What a muddled mystifying mess of a movie
this is. An absolute head scratcher - but not in a good way - but more like
I can't believe a fair group of talented people made this. They came to work
each day and went home I expect thinking they were making a good movie -
or at some point did they just go what the hell - we have a malformed mutant
baby on our hands - let's just throw ideas into a hat and pick a few. Oh,
go to Prague in the freezing frigging winter for no conceivable reason -
ok; have a music video thrown in just for the hell of it - ok; bring back
a dead person to life with no explanation - ok. Now this is a Hong Kong film
made in 1997 about the End of the World - so no doubt there is all sorts
of Handover symbolism in there - perhaps more pertinent today then at the
time the film was made - but it makes no sense at all.
I had this film on hand for over 20 years
and stayed away from it as I would an ex-girlfriend who stole everything
I had. I heard nothing but bad things about it - like it was worse than a
serial killer in your own neighborhood - but more screwed up. And it is -
but at the same time it is kind of fascinating just because it is such a
lump of coal that you keep expecting to turn into a diamond - but it never
does - it just gets lumpier - though in the last minute of the film it at
least takes on a bit of a glow that left me with a silly smile on my face.
The talent that I mentioned is pretty good.
Gordon Chan is the director who has made some fine action films before and
after this one - Fist of Legend, about my favorite Jet Li film, First Option
and Final Option and Beast Cops, another terrific film. Ok, he also did The
Jackie Chan film, The Medallion which was almost as bad as this one - maybe
worse but it has been a while since I saw it. And on the screen three big
stars - Andy Lau, Anthony Wong and Michelle Reis. That is not bad. One would
have to lay the fault I suppose on the script that was put together like
a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces by Gordan Chan and Vincent Kok - two
experienced writers. I think they had some great ideas in this sci-fi/fantasy/pseudo-religious
mumbo jumbo mash up, but just could not connect them in a coherent manner.
Still I give them credit for trying something very unique to Hong Kong film.
No, not being a mess - plenty of Hong Kong films have that going for them,
So what is the film about? When you find
out, please let me know. But here is the general gist. Andy Lau is a genius
inventor who has invented . . . wait for it . . . interactive TV. Back in
1997 I assume this was high end technology - I can't remember- but now feels
a little anti-climatic. Wow, you can shop on it. Before the film starts his
girlfriend has already been killed in a hit and run accident but he has numerous
flashbacks about her. Since she is Michelle Reis I can't blame him. I have
flashbacks about her as well at times and I have never met her. There are
also these top scientists all over the world dying from strange causes -
such as internal combustion - and the authorities worry that Andy is next
so they assign his old friend and now policeman Anthony Wong to protect him.
Andy literally looks depressed the whole film - whether because his girlfriend
is dead or he realizes what a bomb this film will be and Wong just gripes
and whines about everything throughout the film as he rightfully should have.
Other stuff happens, They figure out the
end of the world is coming because Saddam Hussein is the Anti-Christ (Trump
was not available at the time) and other signs are out there. A messenger
of God shows up. Or maybe he was a messenger from Satan. Or a messenger from
the Chinese Mainland. And Michelle starts popping up for a few minutes now
and then to ask Andy if he is dating other girls and to eat and then vanishes.
She should have been asking why are we filming in Prague? Why is she back?
No idea. Is she a ghost or a reanimation? No idea. But she is darn cute so
Andy doesn't worry much about it and neither did I. It is a near two hour
film that has moments of interest that just fade away and get lost in the
miasma that surrounds the film. They should try again.
