My Hero
Director: Leung Kar-yan
Year: 1990
Rating: 5.5
This film comes fairly
early in the career of Stephen Chow and even though he is the main actor
here, I have to assume that he didn’t have a lot of input into the story.
That’s because there is very little humor as the focus is more dramatic and
action oriented. It’s a bit of a peculiar mix though because Chow often acts
like he is in a comedy – but nothing very funny is going on around him. In
fact, it is a fairly brutal triad film at times. Chow is
a busboy in a nightclub and one evening there is an attempted assassination
on a triad boss.
Chow warns him in time and the boss escapes with the help of his right
hand man – Wilson Lam – who reminds Chow of a manga hero. Chow gives up the
exciting life of busboying (which was my first job out of college) and joins
the triad. His first assignment is to help get revenge on the triad boss behind
the assassination attempt. Chow works his way up the triad ladder of success
and becomes good friends with Lam and Shing Fui-On. The three of them are
like the three musketeers. Along for the ride is a “flower vase” role for
Ann Bridgewater – though from the out takes it appears that much of her
role was cut out.
This is just a film that can’t make up its
mind what it wants to be. There are a few decent action scenes – one in particular
that I enjoyed was an attack from a bunch of long tailed boats in Thailand
– and there are a few funny moments, but the movie is fairly unsatisfying
over all. The portrayal
of triad life also feels plain idiotic – they are just good fun folks who
have certain special skills. Shing Fui-On is a great family man with eight
daughters. But the silliest moment was a pop like musical video scene in which
Chow’s gang is slaughtering a rival gang. Think “Raindrops keep falling on
my Head” being played over the final scene in The Wild Bunch.
