The Black Morning Glory
Director: Casey Chan
Year: 1993
Rating: 5.0
If you were to
choose one of the top Hong Kong actresses from the 1990s to play a hired
killer, Michelle Reis would likely not be anywhere on that list. Elegant,
stylish and classy with a face that countries would go to war for come to
mind but not a cold-blooded killer. But this was Hong Kong and during that
period every actress had to be involved in the action – either giving it
or receiving it. No matter how big a star you were at some point you had
to be a killer. Anita, Brigitte, Maggie, Chingmy – it didn’t matter. They
could wallop it out of the park in dramatic roles but part of being a Hong
Kong actress was doing everything that was called for. None of this – oh,
I only do drama stuff. So it caught up with Michelle as well. She had been
Miss Hong Kong in 1988, then a model, in ads and finally in film. She appeared
in a number of top films – the Fong Sai-yuk two-parter, Swordsman II, A Kid
from Tibet and now it was time to be a killer. With that pouty face? Sure,
why not. I guess she acquitted herself well enough that she played another
killer a year later in The Other Side of the Sea, which I recall as being
a better film than this one. And Wong Kar-wai picked her not to be a killer,
but an agent for a killer in Fallen Angels.
This film has a lot of potential and begins
with promise but director Casey Chan then takes her feet off the accelerator
and lets the film coast for much of its running time till near the end. Casey
was a female director at a time when that was still fairly unusual – and
I expect still is. She formed Gold Harbour International and directed a few
films before venturing into other aspects of the film business. But she seems
much more interested in the dramatic aspects of this film than the action.
Which is fair but after the tease (two separate kills) in the beginning sets-up
our expectations, we keep waiting for more and it is a long time coming.
She needed to figure out a way to fit in another couple of action scenes
even if that wasn’t what she wanted the film to be. Play to your audience.
It begins with Michelle Reis as Ting a well-known
fashion designer giving a show in her home base of Tokyo. She has a creep
for a boyfriend, Ken (Lester Chan) who goes around slapping models and Ting.
Why she is with him never makes sense
but also not worth worrying about because Ting isn’t around for long. Unknown
to her, Ken is trafficking in counterfeit dollars. She accidentally takes
the digital file of the bill and refuses to return it because it is illegal.
Ken being a shit of a boyfriend calls in a killer who shoots Ting through
the head. Goodbye Ting. Goodbye Michelle. Well, not quite. Turns out her
killer is Fan Yin, an exact lookalike and that the two of them had been good
friends as small children. I hate when that happens. Of all the people I
have to kill, what are the chances. Fan had been kidnapped as a child and
the old story of them training her to be an expert killer takes place. The
third leg of that childhood friendship was Michael (Lau Sek-ming) who is
now a prosecutor in Hong Kong. His best buddy is a cop played by Waise Lee.
When Fan realizes who she killed, she freaks
out and decides to go to Hong Kong and pretend she is Ting. She meets up
with Michael who has kept in touch with Ting all these years but somehow
can’t figure out that this isn’t Ting. Ting has the digital file and you
know it is just a matter of time before the bad guys come for it. They take
their time. A lot of time and meanwhile our loving couple are in Sai Kung,
called the Back Garden of Hong Kong, just soaking up the sun, the fresh air
and each other. You know exactly where this has to go but it is a slow bus
ride. When Ken shows up I appreciated him going from Cantonese to English
with “I’ll squeeze your balls inside out” and then blows smoke in the face
of Michael. Squeeze my balls inside out if you have to but don’t blow smoke
in my face. That is just rude.
Some idle gossip here because why not. In
film it is hard to discern Michelle as a killer but in real life she sure
had the killer instinct. She had an affair with a married Hong Kong billionaire
and then married another. Of course, it seems that is expected from Hong
Kong actresses. They either marry another movie star or a fabulously wealthy
man. And then retire living the good life. Michelle though actually retired
before she met up with Mr. Billionaire with her last film being Miss Du Shi
Niang in 2003 and not being married till 2008. I think she had some very
rewarding deals with a few high end brands. This year I just read she almost
died from complications of breathing and her heart and had to be rushed to
the hospital where the doctors said she would have died if she had waited
any longer. That would have been tragic.
