Leon Lai calls to check on Norelco products at his local Walgreens in Fire of Conscience

Judged solely on the basis of its action sequences, Fire of Conscience is, to my mind, an overwhelming success. From the restaurant shootout to the human bomb showdown to the flaming garage of doom finale, this Dante Lam-directed film contains the kind of tense, teeth-clenching action scenes that make you flinch, groan, and maybe even cheer with every act of violence shown onscreen. While the martial arts choreography of something like Ip Man 2 might be more athletically impressive, the thrills and spills of Fire of Conscience are far more involving.

It’s just too bad the rest of the movie isn’t quite as compelling.

Richie Ren does a fairly decent job as the nice guy cop who isn’t so nice, but I’m not sure what to make of Leon Lai’s performance. What’s with the beard? I know it’s supposed to illustrate how a good cop has fallen on hard times, but it looks ridiculous. I know that’s not a very “film critic-y” thing to say, but it does have relevance to the rest of the film. The “Making of” featurette on the DVD makes it sound like the beard restricted Lai’s facial movements. And perhaps that’s why he seems so wooden in the film. And if that’s the case, why bother with the facial hair at all?

Maybe Lai couldn’t grow adequate facial scuzz. Still, if it isn’t helping his acting, then it just seems distracting. I wouldn’t say Leon Lai is bad in the film, I just like my actors to be a little more expressive, that’s all.

As to the rest of the film, there are a handful of subplots sprinkled throughout the story, but your mileage will vary on which ones you find interesting. For the record, I liked Liu Kai-Chi’s myself.

And one last thing: I don’t know whether the director meant it as a comic bit of misdirection or if it was merely an unintentionally humorous moment, but I laughed out loud when Leon Lai glances at something, and we get a close-up of an electric razor. Obviously, it turns out not to be a reference to that scraggly beard, but I don’t know how any audience familiar with Leon Lai’s normal look wouldn’t make the same connection.

Maggie Cheung — McDonald’s Employee of the Decade

Comrades, Almost a Love Story is my favorite Hong Kong romance of all-time.* I love this movie more than Needing You, Chungking Express, and In the Mood for Love, and I’m extremely fond of all three. This Peter Chan-directed film garnered numerous prizes at the 16th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards, and with good reason, it’s a wonderful film. Comrades tells the story of Xiao-Jun, a dopey, goodhearted Mainland Chinese immigrant played by Leon Lai, who arrives in Hong Kong looking to make a few bucks to send back home as well as save up for his eventual wedding to his hometown sweetheart (Kristy Yeung). As fate would have it, our hero befriends a tough, street savvy “local” girl named Chiao (Maggie Cheung). The two make an unlikely pair; they don’t certainly don’t seem all that compatible on the surface, but as you might expect, sparks start to fly. What happens next is a decade long “romance” that takes us from the streets of Hong Kong all the way to New York City.

Who doesn’t love that bicycle scene? Or the way that Teresa Teng’s music is deftly interwoven into the fabric of the story as a kind of thematic parallel? This is, by far, my favorite Maggie Cheung performance of all-time, and this movie definitely made me see Leon Lai in a completely different light.  The most surprising performance in the film is Eric Tsang’s;  he is flat-out is great in this movie. Tsang’s role as Maggie Cheung’s possible love interest may seem absurd on paper (see Wo Hu for a similar Eric Tsang romance that stretches the limits of believability), but he really makes it work. Initially, you think his character is going to be just another menacing gangster cliche, but Tsang (and the scriptwriters, one assumes) give the character a wise, “seen-it-all” maturity that makes him incredibly endearing, even if you’re rooting for a Chiao/Xiao-Jun romance to take flight. His “exit” from the from the movie isn’t just a case of removing a second suitor from the proceedings — you actually care what happens to him and mourn his loss. Speaking of heartbreaking, how about Kristy Yeung’s character, Xiao Ting? A more stereotypical romance would have given her a fatal flaw to make her character much more easily dispensable — except she isn’t; she’s the sweetest character in the whole movie. And that’s one of the things I really like about this film — there are no bad guys. Nobody is a lout. Love happens when you least expect it, but not without a few hearts getting broken in the process.

Another thing that I love about this movie is the way that it toys with you in the final act, especially for those of you who make up the film’s English-language audience. Although titled “Tian Mi Mi” for Chinese audiences (after the Teresa Teng song of the same name), it’s the Western title — Comrades, Almost a Love Story — that makes you wonder if that’s a direct hint about how the film will turn out. Late in the movie, there’s a sequence in New York City involving Maggie Cheung where the music, edits, and camera positioning create the impression that the movie is about to be over — on a sad, but possibly appropriate note. I won’t spoil the moment, but for me, this one scene could’ve easily faded to black to make way for the end credits. But thankfully, Peter Chan Ho-Sun had other ideas about how to end his film. What ensues immediately after that sequence is perhaps one of greatest uses of frame composition, shot-reverse-shot editing, performances, and music I’ve seen in any film of any nation in any decade. And then just when you think you’ve seen all you needed to see, the film fades out to a black and white flashback that both comically and poignantly brings everything full circle. In the words of Hannibal Smith, “I love it when a plan comes together.” 

Introduction: My Top Hong Kong Films of the 1990s
Part 2: Once Upon a Time in the Cinema
Part 3: Jackie Chan, Man of Action
Part 4: A Cop Named Tequila
Part 5: WKW is A-OK
Part 6: Epilogue

__________________________________________________

*I was lucky enough to see this film at the Hawai’i International Film Festival with none other than Maggie Cheung in attendance. I was hoping to take a picture, but just as I snapped the picture, a woman with the biggest hair imaginable stepped right in front of me. And then, with her speech finished, the endearingly shy Maggie Cheung suddenly bolted back into the audience! *Sigh*

With the official LoveHKFilm.com reader poll on the Top Hong Kong Films of the 1990s now complete, I thought I might as well share my own top choices with everyone. The moment this poll was announced, I scribbled down what amounted to about  twenty-five or so 90s era Hong Kong films that I absolutely loved or really, really liked. After consulting our archive and recommendation lists to make sure a really wonderful movie hadn’t completely slipped my mind, I whittled the list down to twenty choices and sent them in to Kozo. Of course, there are so many films to choose from, so even personal faves like Lost and Found and Rave Fever got cut out in the process. Before I begin, let me be clear about one thing, I had ZERO desire to create a list that would be considered as “representative” of the decade. That’s a tactic  we often see in random magazine and website top ten lists (I’m looking at you, Entertainment Weekly), as a few “respectable choices” are mindlessly tacked on to add some air of legitimacy. Well, NONE of my choices were made because I thought I should fulfill somebody else’s expectations of what a top ten (or twenty in my case) list should look like. I went with my head, my heart, and my gut.

The last time I composed a top ten list, I chose to do a countdown. I did so for at least three reasons: 1) I was modeling it after current AICN and former CHUD.com critic, Jeremy “Mr. Beaks” Smith’s ambitious Top 100 Films of the Decade countdown, 2) a LoveHKFilm.com’s reader’s poll countdown was already under way, and I thought that readers might be interested to know if my picks coincided with their own, in anticipation of the final ten, and 3) it seemed like writing and posting about my choices in piecemeal fashion made a lot more sense than crafting an overlong and unwieldy blog post that nobody would want to read. Sounds logical enough, right?

Well, this time around, I’m going to do things a little differently. Not only is the 90s readers’ poll long over, but I just really don’t have a desire to write about every movie that I chose with the same level of depth. Instead of a countdown, I’m gonna just lay it all out here and then talk about some of the films in separate blog posts.

My choices:

1. Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996)
2. Once Upon a Time in China 2 (1992)
3. Hard Boiled (1992)
4. Drunken Master 2 (1994)
5. Chungking Express (1994)
6. Police Story III: Supercop (1992)
7. Days of Being Wild (1990)
8. Fong Sai-Yuk (1993)
9. Fist of Legend (1994)
10. Swordsman 2 (1992)
11. Ashes of Time (1994)
12. The Tai-Chi Master (1992)
13. Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
14. The Bride With White Hair (1993)
15. The Mission (1999)
16. Chinese Odyssey 1 and 2 (1995)
17. King of Comedy (1999)
18. Happy Together (1997)
19. God of Cookery (1996)
20. Once Upon a Time in China III (1993)

As you can see Stephen Chow, the box office king of the 1990s, didn’t crack the top ten, but three of his films (four, depending on how you count) did make my list — I like ‘em, but I don’t have much to say about ‘em. Johnnie To’s The Mission ranks up there, although probably not as high To fanboys might think. And as far as The Bride with White Hair is concerned, well, my thoughts are summed up here in a review I wrote during my first year here at the site.

There are too many great movies from the 1990s to mention, as the Top 100 list clearly demonstrates. For the most part, I stand by my choices, although I do have one regret: I should have voted for Once Upon a Time in China V instead of Once Upon a Time in China III.

*     *     *

Part 1: Tian Mi Mi
Part 2: Once Upon a Time in the Cinema
Part 3: Jackie Chan, Man of Action
Part 4: A Cop Named Tequila
Part 5: WKW is A-OK
Part 6: Epilogue

H1N1? Nah, we’re Michael Jackson fans. Hee-hee!

Well, a lot of Hong Kong-related news has gone down during my visit in Singapore. The big story hitting the papers recently is the fact that Andy Lau is married. Apparently, he’s been dating Carol Chu secretly for 24(!) years, but it turns out they actually got hitched in Las Vegas on June 23, 2008. I guess it’s a big deal because of the very looooooooooooong engagement, plus the fact that Andy promised his fans he’d announce his marriage as soon as it happened. 

After being publicly revealed as a married man, Andy’s been apologetic on that front, while the media has continued to froth at the mouth, trying to out Andy’s “secret kids” (apparently, they’re just relatives) and putting forth various theories as to a) why it took so long for Andy Lau to get married and b) why he kept it a secret at all. As someone who’s no stranger to celebrity weddings, I’ll offer my two cents on the various “theories” that were initially making the rounds:

1) Keeping Up the Illusion

First off, there’s the idea that Andy felt he needed to appear single so he could retain his large fanbase. I sincerely doubt a 48-year old Heavenly King could really be that vain or insecure, but I suppose it’s possible. But do fans really think like this? Are they that mercurial? Let me say this — if your interest in an actor/singer ends the moment he/she gets married because you need to believe that someday you might have a chance to hook up with said celebrity, you are serious deluded. Come down off that cloud, ok?

2) Dead Fans

The second bit of speculation involves Andy being afraid that some of his fans would go ballistic at discovering that he’s officially “off the market” and kill themselves in a fit of depression. Although it’s been reported that the gals in the official Andy Lau fan club are well aware of his relationship with Carol Chu and only wish him the best, sadly, the idea that a fan would kill him or herself over something like this is not a totally “out there” fear. As Jackie Chan found out when one women committed sucide (another made a failed attempt) upon learning of his marital status, and as Andy Lau himself found out in a bizarre incident involving the father of one of his more overzealous fans, there are a lot of unstable people out there. My totally unsympathetic opinion on the matter can be best expressed by Captain James T. Kirk.

3) The Right to Privacy

The third bit of reasoning is that they hadn’t gotten married/kept it a secret because Andy wanted to insure Carol Chu’s privacy. I’m not familiar with the HK media, but I’m not sure how being the “not-so-secret girlfriend” of Andy Lau insures her privacy, but whatever.

Of course, in all the articles I read in which the journalists basically call Andy Lau a dick for not getting married sooner, nobody seems to wonder if, y’know, getting married isn’t that big deal for Carol Chu. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, but it’s interesting to see how each writers’ assumptions about marriage and what it means to be married seep out in all these tabloid articles. I know this is hard for some people to imagine — but you don’t have to get married to a) love someone and b) be serious about a long-term committed relationship.

But it’s a moot point. Apparently, they got married because Andy and Carol want a kid by artificial insemination, which is only legally available to married folks in Hong Kong. So I guess that’s that.

I don’t really have anything else to say about it, except congrats to them and good luck on conceiving. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Fo’ realz?

But Andy Lau wasn’t the only one making news. In the media’s fervent attempt to find out the truth about his maritial status, they uncovered a lot of other secret Vegas weddings. The two big surprises were Miriam Yeung & PR exec Gary “Real” Ting (I kid you not) and Leon Lai & Gaile Lok. And that’s not all: it turns out that Vegas is the go-to place for HK weddings with couples like Liza Wang and Law Kar Ying [link updated]; Lau Ching-Wan and Amy Kwok; and Run Run Shaw & Mona Fong all tying the knot in Sin City. Hell, while we’re at it, I bet Ekin Cheng and his Gorgeous Locks got drunk and went to the Chapel O’Love during their last visit to Nevada.

At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a Hong Kong remake of Honeymoon in Vegas in theatres just in time for the next Lunar New Year.