The Royal Scoundrel
Director: Johnny To
Year: 1991
Rating: 4.5
It could be argued
that Johnny To has been the best director/producer in Hong Kong since the
late 1990s - and it could even be suggested that he is the best globally.
His output in both roles has been astonishing in quantity and quality. His
crime films are the best known, but he has had big successes with comedy
as well. But, in 1991 when he directed this film, he was still finding his
way. He was all over the genre map - a juvenile comedy with Happy Ghost III,
silly comedies with Seven Year Itch and The Fun, the Luck and the Tycoon,
a heartfelt film with All About Ah Long and the hard-hitting cop film, The
Big Heat. Within a few years of this he directed the great Heroic Trio, but
there was still no sign that A Hero Never Dies and The Mission were in his
near future. Especially, if you were to see this film before coming across
those. It is a comedy-action-romance but none of it works and it comes off
mainly as unlikable - with much of the fault going to the young actor Tony
Leung Chiu-wai.
Tony was finding his way as well - he had
two classics already on his resume with My Heart is that Eternal Rose and
Bullet in the Head, but he feels lost in this film, Charmless, annoying and
humorless. It is almost painful watching him looking for his character. He
never finds it. How much To is to blame is hard to say, but it is hard to
miss how little chemistry he has with his two main co-stars and he has a
perpetual smirk on his face. Considering that those two co-stars are Ng Man-tat
and Wu Chien-lien it is a shame. Watching him interact with Ng makes it impossible
not to wish that Stephen Chow got the role - he would have been so much better
- in this same year he was in Magnificent Scoundrels which is very funny.
To was to direct Chow later on but too late for this film. Wu Chien-lien
had already taken on the nickname of The Face after her debut hit film A
Moment of Romance, but this her follow-up lets her down dreadfully. It is
still The Face, but a film in which she is first abused physically and then
gets the wrath of Tony. I just felt sorry for her.
Tony and Ng are CID agents staking out a
shop from within a postal box that they access from the sewers. They spend
the night staring out of the slot and Tony witnesses Wu Chien-lien being
abused by the owner who is her stepfather. He takes a shine to her and on
a few occasions slips out to talk to her. The case is taken out of their
admittedly incompetent hands and given to an Inspector played by Waise Lee.
Their Inspector by the way is played by Wong Tin-lam - father of Wong Jing,
a famous director of films in the 1960s and was to make regular appearances
in Milkyway films. Waise is corrupt and sees these two blockheads as perfect
dupes for a plan he has. In the meantime, the stepfather is killed and Wu
Chien-lien has no place to go and so Tony kindly invites her to stay with
him and then acts like a jerk for the rest of the film. The film jumps back
and forth between lackluster abrasive comedy, a big segment that seemed to
go on forever with Ng's many children, a few action scenes and the falling
out between Tony and Wu. None of it registers.
