Although I obviously now have perhaps a greater disposition towards South Korean cinema, I am still just as enthusiastic as ever towards Hong Kong movies...and was quite excited to see Billy Chung's Lady Iron Chef and Cash Chin's The Haunted School go up for pre-order today on DVD at DDDHouse. I missed them both on theatrical release while I was in Malaysia in February and kicked myself severely over the fact (but I had family duties to tend to, since it was afterall Chinese New Year). So, in essense it would be nice if this can all remain as current as possible by focussing on present (2007) titles -- but I don't think there'd be too much harm in stretching back to the beginning of last year since there will obviously be a lot of titles, both major and minor, that people will have missed, been unaware of or simply not known about.
As a kick off I'd like to strongly recommend Derek Yee's Chinese New Year film Protege, which is easily as strong a drama as his prior One Nite In Mongkok (yes, referencing past films is almost a prerequisite in this discussion) as well as the kind of "mature" (ie: targetted towards a more "adult" audience) filmmaking that I was concerned Hong Kong had virtually abandoned in recent years. It was interesting to see Andy Lau as a deeply troubled, both emotionally and physically, individual since his character is both a major heroin dealer and plagued by the ill-health of severe diabetes. Lau has come a very long way since he debuted in the eighties; he now exhibits great depth as an actor, which is something one would have never expected from his early performances. Unsurprisingly, lead Daniel Wu carries the film as the undercover operative -- though his character undergoes a rather callous, brutal transformation come the finale.
Fans of nineties HK movies will probably be surprised to see Anita Yuen, as Lau's wife, here since she's virtually unrecognisable from the past. Yuen has filled out and gained weight (she was pregnant during the film's production), and facially she now resembles Deannie Yip in her thirties. The film's greatest failing is Louis Koo, sadly, as even though he's one of my favourite contemporary actors here he struggles to shirk off many of the comedic roles he's undertaken in recent years which lends his character an air of cariacture, where there should be revulsion and waning pity generated. Koo, and a ludicrous drug bust with Liu Kai Chi that goes wrong (devolving into cartoonish gory theatrics), are perhaps the only sour notes in what is otherwise another fine addition to Yee's resume. Arguably on a par with Johnnie To's Election 2 (which was largely superior to its lethargic and sullen first part), I'd happily recommend Protege as a very good place to start in this year's more dramatic fare thus far -- it's even a much better film than Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Confession of Pain, which tried hard to follow the success of their Infernal Affairs trilogy but ultimately unravelled amongst its own complexity come the final act.
More anon.
