Boxer’s Story (a.k.a. Father
and Son)
Director: Ivan Lai
Year: 2004
Rating: 4.0
The good news is
that Yuen Biao has some work as the leading man! The bad news is that it’s
in a film that refuses to pass one cliché by on its predictable walk
to the final bell. Like his character who left the boxing ring seven years
ago because he is getting too old and then returns, Yuen perhaps should have
stayed away. It’s a dilemma – what do action stars do when their time has
passed? Jackie has managed to keep it going through some miraculous personal
drive but he too knows some day he will have to face this question head on.
Sammo has turned primarily to off-screen activities such as choreography
and another of the Seven Fortunes Yuen Wah has made a great switch to becoming
a character actor on TV with the occasional film appearance (Kung Fu Hustle,
Hidden Heroes).
Everybody loves Yuen Biao – his crooked grin and astonishing acrobatic moves
are one of the landmarks of Hong Kong film – so it is especially sad seeing
him get older and looking worn down facially and no longer having those splashy
jaw dropping moves that came out of nowhere and left you feeling agog in wonder.
Numerous leg injuries over the years took care of that. This film – though
shot on video and quite dull – seems to be his play to be taken seriously
as an actor. The action is kept on hold until near the end and the dramatics
are kept right up front. Yuen isn’t bad in this film and has a few moving
moments, but the overall soap opera tediousness of the film makes it difficult
to get very involved.
The film is basically a remake of the 1931 film “The Champ” that starred
Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper – which has already been remade at least once
in 1979 with Jon Voight and Ricky Schroeder. Another remake wasn’t really
necessary. Wah (Yuen Biao) is a retired kick boxing champion in Hong Kong
and now works as a car mechanic for an old friend (Chin Kar Lok – who also
does the action choreography here). He has a young son (Jonathan Lee) who
adores him, but he isn’t really a great father as he goes on gambling binges,
steals his son’s money from his piggy bank, gets loaded and often feels sorry
for himself. He was a champion once, but no one respects him anymore. But
he does love his son, Henry. He has always told Henry that his mother died
seven years ago – but in fact she left them both to better herself and to
pursue her career (as a car salesperson!).
She comes back into their lives when she accidentally sees her son and those
old maternal instincts come alive. She is now married (to Jackie Lui) and
lives in a large mansion and wants Henry back. Gloria Yip plays the wife.
After a ten-year absence from film Gloria has suddenly returned to appear
in a few low budget films recently. I welcome her back – she was one of the
major cuties in the early 1990’s appearing in films such as “Saviour of the
Soul”, “The Blue Jean Monster”, “The Cat”, “Flying Dagger” and “The Legend
of the Liquid Sword”. She got married and retired but all that is over. Ten
years later she is not quite as youthfully exuberant but she is still damn
cute. Yuen falls into debt because of some gambling losses and convinces his
old trainer (Lam Suet) and fight promoter (Eric Tsang – who also produced
this film) to get him one more fight.
Surprisingly, the fight is nicely filmed and decently choreographed. It
almost seems to have been shot with a higher quality grade of film – while
the rest of the movie is clearly shot on video, the fight looks almost like
a real movie. It’s odd because the many cut away shots of the crowd and the
other characters look very cheap, while the action in the ring doesn’t. A
good ten-minutes of the film is devoted to the fight and it is hard hitting
and brutal – nothing fancy – no acrobatics of any kind – just two guys beating
the hell out of each other – generally in close-up or from a foggy distance.
In his shorts and shirtless, Yuen looks to have stayed in decent shape and
at least for a few sweet minutes it is nice getting excited about Yuen Biao
again.