyo Drifter (1966) and Branded to Kill (1967).
The Boy Who Came Back (1958) marks the first appearances of “Nikkatsu Diamond Guys” and regular Suzuki collaborators Akira Kobayashi and Jo Shishido, with Kobayashi cast as the hot-headed hoodlum fresh out of reform school who struggles to make a clean break with his tearaway past. The Wind-of-Youth Group Crosses the Mountain Pass (1961) is a carnivalesque tale of a young student who hooks up with a down-at-heels travelling circus troupe. Teenage Yakuza (1962) stars Tamio Kawaji as the high-school vigilante protecting his community from the extortions of mobsters from a neighbouring city. The Incorrigible (1963) and Born Under Crossed Stars (1965), both based on Toko Kon’s novels about young love, represent Suzuki’s first films set in the 1920s era later celebrated in his critically-regarded Taisho Trilogy.
Limited Edition Contents:
Limited Edition Dual Format Collection [3000 copies]
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
Optional English Subtitles
New introduction to the films by critic Tony Rayns
60-page illustrated collector’s book featuring new writing by critic and author Jasper Sharp
With dozens of credits as a cinematographer and director, Herman Yau is one of the most prolific filmmakers ever to have worked in Hong Kong cinema. His most notorious films have come in the horror genre, especially the extreme classics Bunman: The Untold Story and Ebola Syndrome. A return to this shocking cinema comes in the guise of The Sleep Curse, and a reunion with the legendary Anthony Wong. We had the chance to sit down with him, and pick the brain of a director who has come up with some of the most shocking images ever on screen.
The following interview with Herman (and his collaborator, Erica Li) was conducted at last year’s Udine Far East Film Festival by myself, Tim Youngs, Fred Ambroisine, Andrew Daley and an unidentified journalist. For presentation purposes, I have streamlined all of our questions so it reads easily in “interview” form. Enjoy!
Herman Yau and Martin Sandison.
Q: I’d like to start by introducing my guests today. Next to me is Erica Li. Erica is a novelist, as well as a screenwriter. Her filmography covers a wide range of genres, in recent years she has been most well known for her collaborations with Herman Yau. This year she is a guest for The Sleep Curse and Shockwave. Also present is Herman Yau. Herman’s huge filmography as a filmaker goes back in to the 1980’s. He has directed prolifically across many genres, perhaps best known internationally for horror films. His filmography really covers a broad spectrum of Hong Kong cinema. He’s also been active as a writer, producer and cinematographer. He’s here today with The Sleep Curse and Shockwave.
Perhaps we can start with the film we showed last night, The Sleep Curse. It’s a return to the more shocking, extreme cinema that you have worked in before. Can you discuss how the project came about?
Herman Yau: At first something happened in Hong Kong two years ago, to do with a company run by Chapman To. He wanted to make some Hong Kong movies. The idea for The Sleep Curse came from a ghost story, and Chapman initiated a collaboration between Anthony Wong and I. We intentionally tried to make The Sleep Curse tie in with The Untold Story and Ebola Syndrome, to echo with them.
Later, Erica joined and developed the script and some other elements were integrated in to the story. It became a film with a ghost story element, but also with some magical, black magic elements. We tried to inject some meaning in to it, to do with Karma, and the evil qualities in humans.
Ebola Syndrome Chinese DVD Cover
Erica Li: When director Yau approached me about the script I felt some pressure, because since The Untold Story there was an expectation of the violent and gory aspects of the film. But according to my observation audiences nowadays are kind of immune to violence. Like I read an article about a 10-year-old boy from the U.S., he has seen 8,000 murders on television already. So it’s difficult for me to do something as extreme as The Untold Story or Ebola.
Also something else I wanted to do was speak for women, especially for those who cannot speak for themselves, victims of wars. I wanted to communicate that there is still some justice to be done. I think that the mental violence of kidnapping girls, this is shocking to the audience.
Q: And of course these days it seems quite difficult to make genre pictures in Hong Kong. Do you find it difficult to make this kind of project?
The Sleep Curse Chinese Theatrical Poster
Herman Yau: I don’t consider it to be a type of comeback. I’ve made some horror films in the past year. The fact that Anthony Wong came back is a big thing. As a filmmaker I would say that I am sometimes quite opportunistic. For instance, some years ago we tried to develop a script about a period in Hong Kong history, concentrating on a young girl. It is concerned with the Japanese occupation in the 1940’s. So with the girl growing up we could show the changes in Hong Kong society, the cultural change, the way of life, how Hong Kong became more and more capitalistic. Most girls at the time were uneducated. A very important thing about the Japanese occupation is the so called ‘comfort women’. These elements were deeply implanted in our brains.
So when we developed the script of The Sleep Curse we started with something that has been proved to a hoax, to do with the Russians in World War 2. And then inspired by that story Erica integrated another element, the important element of the ‘comfort women’, and of course the history of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Then you can see we have the two parallel storylines in The Sleep Curse, one set in 1992 up until 1993.
Shock Wave | Blu-ray & DVD (Cinedigm)
Erica Li: And there is one point I want to add: When people want to deny history. So I thought it would be a good idea to make a movie to refresh the memory of people. Then there is the song ‘How Do You Sleep at Night’.
Q: We should talk about tonight’s closing film, Shockwave. How did this project come about? Obviously it’s a huge action film.
Herman Yau: I came up with the idea of the occupation of the Cross-Harbour tunnel many years ago. At that time I didn’t have any story, just the idea. Other than protest, the way to go would be a gangster or cop film. To make it easy to realise this project, we set it in the frame of a gangster film. And then in about 2003 I wrote the script, and set it around the Armed Force Unit in the Hong Kong police. And then I met some experts, and learned about this force, whose numbers are less than 20. With those two experts, one who is an Explosives Expert, one is a Bomb Disposal Expert, we discussed the occupation of the Cross-Harbour tunnel. With this idea I developed a script with Erica, about 4 or 5 years ago.
Shock Wave Teaser Poster
We finished a draft that was up to our standard that can appeal to the audience, and secured the investors and cast. The first cast member that came to our minds was Andy Lau. We had worked before many years ago, starting in the 1980’s. We had a friendship even though we didn’t see each other frequently. We approached him and had a meeting for 2 hours and he said yes to the project. We had to negotiate a lot because Andy has his own company and is a big star. And also because of the censorship of the script by Mainland China, we had to wait. In that time I made 5 or 6 films! (laughter, clapping) Last year the project began to be filmed.
Erica Li: For Shockwave the pregnancy was about 3 or 4 years. The idea of bombing the Cross-Harbour I found very exciting! And then when I finished the script I found that I had the potential to be a terrorist! (laughter) For me the most challenging part is how to put all the action in to a sensible story. Some action movies have no action at all. I wanted to make all the characters more rounded. It tried very hard to put some romance in the story.
Q: What was the significance of the Cross-Harbour tunnel?
Herman Yau: For the Hong Kong people of my age and generation, this is a very important landmark. This landmark also tells a story of Hong Kong history of the past decades. When I was a child the opening of the Cross-Harbour tunnel made a big mark on me. During the 1970’s Hong Kong society went through a huge change, mainly because of the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. It really changed the society a lot. The Hong Kong Police Force is supposed to protect against physical violence. Before 1972, they were so corrupt. After the ICAC was established, when compared to the 1950’s or 60’s, when we tried to talk about the value of Hong Kong it flourished in the 1970’s and 80’s. In terms of social health, and also for the Economic conditions, and the life of Hong Kong people, all these factors the Cross-Harbour tunnel symbolises. I tried to make Shockwave a very exciting film, a very Hong Kong style.
Erica Li: I tried to remind the audience about altruism. To sacrifice yourself for other people.
Q: In Hong Kong cinema there are a new generation of interesting Hong Kong directors, what do you think about the new generation of Hong Kong actors?
Erica Li: Eric Tsang is looking to direct! (Laughter)
Q: I was wondering, is it possible for Hong Kong films to have more female actors? For them to have a more active role in genres like horror?
Eric Tsang and Martin Sandison get cozy. Read our interview with Eric here.
Herman Yau: I have made some horror films with female protagonists, but unfortunately those films got bad box office, so they were ignored by the audience. To go back to the point about newcomers, I recall an episode of Hong Kong cinema during the 1970’s up to the early 1980’s. During this time Eric Tsang became a movie star. And we can all remember the cinema city bosses like Karl Maka. He told me that at that time since the industry has no female stars it was difficult. They just wanted the female actors to play roles in the films they were going to make. So it’s difficult for newcomers. Perhaps the Hong Kong film industry now is not big enough.
Q: I want to know something about The Sleep Curse. The movie hasn’t been released in Hong Kong yet. What is the plan for that? Also will the people in Hong Kong watch a different version, as we watched the uncut version here.
The Untold Story Japanese Theatrical Poster
Herman Yau: The Sleep Curse will be released in Hong Kong on the 18th of May. I think that most of you know that in Hong Kong the film censorship system is different, especially for a Cat 3 movie. Even though the film is Cat 3, it will be cut by the censors. The version released in Hong Kong will be cut. The one we saw last night was the completely uncut version. Less than ten seconds has been cut. So compared with The Untold Story, about four minutes of that movie was cut. And for Ebola Syndrome, 4 minutes were cut too. So the explicit images etc. in The Sleep Curse was cut less than The Untold Story and Ebola Syndrome.
Q: A few weeks ago I had an interview with Anthony Wong, and he was saying that when he made the movie The Untold Story he was surprised that the movie recieved awards. And on the contrary he was surprised that your other movies together like Ip Man: The Final Fight didn’t get success. So how did you convince Anthony Wong to go back to Category 3 movies?
Herman Yau: So Anthony is a friend of mine, and the people surrounding you always wear mysterious masks that you can never understand. And also if we consider film as a form of art, or a medium, I think we should not narrow down our eyesight. And just like Ebola Syndrome it was released in 1996, the box office was really bad. After 20 years it is regarded as a remarkable work of mine and Anthony’s. So I think we should not care about these things, and have good thoughts about what we have done. Sometimes I make a joke with Anthony Wong, and I use an old saying that in 50 or 100 years what films will people watch? I think it’s more important, and these films will have a longer life than us. We can earn our living, and do what we like to do.
Ip Man: The Final Battle Theatrical Poster
Q: A question about Shockwave. Did you collaborate with real Bomb Disposal Experts for the film?
Herman Yau: 2000 and something I wrote a script for a TV drama with the support of the Hong Kong Police Force. At that time I had a chance to meet Bomb Disposal Officers, and discuss their unit with them, which is very small, less than 20 people. I think it’s the smallest unit in the Hong Kong Police Force. They are so professional. The job is so special to Hong Kong citizens. During the research process I learned quite a lot about explosives and the job the Bomb Disposal Officers do. After writing that script the idea of making a movie to portray the job they do was like a seed in my mind, and I always wanted to make it in to a movie.
Q: So, the movie Bunman: The Untold Story is very famous in the West, and all around the world. Could you talk about shooting the film and the legacy of the film?
Herman Yau: Actually the response, how the film was received was out of my expectation. At the time I treasured the chance to make the film. When Danny Lee approached me and asked me if I would like to make the film, after 3 seconds I said yes, even though I didn’t know my salary! So I worked on the project. I think you know it is based on the real life story, and in this way I think The Untold Story is the portrait of a murderer.
Taxi Hunter International Theatrical Poster
Q: I wanted to ask you about working with Andy Lau and Anthony Wong in you recent projects, could you discuss more about working with them? It has been a while since you worked with Anthony Wong. Could you talk about working with these big Hong Kong stars?
Herman Yau: Working with Anthony Wong is quite easy, although I heard some Hong Kong film makers say that he is difficult. I think because we developed our friendship more than 30 years ago, when we were nobodies in the film industry. I think that kind of mutual respect, mutual understanding, is quite different from my relationship with other actors, even superstars in the film industry. When I first entered in to the industry, Andy Lau was known, because he had just left the TV station for 3 years. And so at that time he was already a star. Since he was so new to the film industry, he realised that the TV crew and the film crew are entirely different people. When I first met him I was a cinematographer, and our working relationship began then. In the 1980’s I worked on a few films with Andy Lau as the the star. So we knew each other from those days. From the 1990’s until now we had some chances to work together. But before Shockwave we had not been working together for 13 years.
Q: In the film The Sleep Curse did you intentionally make a link between the horrors of the film and the horrors of the Japanese army during the 2nd World War?
The Sleep Curse Chinese Theatrical Poster
Herman Yau: The Sleep Curse started as a ghost story. I always say “ what is a ghost story?” A story about ghosts. I don’t care too much about the genre of the film. I understand very well that every film I make can be categorised. So when we have a project and there is an element I have to put in to the film, what are the other contents? And then we try to get the materials together, and what elements we will inject in to the film to enhance the content.
Before The Sleep Curse I worked with Erica Li on a project about the past history of Hong Kong. Part of that story is about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during the 2nd World War. And the “comfort woman” was an issue. Unfortunately we could not realise that project. We tried to take some elements of this script. Then we saw a Russian sleep experiment on youtube in World War 2, which was later proved to be a hoax. It was just created by some very inventive people on the internet. So we took these two elements in to a film. So you can see the narrative structure of The Sleep Curse; one part is in the 90’s and the other plotline is in 1943.
Masked Avengers Chinese Theatrical Poster
Q: In the horror genre which movies are you influenced by? And do you like the horror movies from Shaw Brothers made in the early 1980’s?
Herman Yau: I enjoy watching movies from no less than ten years ago. When you mentioned Shaw Brothers movies, of course I have watched them. But in fact I don’t have a very good memory of all those films. I can’t remember anything about some of them. If you asked me if I was influenced by all those Shaws films, in terms of horror, I would say no. Unless there is some Freudian theory about the subconscious. Other than that, I would say no. For some Wuxia genre of films, I remember quite a lot of them. Not the full stories, but some moments. Like Chang Cheh’s movies, I remember quite a number of moments.
Q: I asked Eric Tsang yesterday about the future of Hong Kong cinema. We’ve seen a lot of Hong Kong/Mainland co-productions, such as Jackie Chan and Eric’s Kung Fu Yoga, which is a Mainaland/Indian co-production. Where do you see the future going for Hong Kong and yourselves as Fimmakers?
Human Lanterns Chinese Theatrical Poster
Herman Yau: It’s nothing new. When you go back to the 1950’s, that kind of production existed. We are concentrating on Hong Kong Chinese cinema is the centre of our discussion. During the 1950’s and 60’s Hong Kong production companies like Shaw Brothers and Cathay, which no longer exist, they had joint productions with Japan, France, the US. So they want to secure the market and distribution. So it’s a kind of cultural exchange. Starting from the 1980’s this kind of globalisation happened, and I think it’s logical for this business. So this kind of working relationship it developed, and is developing again, for Hong Kong cinema.
In the 80’s it went really fast for this cinema, not for Chinese cinema, because it was still a closed door country. Now it has developed in to an open door country. And then the economic reform during the late 70’s, meant that the cinema underwent a process to develop bigger productions. Of course because of the political background of the People’s Republic of China they did not open so quickly. So they opened that kind of joint venture later. This mind of production developed around 1992. Because Hong Kong is so close to China, they took it as kind of experiment, so they chose a place closer to Hong Kong, with a long historical and political linkage. On one hand, it’s still business, on the other it’s kind of example to show the world China has opened its door.
Eric Tsang and Anthony Wong in Ip Man: The Final Fight.
Q: Eric Tsang made a comment that productions in China and Hong Kong are a lot more international focussed. So you could have actors from mainland China, your DP could be from France. Do you see yourselves working on productions outside of Asia?
Herman Yau: It’s also nothing new. When Eric Tsang was a stuntman, we had Japanese cinematographers in Hong Kong. We had cinematographers from South Africa. We are undergoing a big change for Hong Kong cinema, but in terms of those changes it’s nothing new. The change now and then share a number of similarities.
Q: You have worked a lot as a cinematographer as well as a director, you have maybe as many credits for both. Could you talk about working in Hong Kong as a cinematographer and especially the film Seven Swords with the late Lau Kar Leung and Donnie Yen?
Herman Yau hard-at-work.
Herman Yau: In general if you are talking about the films of Tsui Hark, he will try his best to source all of the resources. With goodwill, he wants to make a great movie. When all of the resources are used by him, the film cannot be finished. He will try and secure more people to help him. So for the later process I worked with Tsui Hark, all the films I joined his crew, was always the most difficult time. They had to finish the film as fast as possible, because the weather in Xinjiang was getting colder and colder.
When I was shooting Seven Swords sometimes it was -20 at night. It’s really horrible. When it was about November, when December came it was impossible to shoot, it was too cold. So Tsui Hark added another unit to make the production go faster. At that time Tsui Hark had good relations with (I don’t want to mention the name) an actor. He wanted me to shoot that part with the actor. But when I went to Xinjiang I found that every scene involving that actor had been shot. So it’s very difficult for me to do it. Not all over again, but maybe it was better that way. So it’s very difficult for me to fill those holes. So I told Tsui Hark that I could not do that, I lacked the ability. So that’s the last time I served as cinematographer on the C unit.
Andy Lau gets down ‘n dirty in Shock Wave.
Q: I’d like to ask both of you your thoughts on Sleep Curse being compared to your earlier films like The Untold Story and Ebola Syndrome. What are your opinions about this?
Erica Li: Actually, I just realised that there is some relationship between Sleep Curse and Shockwave. It is the both ends of humanity. Sleep Curse is about a man in avery desperate situation, and he chooses to be selfish. While Shockwave, Andy Lau’s character and the rest of the unit, they choose altruism. This is to sacrifice themselves for the wellness of all. But for the trilogy, the difference between Untold Story…
Herman Yau: I have to say it is not a trilogy, that is not my intention. On the internet I have found some fans who mention Taxi Hunter, that is the trilogy. I admit that The Sleep Curse echoes some elements or moments of Ebola Syndrome and The Untold Story, but I don’t have any intention. Of course I worked with Anthony Wong again on a Cat 3 movie.
Anthony Wong in The Sleep Curse.
Q: You have made a lot of different types of films from Action to comedy to Horror. Which genre do you most like working in?
Herman Yau: I like many genres. I wouldn’t like to make just one genre of films. That would be very boring (laughter)
Q: Erica, writing the script for The Sleep Curse, where did the idea come from?
Erica Li: It was 24 years since Untold Story, and we would like to have another collaboration with Anthony Wong. For me, I studied the past. I knew that people would have expectations because of Untold Story and Ebola Syndrome, that was my first concern. I think the part of history when The Sleep Curse is set is horrific enough to make a film in this genre. And I wanted to speak on behalf of the victims.
Q: The part of Untold Story that everyone remembers is the scene when the kids are killed. Could you talk about the filming of that scene, was it very difficult?
Herman Yau: Not really difficult. The most difficult part was not letting the kids know what we are filming. So we had to lie to them. Anthony Wong was very playful with the kids, offscreen. He always made them laugh! Another difficulty was I would have to try and finish the part of the kids early, before midnight. And they could go and we would continue with shooting, because some of them had to go to school. Maybe two years ago, a friend told me that he knew a girl that played on of the kids, and she was allowed to watch the film. She said it was “interesting!” (laughter) And she really didn’t know what we were filming.
The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake Chinese Theatrical Poster
Q: Two years ago I asked you about your PHD and how your work has changed since you became a Doctor. So between the both of you has anything changed at all? It might be wrong to say that people respect you more because you’re still a legendary director in Hong Kong. But getting a PHD is not a small thing either. So how has it affected your work as a director?
Herman Yau: I don’t think there’s much change, talking about how people see me when we are working together. When we are not working together, I think people would say that “Oh there’s a film maker working in Hong Kong that can be considered to be kind of intellectual”. Yes, that’s how they see me, people without a working relationship with me. But when we work together, still, they would try and do what they think is good with their knowledge. They won’t agree with you more because you have a PHD. So, I don’t think there’s an obvious change. There’s some obscure change.
The Legend Is Born: Ip Man Blu-ray Cover
Q: I wanted to ask you about the Ip Man films you made, The Final Fight and Legend Is Born. They were big budget movies. How was it working on them compared with something like the Untold Story?
Herman Yau: Not a very large difference. For instance, in Ip Man: The Final Fight the set itself cost a lot. So the movie looks big budget. Also it involved a lot of fight scenes, that I needed more time. Still less time than other filmmakers. For Untold Story and Ebola Syndrome, I didn’t need much budget. For the Ip Man movies, they are period films so every department cost a lot. When we are talking about how we spend those resources, it doesn’t make a lot of difference.
But in terms of time, these so-called larger budget productions take more to shoot. When I try to tell a story, actually it’s not so difficult. But how to enhance your narrative, it takes time. And how you make the image more fascinating, it takes more time. With three shots you can tell a story. With thirteen shots you can tell a story in more detail.
Thanks again to Martin Sandison, Herman Yau and Erica Li for taking the time to do this interview.
Nobody is going to get upset about a new Liam Neeson action flick. The actor growls about being 60-years old a number of times in The Commuter, and although this is apparently to protest the indignities his character is forced to undergo, it is actually to invite viewers’ admiration about what Neeson is able to pull off. This man can handle himself in a fight with men half his age, and thinks nothing of rolling out from under a moving train and then jumping right back onto that train -but he doesn’t make it look effortless. Perhaps the entire appeal of the rebirth Mr Neeson’s career is undergoing is based on the simple fact that it looks difficult as hell, and film reviewers love it.
The Commuter Over Promises and Under Delivers, Unfortunately
The film was directed by the eminent Neeson auteur Jaume Collet-Serra, who gave us Unknown, Non-Stop, and Run All Night, and initially looks like it is going to deliver more than the usual fisfight, chase, and grimace medley. This, unfortunately, is not the case, and I would advise you to possibly skip it altogether -why not spend some time at one of the top Australian betting sites so widely available right now instead? You may well come away from that exercise richer -something which The Commuter will not be able to deliver by any means.
An Excellent Opening Title Sequence
The opening title sequence for The Commuter is a montage of Michael McCauley’s mornings as he awakens in his beautiful home in Tarrytown, New York, to ride to his Manhattan job on the Metro-North Railroad train.
Initially the McCauley Obstacles Seem Interesting
Of course McCauley’s happiness is soon to be shattered, and the signs of this, at least initially, actually seem pretty interesting.
The back story is that the McCauleys underwent a financial crisis in 2008, and have been struggling to rebuild their lives since then. McCauley is suddenly severed from his job as insurance salesman, and has an ominous encounter with colleagues from his previous job at the New York Police Department.
After this, on his way home, McCauley makes contact with a mystery woman named Joanna, played by Vera Farmiga, who offers him $75 000 to identify another passenger on the train, another stranger.
And Then the Wheels Come Off Completely
Until the scheme by Joanna unravels, or until the first fight scene, there is a clammy, almost hallucinatory aspect to the movie. McCauley is very obviously nothing but a hapless patsy, but his ethical moorings have been knocked off thanks to the financial ruin he is facing. He is in a trap with no escape, and suddenly everything takes on a different cast. The once familiar faces of his fellow commuters, some of whom he has been travelling alongside for years, become slightly sinister, and panic and paranoia are just below the surface.
And then the mood is gone, and The Commuter start hopping from genre to genre like a wild thing. For a short while it is a locked-room mystery, and then it becomes a runaway-train thriller, but the conspiracy at the heart of the film’s storyline is so vast and all-encompassing that it’s just preposterous, and even Liam Neeson can’t save The Commuter from becoming a plain grab-bag of plot twists.
Conor McGregor, the fighter from Ireland, is credited as an executive producer on Notorious, the documentary which tells the story of McGregor’s rise from being an unemployed plumber working in Dublin to an internationally acclaimed martial arts superstar who recently took part in the much- hyped Money Fight. In it, McGregor comes across as an incredibly charismatic man, almost an outsized presence, and, if a biopic is ever going to get made about his life, Tom Hardy would be number one on our casting list.
The Subject is Depicted as an Underdog
In a clever move, Gavin Fitzgerald, the director of the documentary, frames his subject as an underdog of the sporting world by showing us footage of McGregor from before he made it big. With the fighter lamenting his financial situation, he was living with his mother for a time, and this fact goes quite a way to making his excessive spending on private jets and mansions and such these days a lot less obnoxious.
Something of a peacock in his bespoke outfitted suits, with his beard oiled to perfection, Conor McGregor’s physical prowess is matched only by his exorbitant talent for self-promotion -the man has his own name tattooed across his chest! He is incredibly watchable, but the film is very much a one-sided story.
Nonetheless, it is highly recommended. Take a break from surfing the net for the best AFL betting odds, Olympic Game prices, and the like, and give it a chance!
The Other Side of Conor McGregor
McGregor is an incredibly engaging character, and something of a contradiction as well, and this warts-and-all documentary explores this aspect more deeply.
McGregor is also a very hard worker, and while he may have undeniable talent, this is surpassed by his discipline, his determination, and his refusal to forget his roots. This stands as his motivation, and may also explain the chip on his shoulder to a degree. He has also been known to cross the line when it comes to his eagerness to feature in the headlines, whether this is a press conference, or when he’s hurling gay slurs and fighters, the latter incident involving Andre Fili, and something for which McGregor later apologised.
Notorious looks at the man behind the bling and bravado, but it remains an embedded fight documentary, albeit an above-average one.
A Movie Very Much in McGregor’s Corner
Notorious provides some insight into the fighter’s training, and gives us behind-the-scenes reactions to some of his fights as well, including his first title match against Chad Mendes. It ensures that the viewer understands McGregor’s version of events, and tells the story from his perspective 100% of the time.
The most intimate aspect that Notorious reveals is just how heavily McGregor relies on Dee Devlin, his long-term partner. She couldn’t be any more different than the public persona McGregor provides us with would hint at, and is a constant in his life, supporting him while they were down and out as he was chasing his dreams.
MMA or Conor McGregor fans who are interested in a very easy-to-digest portrait of this superstar will be well-served, and even some of those who could take him or leave him may walk away moved.
If you are a fan of films with scenes were a seemingly indestructible hero cop clings to the roof a speeding car, then it was almost definitely a movie made in the 80s. Most of these movies have the driver not even attempting to swerve or brake, either. He just holds his hands up in front of his face before going through the obligatory plate glass window.
This article outlines the very best of this great genre, and most have either initiated or contributed to a long-running franchise, and are being imitated to this day. If any of the following films are missing from your collection, as an action movie fan you are going to have to correct that at once.
If you are looking for something to do other than spend some time perusing the horse racing betting sites you enjoy, take a look at one of these.
A Great Director and a Super Script: Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon is the unsurpassed movie about two mismatched policeman, one a family man who likes to play by the rules, the other a suicidal psychopath, whose attempts at apprehending a drug ring lead to gun battles, kidnapping, and epic one-on-one smackdowns.
While this formula is not a new one, it has never really been done as well as it was in Lethal Weapon. This is thanks to the director, Richard Donner, who gave us The Omen and Superman, and the scriptwriter, Shane Black, the whizzkid also responsible for co-writing The Monster Squad.
Keeping the Tension Right: Predator
Unlike Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and the rest of the top action film actors, Arnold Schwarzenegger is comfortable with science-fiction/action hybrids, and has never forced us to endure mistakes like Surrogates or Demolition Man. This makes him the ideal choice to play a character battling an extra-terrestrial who is hunting human beings for fun. John McTiernan, of the Die Hards, is the director, which means that the film is more action than it is sci-fi, and McTiernan knows how to generate the proper amounts of tension so that the film never turns into a cheesy monster movie.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior Defines an Era
George Miller, the director, stated that he didn’t have the money to do the first film the way he wanted to, and he wanted to try and get it right with the second one. Miller did not just get it right – he made a movie that defined the times, and stands to this day as the gold-standard of action movies that hypothesize what will become of us after the apocalypse. It’s reminiscent of the best Xbox games, and it’s an action packed extravaganza thats visually stunning too.
The Terminators
Sheer brilliance in all respects, and, if you ever wondered why the movie has an acknowledgement to Harlan Ellison included, check out Soldier, an episode of Outer Limits that Ellison wrote the script for. It deals with two soldiers who come back from the future to battle it out in contemporary Los Angeles.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Most directors who release blockbusters in the summer compare their films to roller coasters, but Raiders of the Lost Ark is this exactly. It is a near perfect fusion of humour and action, and set the standard for adventure action movies for many years. The dialogue, cast, action scenes and pacing are all first rate.
Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto Cast: Nao Omori, Shinobu Terajima, Hitoshi Matsumoto, Ai Tominaga, Eriko Sato, Naomi Watanabe, You, Suzuki Matsuo, Atsuro Watabe, Gin Maeda, Katagiri Hairi, Lindsay Kay Hayward, Mao Daichi Running Time: 94 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Any discussion on director Hitoshi Matsumoto inevitably brings up a comparison with Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano. Much like Kitano, Matsumoto is also a famous Japanese TV personality that started off as (and still is) a comedian in the 80’s, before making the transition to film. However aside from their similar trajectories into the world of movie making, it’s clear that the pair are two distinctly different creative forces, with little in common to keep the conversation going once any given title in their respective filmographies has been viewed. While Kitano’s cinematic universe has largely stayed away from his slapstick comedic beginnings, Matsumoto has used the broad cinematic canvas to create worlds that embrace the odd and the quirky, often wrapped up in such a way that laughs are simply a natural bi-product.
His 2007 directorial debut, Big Man Japan, centred on an unremarkable middle aged man, who just so happened to periodically transform into a 100 foot tall reluctant kaiju superhero, armed with a stick. The movie was a hit on the festival circuit, and the ridiculous concept of watching a 100 foot tall frizzy haired man go about his duty of defending Japan from invading monsters, with all the enthusiasm of a trip to the dentist, was pure comedy gold. Matsumoto would go on to direct Symbol and Saya-zamurai in 2009 and 2010 respectively, both of which inexplicably have yet to receive a release on western shores, however it was 2013’s R100 that would once again catch the attention of an international audience.
R100 is a cheeky reference to Japan’s movie rating system, which hits a ceiling at R18, meaning the movie in question is only suitable to be viewed by those who are 18 and over. So unless you’re expecting a letter from the Queen anytime soon, R100 should theoretically be viewed with caution. Just like his previous directorial efforts, it quickly becomes apparent that Matsumoto hasn’t lost his knack for creating unexpected stories out of unremarkable circumstances. For his latest, just like in Big Man Japan we follow the exploits of a nondescript middle aged man, played by Nao Ohmori (the titular Ichi, of Miike Takashi’s Ichi the Killer), a furniture salesman raising his young son while his wife lays in hospital in a vegetative state due to an accident.
Bored with the repetitive blandness of his day to day life, one evening Ohmori decides to visit a secretive BDSM club. However this is no ordinary club. Rather than a night of cheap thrills, here the deal is you sign up to a 1 year contract, and the various dominatrixes will show up at any given time day or night, with the only condition being that as the contract holder you have to submit. There’s a few other minor rules – no touching of the dominatrix is allowed, and above all, the contract must be seen through to completion. At first Ohmori finds a new lease of life through the random appearances of the dominatrixes, whether it be being suddenly kicked in the face while having a quiet cup of coffee, or almost drowned in a fountain. However when the dominatrixes begin to show up at his workplace and home, his decision to back out of the contract before the year is up soon leads to a series of escalating consequences.
It’s fair to say that I’m unlikely to be writing a plot description such as this one again anytime soon, and that’s part of the unique charm of Matsumoto’s work. Despite the above description though, R100 is far from being just a crude bondage comedy played for laughs, and like in his previous work the narrative often goes off on meta tangents. In fact the title R100 doesn’t even appear onscreen until the 40 minute mark, bringing to mind a similar trick that was used in 2006’s Diary, where the Pang Brothers directorial credit was suddenly dropped at 1 hour in. It’s fair to say that Matsumoto’s stamp is heavily imprinted on R100, and not everyone will be up for the ride. However unlike other black comedies, such as Visitor Q (one of the movies I really enjoyed, but could never in good conscience recommend to anyone), the auteurs latest is comparatively safe viewing.
Despite the title and subject matter, there is no nudity on display in the entire 100 minute runtime, and the more it progresses the more it becomes apparent that what we’re watching is in fact an incredibly witty study on human behaviour. When Ohmori first visits the BDSM club, the curator explains that once we pass a certain pain threshold, we’ll be overcome with a feeling of joyfulness, and this is precisely what he begins to experience. After the initial shock of his various encounters with the dominatrixes, and the humiliation that comes with it, Ohmori begins to enjoy the experience, which is visualised by him growing puffy cheeks and blackened eyes. Imagine a cross between Jo Shishido and Alex Krycek from the X-Files, and you’ll get the picture.
Each dominatrix is introduced as a Queen of whatever they specialise in, with each encounter becoming gradually more intense. Needless to say, by the time it gets around to the Queen of Saliva (played with gusto by Naomi Watanabe), you’ll either have succumbed to hysterical laughter, or be wondering what the hell it is you’re watching. It’s only when an accident leads to a fateful misunderstanding between Ohmori and the club, that R100 takes an unexpected tonal shift, and adopts the documentary style of Big Man Japan to transform into a full-fledged revenge flick. Events transpire to resemble what could best be described as a Russ Meyer movie on steroids, as the clubs CEO, played with an intimidating physicality by former WWE wrestler Lindsay Hayward, flies in to Tokyo in order to track Ohmori down and dish out some (presumably not so pleasurable) pain.
There’s a whole heap of other random plot threads that weave in and out of R100, from a government secret agent whose job is to make sure Japan stays morally clean, to the relationship between Ohmori and his father-in-law. It’s not even worth getting into the earthquakes and the Queen of Gobbling. Matsumoto films everything with a washed out palette, providing a visual reinforcement to the monotony that Ohmori feels in his life, and it complements the overall tone well. Like in Big Man Japan, R100 unexpectedly steers off into meta-territory at various points during the last half of the runtime.
Shortly after the title appears onscreen, the movie grinds to a halt all together, as in, we see the reel stop and what’s onscreen comes to an end. It then cuts to 4 film executives sitting in silence outside of a screening room, before one of them exclaims what on earth it is they’re watching, and proceeds to point out everything that doesn’t make sense. This variation on breaking the fourth wall only occurs a few times, but rather than intruding as might be expected, it serves to add an additional layer of food for thought, as the executives ponder the same questions we as the audience are thinking, and speculate on the answers. It’s unconventional, but then there’s not much of R100 which isn’t.
Quite how a movie starts off as a low key tale of a bored salary man seeking some excitement via S&M, and ends up as a homage to Night of the Living Dead, as he finds himself holed up in an isolated countryside house surrounded by a legion of latex ninjas, I don’t know. However it’s this talent for genre bending which makes Matsumoto such a treasure. I can’t think of another director out there who could go so seamlessly from quiet scenes of domestic melancholy, to having a suitcase full of grenades being thrown at an approaching army of ninja assassins, all in the short space of 100 minutes. However R100 achieves this, and does so via a whole lot of whipping, sushi stomping, and hot wax dripping. What the message is I confess to still being a question I haven’t figured out, however for a movie to make me think as much as it made me laugh is a rare phenomenon, and for that reason alone, R100 comes strongly recommended.
Director: Yuji Shimomura Cast: Tak Sakaguchi, Yura Kondo, Takumi Saito, Mariko Shinoda, Akio Otsuka, Orson Mochizuki, Kenta Akami, Masaya Kato, Rina Takeda, Yoshitaka Inagawa Running Time: 100 min.
By Paul Bramhall
The swansong of Tak Sakaguchi (here billed as Tak ∴), Re:Born has certainly had one of the more interesting journeys to the screen. Having been plucked from Japan’s underground street fighting circuit by director Ryuhei Kitamura to headline the 2000 cult hit Versus, Sakaguchi has maintained a constant presence in the Japanese film industry, but has rarely matched the popularity of his debut. The closest he came to replicating the success of Versus came in the form of 2005’s Death Trance, which was helmed by the fight choreographer of Versus, Yuji Shimomura. Still, many of his fans were willing to bide their time in the belief that Sakaguchi still had another worthy action flick in him, until in 2013, their hopes were seemingly dashed forever when he announced his retirement from the film industry.
However it was a retirement that didn’t last long, when in 2015 Sakaguchi issued a statement in which he confessed to being so surprised by the number of fans that reacted to his plans of retirement, he decided to make one last action movie, just for them. His exact words were that he planned to “create the very last and most superb action movie with my utmost power and passion, for the sake of a closure to my entire career.” The man he went to in order to help him achieve his dream was Yuji Shimomura, and together, they began to work on what would become Re:Born.
This is of course the clean cut version of the story. Actually Re:Born could well be speculated to be the offshoot of a long gesticulating project between Sakaguchi and auteur director Sion Sono, titled Kenkichi, that somehow never came to pass. While some said the Sakaguchi featuring segment in Sion’s Why Don’t you Play in Hell? was likely all that was left of the project, here Sion also receives a credit under the mysterious title of ‘Collaborated with Original Draft’, so it seems likely that Re:Born was also once planned to be Kenkichi. Either way, it’s good to see Sakaguchi and Shimomura together again, having last collaborated together in the capacity of star and action director on the 2011 Sushi Typhoon flicks Yakuza Weapon and Deadball.
Despite both titles being announced in 2015, Re:Born shares a lot of similarities with the Mo Brothers Indonesian action movie Headshot. Simply swap Iko Uwais’ character with memory loss with Sakaguchi’s who wants to forget, and the nurse who restores Uwais back to health, with a young girl that views Sakaguchi as her uncle. The core structure of a group of assassins trained since birth to kill, only for one of them to recognize their humanity and rebel, remains the same. However neither Headshot nor Re:Born are the first movies to use this trope (Broken Path immediately springs to mind), and thankfully both Sakaguchi and Shimomura seem to be aware of why audiences are checking in.
That reason is of course for the action. Despite Sakaguchi’s authentic fighting credentials, it’s never been his action performance alone that’s drawn audiences to his movies. We all know it takes more than being able to bust out a move to be a movie star, and Sakaguchi has that ‘more’ factor. He comes with a cocky swagger, and a striking look perfect for the camera, a combination that likely played a part in the successful timing of Versus, made in an era when Asian action movies in general were going through a drought. When Shimomura last directed Sakaguchi in Death Trance, it was sold on the novelty that Sakaguchi was going to be wearing a special type of padded glove, one that allowed him to strike his opponent full force, and Re:Born comes with a similar novel premise.
Rather than a piece of apparel, the selling point here is that of a newly developed fighting style, made especially for the movie, called the Zero Range Combat System. Created by combat strategist Yoshitaka Inagawa, who also plays Sakaguchi’s main opponent, the style focuses on dispatching enemies as swiftly as possible, usually with a series of bladed weapons (from extendable shovels to Silat style curved daggers). Taking on the role of Combat and Tactical Supervisor, Inagawa choreographs the action along with Sakaguchi and Shimomura, and proceedings get suitably bloody in the latter half of Re:Born once the young girl Sakaguchi is the acting guardian of is kidnapped by the bad guys.
Much like in Death Trance, Shimomura imbues Sakaguchi’s character with a certain legendary mythos. Characters sometimes speak of a rumoured super soldier by the name of the Reborn Ghost, a killer so skilled no one has ever seen him, yet he’s known to have operated in wars as far back as Vietnam. Of course, as the head villain himself says, if the myth was true he’d be an elderly man by now, so it must simply be that – a myth. Or is it, and does Sakaguchi have some kind of connection to this Reborn Ghost? He plays his weary former soldier as a kind of ungodly cross between John Wick, Rambo, and the Glimmer Man – appearing from the shadows, most at home amongst death, and able to dodge bullets. Literally, I mean this guy dodges more bullets than Neo.
It’s a quirky trait, and one that was played strictly for laughs in Yakuza Weapon, so to see it taken so seriously here is tricky to ascertain exactly how much we’re supposed to buy into it. Indeed Re:Born’s tone is a serious one, with the first half spent on serious stuff that doesn’t necessarily gel together, or even mean anything once we get to the action packed latter half. Sakaguchi’s talk with a psychiatrist, his heavily scarred ex-teammate who wanted to die on the battlefield, and his friendship with a local bar owner are all setup as meaningful interactions, but are all but forgotten about once we move into Sakaguchi and Shimomura’s favorite locale – the forest. It’s fair to say that characterisation wasn’t high on the agenda for Re:Born, despite the longer than standard lead-up to the good stuff.
Some characters could arguably have been left out altogether. Two comrades Sakaguchi gets teamed up with, half Japanese half African American actor Orson Mochizuki, and Kenta Akami, serve little purpose. Mochizuki is particularly irritating in his constant switching from English to Japanese within the same sentence, especially when the English is “aaaaaight.” By enlarge, the bad guys, despite sporting cool names like Fox, Eagle, and (wait for it) Abyss Walker, serve as fodder for Sakaguchi’s blur of stabbing and slashing. However despite the only real threat to Sakaguchi being Inagawa’s psychotic super soldier, the action scenes still deliver the required thrills, even if they are edited a little too quickly.
The trio of Sakaguchi, Shimomura, and Inagawa were clearly eager to show off their Zero Range Combat System. This is no more apparent than when Sakaguchi finally clears the forest and arrives at the bad guy’s base, only for him to tell Mochizuki to go ahead, just so he can go back and finish off the enemies still lurking in the woods, even though it’s completely unnecessary. Completely unnecessary, but it does allow for some more outdoor mayhem. Unfortunately despite the intensity of the action onscreen, it’s frequently dampened by composer Kenji Kawaii’s terminally dull score, which rarely matches the tone of the scene. Music can be a powerful accompaniment to any fight scene, however here it’s unfortunately a good example of how a soundtrack can impact an action scene negatively.
Thankfully we do get a one-on-one finale of Sakaguchi versus Inagawa, which provides one of Re:Born’s few empty handed fights. It’s interesting to say the least. Armed with a weapon, the movements can best be described as a kind of crinkly clothed samba (you’ll know what I mean once witnessed), but empty handed it kind of resembles an amateur capoeira practitioner who got drunk and decided to bust out a few moves. I admit the scene drew a laugh out of me rather than the desired thrill, but it still deserves points for originality.
Despite not having the strongest narrative, in the context of Sakaguchi’s career it arguably provides a worthy swansong. The Japanese action movie has already been dead for a long time, so any attempt to breathe some life back into it was never going to be a big budget affair, and that’s clear to see here. But for those who enjoyed the likes of Bushido Man and Sakaguchi’s other movies, there’s little to complain about. Throw in welcome cameos from fellow Japanese action talent such as Masaya Kato (Mark Dacascos’s opponent in the finale of Drive), and Rina Takeda (providing narration only as the older version of the young girl), while Sakaguchi’s career didn’t go out with a bang, it definitely did go out with a knee driven knife to the throat.
Director: Park Hoon-jung Writer: Park Hoon-jung Cast: Lee Jung-jae, Choi Min-sik, Hwang Jung-min, Song Ji-hyo, Park Sung-woong, Kim Yoon-seong, Na Kwang-hoon, Park Seo-yeon, Choi Il-hwa Running Time: 134 min.
By Martin Sandison
Filmmaker Park Hoon-jung has a limited filmography, but as the credited screenwriter on the all-time masterpiece I Saw the Devil, he started off his career very strongly.
His 2nd film as director – following 2011’s The Showdown – is New World, an off-the-wall mix of gangster movie, thriller and melodrama. The always magnificent Choi Min Sik leads an ensemble cast that helps the film reach A-list heights, despite a convoluted plot and bland visual style.
A criminal ‘family’ who rule the roost in South Korea go under the name ‘Goldmoon’, and are sent in to disarray when there is a suspected mole in there midst, and a police operation run by Chief Kang (Choi Min Sik, Oldboy) threatens to take them down. New World concentrates on the power struggles between the brothers as they attempt to salvage what is left of their organisation.
While having a long running time, the plotline of New World is very complex and engaging, but never boring. However, this can be to the film’s detriment; at times it is difficult to work out what is going on, and who is after who. I think the film warrants a second watch to work out its plot strands. The approach to characterisation and the actors who carry out those roles are top notch.
Each main character is so multi-layered and well-designed that it’s impossible not to sit enthralled. My favourite character has be Jung Chung (Hwang Jung-min, A Bittersweet Life), whose journey is magnificently drawn from laissez faire humorous trickster to sadistic, but loveable rogue, and back. A silver-tongued devil, much of the laughs come from his dialogue and the spark of Hwang’s performance is electrifying. He also is majorly involved in the only big action scene of the film, superbly choreographed chaos in the Korean style that mess you beg for more. It’s shame that this scene is the only one of its kind in the movie.
Jung’s nemesis in the movie is his ‘brother’, Lee jung-gu (Park Sung-Woo, Shadowless Sword) and the intense rivalry and hatred he has for Jung is palpable. There are some tension-filled scenes between the two that are nailbiting, and Park puts in a smarmy, near-evil performance. Jung jae-Lee (Assassination) as the protagonist Lee ja-sung has the most obvious chararcter arc, and his bromance with Jung is one of the best things about the movie.
The most obvious reference point for New World is the all-time masterpiece Infernal Affairs, with a similarity in some characters and the plotline. While not reaching the giddy heights of that film, New World succeeds in different ways; such as the approach and density of characterisation, and revealing the inner machinations of a criminal organisation. Where it doesn’t succeed, however, is in style. I found the colour palette used and the cinematography to be bland and unappealing, taking me out of the film as a viewer. It’s unfortunate, because there are so many positive aspects.
All in all, I need to watch New World again to fully appreciate it, but on first viewing I was entertained and interested throughout. While I have a strong stomach for violence and torture in movies, the opening scene I thought went too far. Be warned!
The year 2017 was once again a very successful year for Asian cinema. While Hollywood may be ruling the world with their vast array of superhero movies and family dram, Asian cinema continues to flourish.
The most successful Asian movie of 2017 was Wolf Warrior 2, which actually raked in more than Wonder Woman and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and just a fraction less than Spider-Man: Homecoming worldwide. The Chinese movie based on a Chinese soldier, Leng Feng, who takes on special missions around the world and is in an African country protecting medical aid workers from local rebels and vicious arms dealers, became the first non-Hollywood movie to be listed on the all-time worldwide top 100 box office. Interestingly, it is actually a sequel to Wolf Warrior in 2015, which did not even cross the $100m mark at the box office, and was released only in China.
Another Asian movie that won a lot of plaudits in 2017 was Blade of the Immortal. As the title suggests, it is about a Japanese samurai who fights evil after being granted immortality. What the movie does is take a close look at how immortality is not necessarily a blessing and the changes it can bring to a man’s character. Midnight Runner is quite different but equally enjoyable. In this South Korean movie, two best friends and at Korean National Police University work together to track down a kidnapping their witness. It has a bit of Hollywood vibe about it in its humorous and thrilling tone, but it is hugely entertaining.
Bollywood is one of the biggest and most prolific movie industries in the world and actually rivals Hollywood in many ways. So it came as a no surprise that once again Bollywood produced some superb movies. Raees is probably the pick of the lot. Starring the legendary Shah Rukh Khan, the 2017 film is about a bootlegger who wants to improve his community but falls in a political trap. The documentary Sachin: A Billion Dreams is worth a watch for all sports fans. Released in May 2017, the James Erskine-directed film tells the tale of legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.
With 2017 coming to an end, Asian movie buffs have a lot to look forward to in 2018. One of the movies that is eagerly anticipated is Shanghai Dawn. A sequel to Shanghai Knights, which was released way back in 2003, the movie will star the legendary Jackie Chan alongside American actor Owen Wilson. Shanghai Knights is one of the best martial arts action comedy films of all time, and fans will expect Shanghai Dawn to be just as good and funny, if not better. While you wait for this movie to be released, you could play online slot games which involve climbing buildings and martial art, such as Hong Kong Tower, to get you into the swing of things. Before you do, though, it would be worth checking out this article to get a feel for which games would work best for you.
Another Asian movie in 2018 that is worth watching is House of War. This Bollywood movie is based on the true events of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack. South Korean film Hero is also based on truth – it explores the life of Ahn Jung-geun. For those who like history, Swordsman in 2018 will bring to the big screen the story of swordsmen who stood against the confusing state of affairs during the period of change in the Chinese Ming and Qing Dynasty.
Director Yoon Hong-seung (The Target) joins forces with Jackie Chan (as producer) for the Korean/Chinese production titled Reset(read our review), which is heading to Blu-ray & DVD from Well Go USA on February 6, 2018.
When her son is kidnapped, the inventor of a time machine (Yang Mi of The Bullet Vanishes) teams up with multiple versions of her future self to rescue him.
Reset also stars Wallace Huo (The Founding of an Army), Chin Shih-chieh (Brotherhood of Blades) and Liu Chang (A Journey Through Time With Anthony).
Director: Won Shin-yun Cast: Sul Kyung-gu, Kim Nam-gil, Kim Seol-hyun, Oh Dal-su, Shin Ki-joon, Hwang Seok-jeong, Gil Hae-yeon, Kim Han-joon, Kim Dong-hee, Kim Jung-young Running Time: 128 min.
By Paul Bramhall
There’s been many variations on the serial killer trope in Korea, often framed within a variety of genres. From the horror of Tell Me Something, to the mystery of Memories of Murder, to the visceral thrills of I Saw the Devil. Director Won Shin-yun’s latest delivers yet another variant on the serial killer theme, but this time with a decidedly unique twist. In Memoir of a Murderer (not to be confused with Memoirs of a Murderer, the Japanese remake of Confession of Murder) one of the most recognizable faces of the Korean wave, Sul Kyung-gu, looks virtually unrecognizable as an aged veterinarian suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. However Kyung-gu hides a dark secret – 20 years ago he used to be a serial killer, killing based on the act of “obligatory murder”, an expression he coins for those who deserve to die, and he’s concerned that his fading memory may unravel his past misdemeanours.
It’s an intriguing premise, and one that Shin-yun adapts from a popular 2013 novel by Kim Young-ha. While Kyung-gu’s inconsistent memory forms the crux of the tale, the plot which is provided as a framework develops into a classic tale of cat and mouse (although which one of them has Alzheimer’s is constantly up for questioning). There’s been a pair of high-school girl murders in town recently, and the public are beginning to question if a serial killer is on the loose, in a plot device that strongly echoes Memories of Murder (there’s also a shot involving a tunnel which will invoke memories, no pun intended, of Bong Joon-ho’s 2003 classic). While driving down a fog covered road, Kyung-gu collides with a stationery vehicle, and when he gets out of his car, he finds the trunk of the other vehicle open, revealing a carcass wrapped in plastic, dripping blood onto the road.
The driver of the other vehicle is played by Kim Nam-gil, who insists the carcass is that of a dear. However as the pair exchange words, Kyung-gu’s instincts tell him otherwise – the man in front of him is also a serial killer, and he makes the decision to bring him to justice. A spanner is thrown in the works though when it turns out Nam-gil is actually a cop, and Kyung-gu is left to figure out how an old man with Alzheimer’s, can convince the authorities that one of their own is responsible for the recent murders. It’s a fascinating premise, and one that plays out as a kind of Memento meets Memories of Murder hybrid, as we’re pulled into a world where the reality of everything is questionable, and characters motives aren’t to be trusted.
As Memoir of a Murderer’s anchor, Kyung-gu is fantastic. An actor who’s been in some of the most highly regarded movies of the K-wave, leading roles in the likes of Peppermint Candy, Public Enemy, and Silmido cemented his reputation. The post 2010-era hasn’t been so kind, with duds like The Spy and My Dictator doing their best to stain his filmography. However in 2016 Kyung-gu seems to be back in business, with a strong role both here, and in the prison thriller The Merciless. Nam-gil on the other hand is very much an actor that relies on a strong director to draw a good performance out of him, and while he found one in the likes of Oh Seung-wook for The Shameless, here he’s not so lucky. Coming across as neither menacing nor particularly creepy, his performance unintentionally blurs what exactly we as an audience are supposed to believe.
In fairness though, the script is as much of an issue as Nam-gil’s performance. The tale is told from the perspective (and largely narrated by) of Kyung-gu, and the more the plot develops, the more it becomes clear that he’s not a reliable narrator. His Alzheimer’s is not only making him forget things, but it’s also distorting his memory of how events happened and who was involved. It takes a highly skilled hand to craft such a complex tale in which everything is questionable, however the weight of the narrative soon has both Shin-yun and his co-writer Hwang Jo-yoon (who notably co-wrote Oldboy with Park Chan-wook) becoming lost in their own tangled web.
The main issue is that the narrative doesn’t set any rules for us to follow, which quickly goes from intriguing to frustrating before the movie is even half way through. There are essentially two possible scenarios for the audience to decipher – is Kyung-gu’s Alzheimer’s leading him to believe that Nam-gil is the serial killer, when in fact it’s actually himself, he’s just unable to recall his own murders? Or is Nam-gil a serial killer, who sees Kyung-gu as a threat, and decides to try and get rid of him by going through his daughter? By taking Kyung-gu’s perspective there are certain revelations that deliver the intended shock moment, however the script on more than one occasion betrays itself, by doubling back on the revelation and hinting that the original version of events may be true after all.
The first time it happens it seems like smart scripting, but when it happens again it increasingly begins to feel like the story is confusing itself. This feeling is confounded when the narrative breaks away from Kyung-gu’s perspective, however still seems to portray characters personalities based on his perceptions. A movie like Memento works so well because, even though the rules of the narrative aren’t clear while watching it, by the time it finishes an explanation is provided that makes everything make sense in retrospect, and even encourages a re-watch. That same explanation isn’t provided in Memoir of a Murderer, and the frustrating part is that even a re-watch would do little to unravel the mystery, as with no clear rules as to what’s real and what’s not, it’s a fruitless exercise.
It’s a shame, as there’s obviously a lot of potential behind the premise, and while the production values and lensing are up to par as has come to be expected from a Korean production, the execution ultimately lacks. Shin-yun has had an interesting career, starting off as a stuntman, he made his directorial debut with the 2005 horror movie The Wig, which he also wrote, and has flitted in and out of genres since then. His movie prior to Memoir of a Murderer was also his most successful, the Gong Yoo starring 2013 actioner The Suspect, and while Memoir of a Murderer is an ambitious step up from his previous efforts A to B chase flick, at least The Suspect maintained its coherency.
With that being said, as a showboat for Kyung-gu’s acting skills it certainly delivers, and for fans of the actor it’ll likely be welcomed. Memoir of a Murderer also stars Seolhyun as his daughter, a member of the K-pop group AOA. She notably had a small role in Yoo Ha’s Gangnam Blues, and here again proves to have a decent pair of acting chops. Of course no Korean movie in recent years would seemingly be complete without an appearance from Oh Dal-soo, and sure enough he pops up in Memoir of a Murderer clocking in his third movie of 2016 (the others being Tunnel and Master), here as the local cop. At this point I almost feel like I should deduct a point for any Korean movie made in the last 5 years that doesn’t feature Oh Dal-soo.
In the end Memoir of a Murderer is one of those movies that you really want to love, but is let down by a muddled end product and a script that tangles itself up so much, it forgets that at some point, has to untangle itself. In the closing scene a character tells us that memory can’t be trusted, which is a running theme throughout, however its inclusion seems to indicate that Shin-yun considers the line to be a revelation to the audience, when really what we needed is an explanation. As a result, the end feels like more of an insult than the intended “a-ha!” moment. Kyung-gu may play a character slowly forgetting his life, but the saddest part is, Shin-yun is a director that’s forgotten to deliver on his own potential.
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