Conman in Tokyo
Director: Ching Siu-tung
Year: 2000
Rating: 7.0
Generally speaking,
I do my best to stay away from any film with Nick Cheung in it. His “wannabe
Stephen Chow” act is annoying as hell and a pale, uninspired imitation of
the original. He always looks as if he is trying too hard to be funny – and
though comedy is difficult it should look easy. Still, I had seen some positive
comments on this film and it had the benefit of some lovely jawbreakers in
the forms of Athena Chu and the recently returned Christy Chung. So with
expectations lower than a lonely guy’s mood on a Saturday night, I sat back
to watch this and much to my surprise I found myself quite enjoying this
silly Wong Jing production.
Like any Wong Jing film (producer), it has the depth of a politician in front
of the TV news cameras – but it has a terrific bright look to it – it seems
to have a real budget associated with it (hell, they rent an aircraft carrier
for the final scene!) – it is effortlessly light and sleek and it is directed
by legend Ching Siu Tung. Clearly, this is not Swordsman II or Duel to the
Death or even Wonder Seven! – but Ching keeps the film moving swiftly, the
tone light and provides some enjoyable action scenes. Considering that he
has to do this primarily with Nick and Louis Koo – two actors not particularly
known for their martial arts skills – the action scenes look fairly good.
The film tries to balance two disparate genres – the manic comedy of Cheung
and the subdued and dramatic acting of Louis Koo. Their performances could
almost be in two entirely different films they strike such different moods,
but somehow it really doesn’t seem to matter – though I would have preferred
less of Cheung and more of Koo. Both Christy and Athena are scrumptious side
dishes in this film – Christy is quite appealing in a self-mocking shopaholic
role in which her linguistic skills are made fun of – and Athena is just
lovely.
After defeating Leung Kar Yan (in a funny Afro attired cameo) in a pool match,
Cheung’s character Jersy declares himself to be the top gambler in HK. Wise
old man Wong Ting brings Nick down to earth by telling him that he is a mere
shadow of Cool – a legendary gambler who vanished from Hong Kong three years
previously just before his big match with a Japanese gambler, Yasuaki Kurata,
was to take place. Nick and Christy fly off to Tokyo to go on a shopping
spree – and after an exhausting day of buying things for Christy they find
a small Chinese restaurant to eat in. Some Yakuzas come in looking for extortion
money – and are soon sent scurrying away by the shop owner with a spinning
flying coffee saucer that cuts right into the arm of the leader of the group.
Nick immediately realizes this must be Cool – famous for his ability to use
playing cards as deadly flying weapons. Cool comes in the form of Louis Koo
– who retired from the lush life after his girlfriend, Athena, in a misunderstanding
left him and married his vicious partner, Ben Lam. They still loved each
other though, but Athena was crippled in an attempt on Koo’s life. Now Koo
can only love her paralyzed body from afar. Nick re-awakens Cool and persuades
him to reclaim his life and his love – leading to the inevitable gambling
match and some good action.
A fair amount of CGI effects are utilized – some of it quite good – the flying
cards vs. the flying deadly dart fight between Cool and a Japanese femme
fatale is great fun – but some of it is also ridiculously phony looking –
such as Cool and Nick dodging missiles shot at them on the ship. Overall
though it is good fun – easy on the eyes – and not to be taken seriously
for a moment.