DB Title Update: THE BOSS UP THERE (1999)

[Brian Thibodeau]

Another churchy movie. Not too bad, actually. The "message" stuff is fairly low key. Figured since I watched the newest one from The Media Evangelism (TEAM OF MIRACLE), I might as well get one of their oldies out of the way. Looks like we already have a substantial gallery from Bearserk, so here's the closing credits. Hopefully there's something useful here:







Plus one opening credit I don't think is in the DB:

[Bearserk]

Ahh, the reason why I have a hard time picking up Athena Chu movies now.
This one was just to much for me, not a very religious person, and all that trying to get people to see the light and teach them to be better persons just doesn't sit very well with me. They were laying it one way to much for my liking.
So I should probably keep away from the other movies from Media Evangelism as well

I see that I should probably update the gallery, but I just can't muster enough strength to do it I'm afraid

[Brian Thibodeau]

Ahh, the reason why I have a hard time picking up Athena Chu movies now.
This one was just to much for me, not a very religious person, and all that trying to get people to see the light and teach them to be better persons just doesn't sit very well with me. They were laying it one way to much for my liking.
So I should probably keep away from the other movies from Media Evangelism as well

I see that I should probably update the gallery, but I just can't muster enough strength to do it I'm afraid

She actually won the Golden Horse Best Actress award for her work in this, and it is a rather good performance, even if it is the kind that actresses love because it inevitably results in award nominations. Wong Hei was nominated for a Golden Bauhinia, which I discovered after watching it and thinking his to be a uncharacteristically good performance. Like you, I'm not one for the churchy stuff at all in real life, but since these are Hong Kong movies, and involve a lot of Hong Kong talent (most of who are Christian, but some of whom aren't, and participate anyways), I figured I should try a few of them out. This one and TEAM OF MIRACLE are the two I've seen so far, and I don't find the "message" stuff to be very heavyhanded at all, and certainly not as preachy and glassy-eyed as evangelicals tend to be in real life. I mean, it has to be there—these were funded by a Christian company, after all—but it plays a lot like the "can do" and "overcoming the odds" messages you'll find in a lot of non-religious movies, the main difference being that we know the characters are Christian, or are "saved" by Christian charity groups, as Athena Chu is in this movie. To me, these pictures have the same kinds of flaws I'd find in "regular" movies, and those are largely related to story, pacing, production value (BOSS UP THERE is shot on video, which looks a bit on the cheap side, but not bad). I don't think one of these would ever move me to convert, but there are definitely moments that move me, although I suspect the church groups for whom their largely intended get a lot more out of them.

From what I've been reading in my research for these films, the Hong Kong film industry's Greatest Christian® is Ada Choi. She's apparently the type you avoid if you don't want to hear a near constant stream of Jesus talk.

[Bearserk]

Speaking about Media Evangelism, came across this one when I got credits from a movie I have borrowed from a friend of mine, now I might just put it back into the pile of movies to grab images from and pick something else instead
The wish to add the pictures into the DB is there, but the will to start grabbing the images isn't

Been a while since I saw The Boss Up There, but it didn't strike me as a very good movie, so the news that it actually got some awards comes as quite a surprise, but then again I my eyes may have been a bit coloured by the fact that it was a churchy film as you call it.

[Brian Thibodeau]

The wish to add the pictures into the DB is there, but the will to start grabbing the images isn't

Just keep the sound off while you're doing it! That might help.

Been a while since I saw The Boss Up There, but it didn't strike me as a very good movie, so the news that it actually got some awards comes as quite a surprise, but then again I my eyes may have been a bit coloured by the fact that it was a churchy film as you call it.

As mentioned, I'm no fan of religion in general, and of Christian evangelicals in particular, especially in real life. But frankly, based on these two pictures, I think ME does as good a job with their films as anyone could expect. At their core, these are simple root-for-the-underdog stories that underpin countless non-religious movies, but when the "inspiration" is the self, or a network of family, friends or coworkers, or just the will to survive—anything but Churchy intervention—I think people are far more tolerant of a film as a whole. I think ME also knows the value of not pounding the pulpit with an iron fist, as it turns too many people off, even liberal churchgoers. These movies target a particular audience, that's for sure, but they usually star well-known Hong Kong entertainers (often with careers in non-religious TV series and movies), most of whom are Christian, some of whom are not, so they have some ability to play "outside the fold", as BOSS UP THERE clearly did.

The kind of "religious" movies that really bother me tend to be made in the United States: heavy-handed crap like those awful LEFT BEHIND movies, that pathetically try to marry Hollywood action spectacle to their ridiculous end-times theories. True life tales of people that overcome adversity are generally worthwhile in my book, especially if those people aren't celebrities (a key reason I generally don't like American biopics like WALK THE LINE, etc.). If the motivation is religion, however, I have to take it with a big, big grain of salt, depending on how preachy it gets.

That said, my impression is that ME probably moved away from overt religiosity in later films. BOSS UP THERE has those "weepy" scenes once Athena Chu gets into the rehab clinic, which are a bit much to take if you're a non-believer. In reviewing the picture, though, I couldn't honestly criticize these sequences on the basis of my personal distaste for and distrust of evangelicals and group healing. This was a religious movie, after all, aimed at religious people, and as such, it delivered the goods. My personal dislike for religion had to stand aside, which for me is a very difficult thing to do sometimes. TEAM OF MIRACLE has it's "spiritual" moments, but I can barely recall anyone whipping out a Bible or gathering together for group prayer. I suspect ME is simply trying to straddle two markets with more recent pictures. Could be wrong, though.

[calros]

added action dir., assist. dir., prod. man., sound, gaffer, hairdresser, and props .