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Review
by Kozo: |
Hong Kong movie packages don't get any bigger than Jiang
Hu, which has both the fortune and the curse of
arriving on the heels of the enormously popular Infernal
Affairs films. Like those films, Jiang Hu
is loaded to the gills with established megastars and
rising faces, and is a new take on HK Cinema's celebrated
triad genre. Young director Wong Ching-Po (Fu Bo)
was given a big push by producer Eric Tsang and co-presenters
Andy Lau and Alan Tam, and their faith shows some initial
promise. Jiang Hu's stellar look and feel, and
its acknowledgement of accepted triad genre themes,
seem to promise something exciting and possibly even
new. However, if you shoot too high, it becomes harder
to hit your target. While possessing effective triad
drama, Jiang Hu doesn't really do more than the
umpteen triad dramas that came before it. Hell, sometimes
it even seems to do less.
Andy Lau is Hung Yan-Chau,
a righteous crime boss who seems set for the night of
his life. On one hand, his wife Emily (the long-missed
Wu Chien-Lien), has just given birth to the couple's
first child. On the other hand, there's a looming hit
on Hung, which may be on the orders of one (or perhaps
all) of Hung's lieutenants (Eric Tsang, Tsui Siu-Keung
and Miu Kiu-Wai). However, the greatest threat may yet
be Hung's right-hand man and best pal, Lefty (Jacky
Cheung with nifty hair extensions), who threatens to
take care of Hung's problems and even send him packing
to New Zealand—that is, if Lefty has his way. Still,
Hung wasn't born yesterday; clearly something's afoot,
and he has his own cards to play. Meanwhile, young triad
Yik (Shawn Yue) is angling to draw the plum hit assignment,
and his best pal Turbo (Edison Chen) backs him up.
For plot, Jiang Hu scores low, as it's a genre tale that bears no original
storylines. The young triad looking to make his name
is a fixture of many other triad films (killing a rival
triad leader is how Chan Ho-Nam began his rise to the
top in the Young and Dangerous films), as is
the tale of an older gang boss facing his possible extinction
(the 2000 film Jiang Hu - the Triad Zone featured
an almost satirical take on that plot). However, it
should be clear that Jiang Hu is all about HOW
it handles these familiar genre elements. Great attention
is spent on the film's stylish look and feel, and even
the title ("Jiang Hu" is loosely translated
as "the underworld" and has been featured
in more triad film titles than one can count) screams
ultimate genre meaning. Director Wong Ching-Po's copious
usage of slow-motion, rain-drenched streets, and portentous
glances between actors seems to spell genre with an
eye on art. It's like he's assembling all the known
elements in order to spin something different and new.
Does he? Well, partially.
While the promise of more seems to exist at many points
in Jiang Hu, it never fully materializes. The
subplots themselves have their own inherent drama. After
the initial setup, Hung and Lefty retreat to their personal
restaurant to share a meal alone. The two talk about
the evening's various plot threads, and what comes out
is their difference in ideology and what makes one of
them an ideal gang boss and the other one not. The themes
of loyalty, betrayal, and righteousness are discussed
by the two characters with deft verbal precision, and
some of the concurrent action is tense and effective.
While Hung and Lefty talk things through, Lefty's lieutenant
Shing (Gordon Lam) is threatening whole familes—including
the kids. Likewise, Yik and Turbo are encountering their
smaller conflicts. Yik is handed prostitute Yoyo (Gia
Lin), who's supposed to be his consolation prize in
case he gets killed on assignment, but he's more intent
on securing the girl's future than bedding her. Turbo
wants his pal to succeed in the underworld, and is even
willing to give up his own life to insure such a thing.
This is all legitimate drama, and the very guts of many
triad movies. That Jiang Hu includes these things
is both effective and necessary.
What the above drama doesn't
do, however, is make the film any better than the many
triad films before it. Sure, Jiang Hu is home
to many cool filmmaking flourishes, i.e., a palpable
cinematic atmosphere and abundance of drama-heightening
slow motion. However, the filmmakers don't do much more
than assemble the noted genre elements and give them
slick packaging. Infernal Affairs could be accused
of the same thing: taking an overdone genre and jazzing
it up, but the film had other surprising positives. Infernal Affairs featured exemplary acting and
emotion, and a well-developed story that played out
in a gripping fashion. Jiang Hu's story isn't
necessarily worse than Infernal Affairs', but
it doesn't deliver on the tension or emotion. Some moments
manage some decent emotion, but when you consider that
a large part of the film is Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung
sitting around in a restaurant talking, it's no surprise
that a little yawning could occur. Sure, the restaurant
is brilliantly decorated, and Lau and Cheung have cool
hairstyles and tough demeanor, but really, they're just
sitting there talking. Even two hours of DeNiro and
Pacino yakking away in a single restaurant might not
be that engaging.
Even more, the film can't
even make it to two hours. Jiang Hu clocks in
at less than ninety minutes, and this is already with
tons of slow-motion and austere long takes in single
locations. That all of this is crammed into less than
ninety minutes seems to beg the question: what exactly
happened in this movie? Apparently, the answer is not
a lot at all. There are occasional gripping moments,
but they don't seem to occur at the most pivotal of
times, and even the climactic gangfight in the streets
is just one long slow-motion flailing with a predetermined
ending. The actors themselves show charisma (Andy Lau
and Jacky Cheung do well, though their hairstyles upstage
them) and even promise (Shawn Yue shows intensity, and
Edison Chen manages to make a compelling second banana),
but in the end it may not be enough. When the finale
of the film rolls around, it seems that Jiang Hu's
biggest conceit is a narrative twist which proves surprising
only because the filmmakers worked overtime to disguise
it until the very last second. The twist itself proves
to be no big deal, except it gives us a "Oh, that
makes sense" feeling, which isn't something that
necessarily signals quality filmmaking.
Jiang Hu isn't really
a bad film, and it hits its marks fairly efficiently.
However, if you apply a sense of scale, the film can
only be seen as a large disappointment. When you assemble
almost the entire cast of Infernal Affairs, apply
slick filmmaking visuals and big-ticket marketing, and
then come up with only a better-produced version of
your standard triad plotting, you haven't really lived
up to your potential. Maybe it seems unfair to judge
movies based on their scale, but the resources provided
here seemed to indicate that more would be happening
than actually did. As it is, Jiang Hu lacks that
intangible quality that turns screenplays from collections
of words and described visuals into something that simply
leaps from the page, onto the bigscreen, then back down
to the audience. That quality is not something that
can be easily described, and it's not easy to come by
either. However, for a film to become more than a generic
package that's just another movie at the multiplex,
that quality is absolutely necessary. What Jiang
Hu ultimately lacks is spark. (Kozo 2004) |
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