Director: Jeff Lau
What a strange mix this movie is. It can't quite
make up its mind if it wants to be a romance or a comedy or a fantasy or
a heroic bloodshed film. It has elements of all of them and they don't always
blend well together. It was more like – let’s have some action, then some
comedy, bring in the romance without tying them into a whole. But by the
end it felt a bit magical to me due mainly to the performances of the actors.
At times I was thinking that director Jeff Lau who is famous for his scattershot
approach to narrative was trying to squeeze Chow Yun-fat into one of his
Stephen Chow vehicles. But then it finally struck me – no, he was just showing
all the facets that made Chow Yun Fat the God of Actors as he was once called.
He is very adept at screwball comedy as he showed many times, he can be drop
dead romantic and of course he is ok in action scenes. Lau gives us all of
that as if it was a goodbye present to Hong Kong as Chow was soon to go on
his adventure to America. All these elements are well done - the comedy is
silly but funny, the action from choreographer Mad Dog Phillip Kwok is excellent,
the fantasy is poetic and the romance is - well between Chow and Wu Chien-lien
- sublime. Whether it all belongs in the same film is debatable but I think
it eventually works. The action is limited though with a focus on comedy
and romance and I think a lot of Chow Yun Fat fans were not expecting.
Chow is a professor in America who the girl
students try and come on to with a suggested reading of the Golden Lotus in
their room. His father is played by Roy Chiao who wants his son to find the
right woman. He tells Chow that if he says Bon Appetite after dinner but
she doesn't return it, he needs to find a different girl. This is all kind
of cute with Roy getting bopped on his head constantly by his wife for muttering
other women's names in his sleep. But this clearly isn't where the film is
going. Teaching is a cover and Chow is in fact a CIA agent partnered with
Michael Wong. Killers if need be. They are ordered to free a man and in doing
so they kill everyone else rather cold-bloodily shooting them dead if wounded
or making sure they are all dead. They kill quite a few – mostly in the back
including a cameo from Japanese actor Jun Kunimura. I wonder if he knew how
short and bloody his cameo would be. Then it is back to more cuteness with
dad at a football game. Whiplash. He gets another assignment - go to the
Mainland and look for "The National Treasure of China" and bring it to America.
First though he has to learn Mandarin and there is more cuteness to be had.
What the National Treasure is he doesn't really
know. His contact in China is played by Chin Han who takes him to the Shaolin
Temple where he spends his days waiting. Waiting for what. He doesn’t know.
The Abbot is Gordon Liu Chia-hui and the monks are hiding or imprisoning a
woman that they claim is mentally ill. This is Wu Chien-lien who can't tell
Chow where she comes from, where she is or who she is. He concludes she is
a little nuts but a beautiful one. Until she passes an egg through the solid
door into his hand. She has magical powers and takes Chow for a night
flight through the air in the falling snow that is beautiful.
He bonds with the monks and teaches them baseball
and cooks fine vegetarian cuisine. There is one of the Shaolin Popeye boys
(Choi Yue) present for comedy effect. Except for that killing scene early
in the film this is just a sweet mild confection of comedy and romance. But
it can’t go on like this forever and sure enough some other party is interested
in taking her and selling her to another country. Because she is the National
Treasure of China. Finally, the action Chow Yun Fat shows up and we get a
big mow down. As a bonus and for no reason that makes sense we get a kung-fu
duel between Gordon Liu Chia-hui and Phillip Kwok who is a taxi driver ex-monk
in the film. It is a nice touch. Two legends fighting just for the
hell of it.
The film has soft edges for most of it and
you have to wait quite a long while till the action kicks in – but Chow is
relaxed and totally charming and the camera luxuriates in close-ups of Wu
Chien-lien’s face like it is taking a warm bath. She was a National Treasure.
Of Taiwan. When you think back on it though you realize that the film makes
no sense really. The CIA sends him on a mission with no information, Michael
Wong basically disappears from the film, his time at the temple seemingly
has no purpose and the kidnapping of the woman is done so poorly - but Chow
and Wu Chien-lien have enough chemistry to make you look the other way.
