Treasure Hunter
Director: John Cheung Ng-long
Year: 2000
Rating: 4.0
Seemingly suffering
from a severe case of Attention Deficit Syndrome, this film wanders all over
the place like a late night drunken salaryman and has trouble focusing on
any character or plot element for more than a few minutes. For the longest
time I thought for sure that it had to be one of those cut and splice efforts
and that two films had been interwoven into one – but in the last third of
the film it sort of comes together in a wobbly watusi of a dance. There are
a few fun moments to be had from this film though they often seem to have
little relation to the rest of the film.
For example the very cute and shapely Sherming Yiu who is prominently displayed
on the cover plays an actress who is having a seductive rendezvous with the
very wealthy Simon Loui. They are being followed in a car by a gaggle of
annoying paparazzi and Simon has his men firebomb them and kill them all.
No doubt this is a much-fantasized action by many HK stars but not at all
relevant to the story and never mentioned again. He then brings Sherming
to his yacht – she first sucks on luscious strawberries and then appears
in his bedroom only covered by a towel. All of a sudden two Amazon females
in bikinis appear at Simon’s behest and attack Sherming with cigars! Fade
out and we never see or hear from Sherming again. What the hell kind of cameo
was that? What kind of kinky fantasy is that? Did Bill Clinton write the
script?
Initially it appears that the film is about searching for gold and we are
introduced to four underwater divers – Chin Siu Ho being one of them – who
have found a bunch of golden items on the ocean floor – with a quick plot
jump to a bunch of bikini clad women on a boat for no reason (amusingly Chin
videos them with his ever present camera – amusing because he was arrested
in HK for videoing up women’s dresses!).
But that plot development is soon forgotten and we are in a bar where Monica
Chan is singing and a group of triads rush in with knives and the four divers
beat them up. Ah, you then think it’s going to be about fighting this gang
– well no - the gang is never seen from again. Monica receives an emergency
call about a mysterious Kim who has attempted suicide – how does this fit
in to the plot? – well it doesn’t – we never hear if Kim survives or not
– I am still wondering. Ok – well then Pinky Cheung shows up moaning about
losing all of her money in the stock market and crying on Chin’s shoulder
– maybe this will turn into a romance – treasure hunters and the women who
love them sort of thing. No – the girls pretty much disappear from the film
even though the cover of the dvd would lead you to expect otherwise. Since
I watched this mainly for a nice dose of Pretty in Pinkster this did not
please me very much at all.
Finally around the one-hour mark the film rouses itself out of its schizoid
slumber and holds your attention for a while as the divers and Simon’s men
tangle over some misunderstandings that lead to some rather bloody encounters.
Even then though its narrative makes some unexpected jumps that leave you
scratching your head like a lost Boy Scout in a red velvet bordello. Most
enjoyable for me anyway was coming unexpectedly across one of my favorite
unknown actresses – Wanda Yung – who had as far as I know retired a number
of years back. Here she doesn’t say anything but is a vicious killer for
Simon and seems to take great pleasure in her work. All in all this is a
film to skip over like sticky gum on the sidewalk – but its lack of cohesion
has a certain low budget “I found some cigars, lets use them” appeal.
