• Mack the Knife
• Man Wanted
• Map of Sex and Love
• Millenium Mambo
• Miracles
• Mr. Canton & Lady Rose
• Moment of Romance, A
• Mr. Vampire 3

Mack the Knife

There's a certain kind of... well, it's not exactly a full-fledged genre, maybe more like a sub-genre... of Hong Kong movie dedicated to the lives of those professionals OTHER THAN cops who put their lives on the line and/or dedicate their lives to helping and serving the public, such as firefighters in Lifeline and the medical profession in Help!. Mack The Knife, in spite of its slightly deceptive opening scene, makes a very fine addition to that sub-genre, in the medical column. When a movie opens up with Lau Ching- Wan as a Hong Kong cop confronting a gunman holding a hostage and proceeding to shoot at him while wearing a wool cap that covers his eyes, you think you're in for a shoot-em-up. But the film is actually about Dr. Lau Mack (see, the title actually makes sense), a dedicated surgeon whose problems with his medical license (it's only valid in Africa) and distaste for bureaucracy result in his running his own clinic rather than working at the giant hospital where his old friend and one-time romantic rival Dr. Jaw presides. But when several cases conspire to bring the two back together, their dedication to their profession takes center stage as they have to help such needy folk as the sister of the woman they both loved and lost to bone cancer, who has now developed the disease herself, the policeman played by Lau Ching-Wan, who has no medical problem but is still in need of their help, Dr. So, a protege of Dr. Jaw, who faces a crisis of self-confidence, and Dr. Lau's old mentor, now very aged and seemingly with not much time left to live. The characters are all fascinating, their problems real, the actors superb, and the film manages to constantly side-step soap opera, which would be a very easy trap for it to fall into. The film is so well-done you don't even much mind the sequences set in a very strange church in which the preacher turns up wearing an aviator's outfit, and the choir sings the old Everly Brothers hit Let It Be Me. (That's not to say it isn't very odd, but hey, the movie can use a little comic relief). As outstanding as all the players, lead and supporting, are, special mention should be made of the under-rated Richard Ng as Lau's mentor. He starts out as (excellent) comic relief himself, then his character edges into pathos, and he's never out of step with the emotional tone needed (he's also unrecognizable at first underneath some very effective old age make-up). Mack The Knife is yet another high-quality release from the folks at United Film-makers Organization (UFO), who also gave us perhaps best Hong Kong romance ever made, Comrades: Almost A Love Story. Mack The Knife might not be EXACTLY on that level, but it's still mighty good.

Directed by Lee Chi-Ngai. Starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Alex To, Andy Hui, Christy Chung, Lau Ching-Wan and Law Kar-Ying. (Review written: 8/23/02)

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Man Wanted

Here's a movie that gives us some startling new concepts: the boyhood friends who grow up to work on opposite sides of the law and wind up having to have a big final confrontation, the two men in love with the same woman, a situation which will lead to disaster for one or both of them, a man with a steady relationship besieged by the attentions of a woman determined to have him (and maybe returning those feelings). What's that, you say? None of these concepts are new and we've seen more than our share of movies based on each of them? Well, yes, that's true, but familiar premises have been the basis of many a great movie in the past. In this case, however, it really is deja vu all over again. That's all the more dissappointing considering the bunch of A-list talent assembled here. Their efforts are in service of a story in which Officer Lok Wan Hwa seems to have ending the career of arch criminal Feng in a fiery car crash, and begins that tentative relationship with Yung, Feng's girlfriend, when Feng miraculously returns... intending to destroy not just Lok but, first, everyone and everything he loves. There's certainly the potential for heavy hitting emotions here, but you'll probably wind up playing a game of "spot the rip-off" to maintain interest... this scene came from John Woo, this one from Ringo Lam, this one from Quentin Tarrantino, and so on. If all you're looking for is a movie with a lot of cars chasing each other and stuff blowing up, you've come to the right place. If you're looking for something with a little more substance, you'd be better off with something by any of this film's obvious sources.

Starring Simon Yam, Yu Rong Guang, Christy Chung, Eileen Tung, Law Kar-Ying and Cherie Chan Kai Tai, directed by Benny Chan. (Now, shouldn't all those people together have been able to make a good movie?)

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Map of Sex and Love

Like Leaving In Sorrow, this is another digital movie, but transferred to film, so it looks more "traditional". Also like that film and a number of others in this showcase, it tells the stories of a number of different characters, though they (two men and a woman) remain on screen together virtually the whole time, and the emphasis of the storyline shifts from time to time to spotlight one of them. There's a theme connecting all the stories: the need to come to terms with things in our past we'd like to forget, but that have to be faced and dealt with if we want to move on. A gay man recalls how a school counselor tried to force him to change his "perversion" in his teenage years; his partner, a documentary film-maker, has to face up to possible evil deeds on the part of his father, and their female friend has to confront a traumatic incident during her travels in Europe. All good stories (well, most) are as universal as they are personal, and this movie will remind the audience that all of us CAN have a new world of possibilities open to us... if we're willing to get rid of some of our emotional baggage.

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Millenium Mambo

Hao Hsaio-hsien, director of Flowers Of Shanghai, returns with a story of urban alienation among contemporary youth. Not an uncommon theme, and the subject of a number of other films in this showcase, but there are many ways to tell these kinds of tales, and this film is one of a kind. Instead of a story about people trying but failing to connect and commit, Millenium Mambo is about a group of people who aren't really sure they want to connect. Vicky (Shu Qi) lives with Hao-hao (Tuan Chun-hao) in what would appear to be a serious romantic relationship, but Vicky feels no real deep attachment to Hao-hao and is planning to leave him when the time is right, while Hao-hao is possessed by a raging jealousy, rummaging through her purse and going over her phone bills, always looking for evidence of the affair he's convinced is going on, while he pulls various illegal scams and cons to make ends meet. When Vicky meets Jack, who offers her free room and board, she thinks she's found her way to freedom and away from Hao-hao, but Jack isn't all he seems. This is a story about a group of characters who are just a short step away from happiness and fulfilment, if they could just reach out to someone else. But are they able to... and do they want to badly enough? See Millenium Mambo and find out...

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Miracles (aka., Mr. Canton & Lady Rose)

Jackie Chan writes, directs and stars in the film that he's often said is one of his two or three personal favorites of his own movies. It's not exactly the same Jackie that you've seen in Drunken Master II or Project A, but anyone coming to the film with an open mind and a willingness to explore all the different sides of his talents shouldn't go away dissappointed. It's essentially a remake of the Frank Capra film Lady For A Day, which Capra himself remade as Pocketful Of Miracles. Jackie plays a young innocent who comes to Hong Kong from Canton, and in his first hour in town manages, through circumstances too complicated to get into here, finds himself the head of a local criminal gang. Of course, Jackie is no criminal, and his attempts to steer his new cohorts into a different direction, plus conflicts with rival gangs and the police, add up to a movie filled with action, comedy, music, and a somewhat more elegant and refined Jackie Chan. And fans of the "traditional" Chan don't need to worry... from time to time he throws in a few of the kinds of fight scenes he's known for, including a couple of his best. In short, whatever you might want to see in a Jackie Chan film, this movie has probably got it.

Director: Jackie Chan (1989)

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A Moment of Romance

When motorcycle gang member Ah Wah takes a young woman named JoJo hostage to escape the cops, he has no idea what kind of danger he's getting into, and she has no idea what danger SHE'S getting into by falling in love with him. A lot of people's lives are going to get turned upside-down in this Hong Kong version of The Fast & The Furious with motorcycles.

Andy Lau has one of his better roles in this action-packed romance. As Ah Wah, he's convincingly tough to make you believe he can cut it alongside the lethal characters who make up his gang of illegal bike racers, even when they go up against such dangerous characters as the triads... and at the same time, it doesn't strain credibility when he begins romancing JoJo and seems like a nice, sweet guy. Wu Chien Lin as JoJo does a fine job as well, and the script manages to balance their romance with the dangerous side of Ah Wah's life so well that people watching the film for just one aspect or the other of the story should both be satisfied. That said, the motorcycle gang side of things is certainly more heavily populated, and a number of the characters are quite memorable, in particular Trumpet, leader of a triad gang who causes a special amount of trouble in Ah Wah's life... a lot of villains are nasty, but few are as downright evil as Trumpet. Some of the plot elements are a bit predictable (it won't be surprising if you can see some of it coming long before it happens), but for once that doesn't seem like the result of lazy story-telling... the inevitability of the tragedy doesn't make it any less tragic, and this is one of those films where you'll be wanting to tell a character "No, don't do that!" not because it would be stupid, but because you want to see them make it to the final scene.

A Moment Of Romance may not be Shakespearean drama, but it's a fine example of the kind of movie it is, and has become enough of a "landmark" in Hong Kong pop cinema to have not only launched its own genre, but to be referred to by title by the characters in various other films. Watch it, and you'll find out why.

Also starring Ng Man Tat, directed by Benny Chan, and featuring quite an assortment of big names as one sort of producer or another, among them Johnny To, Wong Jing and Ringo Lam.

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Mr. Vampire 3

In this installment of the Mr. Vampire series, Lam Ching Ying (it's a Mr. Vampire movie, OF COURSE Lam Ching Ying is in it) and his students face vampire evil on any number of different fronts. We learn that the spirits of children who have been aborted cannot always go directly to the afterlife, and if they fail to do so after several rebirths, they can become very angry and evil.... and may even be reborn as vampires (a pregnant woman in this story actually has her vampiric son-to-be controlling the minds of humans from within the womb... even when you SEE it you won't believe it). Plus, there's a general who's been "poisoned" by his vampire father, and wants Ying to cure him before he becomes one of the undead for good. And as if this isn't enough, a local spiritualist, Birdy (Sandra Ng), whom Ying has no interest in, is determined to make him hers whether he cares to be or not. The movie isn't quite up the the fear standards of "Mr. Vampire I", but at least it avoids all the overpowering cutesiness of the second film, and in addition to some truly scary moments is filled with the kind of slapstick whackiness and bad puns that you just never see in American horror films (though they would be much more interesting if you did). How bad are the jokes? Well, Birdy is taken aback she asks a man trying to communicate with his late wife what her name was and is told "None Of Your Business"... until she's informed that's really her name... first name, "Noneof", last name "Business". The combination of all these elements really ought not to work... but this is a Mr. Vampire movie, remember, where you jump in fright one moment, groan from a horrible joke the next, and thoroughly enjoy the whole improbable mix, even as you might wonder why. If only western horror films were this much fun.

Also starring Ricky Hu, Tsien Su Po and Lau Lam Kwong. Directed by Ricky Lau.

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