Thursday, October 10, 2024

Time and Tide (2000)

Time and Tide (2000) Chinese Title: 順流逆流 Translation: Forward flow reverse flow




Starring: Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung, Wu Bai, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Cathy Tsui Chi-Kei, Candy Lo Hau-Yam, Joventino Couto Remotigue, Joe Lee Yiu-Ming, Jack Kao Kuo-Hsin, Kenji Tanigaki, Cheung Hung-On, Raven Choi Yip-San

Director: Tsui Hark

Action Director: Xiong Xin Xin


Nineteen Ninety-Five was an uneven year at the box office for visionary Hong Kong director Tsui Hark. On one hand, his star-studded Lunar New Year offering The Chinese Feast was a massive success. On the other hand, his other two movies were two enormous flops at the box office. One of them was Love in the Time of Twilight, which had hoped to capitalize on the success Tsui’s The Lovers from the previous year. Even worse was the box office failure of The Blade, his deconstructionist take on wuxia pian and what would essentially be the nail in the coffin for the early 1990s wire-fu boom (save a couple of stragglers).


After that, he turned his sights to Hollywood, as his colleague and former collaborator John Woo had done and was seeing reasonably good dividends in so doing. After all, the turnover of Hong Kong back to China was looming on the horizon and nobody knew what would happen to people’s rights, let alone the ability to express themselves artistically. Much like Woo (and Ringo Lam after him), Tsui Hark’s arrival in Hong Kong was done via a Jean-Claude Van Damme flick, the deliriously entertaining Double Team. Unlike Woo, who worked with Van Damme when the latter was at the peak of his mainstream popularity, Tsui Hark was given these projects during the actor’s decline. Both Double Team and it’s follow up, Knock Off, were modest successes at best, if disappointments at the local box office.


Between 1996 and 1999, Tsui Hark only directed one Hong Kong production. That was A Chinese Ghost Story: A Tsui Hark Animation. Tsui had previously produced the popular 1987 fantasy film, which Ching Siu-Tung had directed. I have not seen it yet, but my understanding is that it falls in the realm of “pretty good,” with decent animation being disrupted by unconvincing CGI enhancements.


Time and Tide was supposed to Tsui Hark’s “triumphant” return to Hong Kong (live-action) cinema: a stylish action film with the heart that was missing from his two Hollywood outings. The film currently enjoys a 6.7 score at the IMDB, which suggest that he was mostly successful. There is still a contingent of fans who find the film soulless in comparison to his earlier movies. I find myself taking a middle ground between those felt that “the real Tsui Hark is back” and those who watched it and longed for the days of Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain.


The narrative is…odd. Tyler (Nicholas Tse, of Invisible Target and Dragon Tiger Gate) is a barista working at some club in Hong Kong. One evening, he catches a lesbian couple having an argument: one of girls leaves in a huff; the other, Jo (Cop Shop Babes’s Cathy Tsui), goes to the bar in hopes of getting high. She and Tyler get drunk instead and Jo wakes up the next morning in Tyler’s apartment…in his bed. Jo turns out to be a cop and accuses Tyler of slipping her a roofie and raping her. In any case, Jo finds out that their drunken tryst occurred during her fertile period and is now pregnant.


Nine months later, Jo is a few weeks away from labor and Tyler is trying to help her (especially after discovering that she has left the Force). Tyler hooks up Uncle Ji (Anthony Wong, of Princess D and The Big Bullet), a former loan shark who now runs an unlicensed bodyguard business. In a series of bizarre coincidences, Tyler starts fantasizing about making a lot of money and moving the Brazilian coastal city of Aracajú (in the state of Sergipe) to start a new life. Meanwhile, in Aracajú, a team of mercenaries led by Miguel (Joventino Couto Remotigue, of Badges of Fury and SPL 2) is robbing an armored car with a box full of money. Miguel and his team work for a crime lord named Pablo Santosa (Raven Choi, of the Young and Dangerous films and Downtown Torpedoes). I guess all this is supposed to be a juxtaposition of one’s dreams of finding a paradise against the harsh reality of modern urban life anywhere, but it feels contrived.


On one of Tyler’s jobs, him and Uncle Ji’s team have to serve as bodyguards for a Mr. Hong (The Legend of Speed’s Joe Lee) at his birthday party. In attendance is Hong’s estranged daughter, Josephine (Candy Lo, of No Problem 2 and Vampire Super), and her husband, Jack (Taiwanese singer Wu Bai, who was also in Mrs. K). Josephine is pregnant, about as far along as Jo. It is suggested Mr. Hong disapproves of her marriage to Jack on account of social standings. There are rumors of an assassination attempt—Mr. Hong has some Triad connections—and it is Jack who informs Tyler of the assassins. Although Tyler thwarts the assassination attempt, Uncle Ji doesn’t see it and thinks Tyler is slacking off. Nonetheless, this is the start of a friendship between Tyler and Jack (and Josephine by extension).


It's at this point that things start to get complicated. Jack turns out to be a former mercenary from Miguel’s team. Moreover, he came to Hong Kong to “hide” the money from one of their jobs and more or less ducked out of the business. Well, Pablo Santosa and Miguel’s team are now in Hong Kong and need to shore up accounts with Jack. They give him a job: assassinate Mr. Hong (his father-in-law). He turns on Santosa and kills him instead. As Tyler and Uncle Ji were working as bodyguards for Santosa during the hit, Tyler finds himself drawn into the conflict between Jack and Miguel.


Time and Tide is weird in that it doesn’t feel like it abides by the typical three-act structure for cinematic storytelling. Instead, it almost feels like a movie in two halves. The first half establishes the numerous characters, their relationships with each other, and the external conflict involving the South American mercenaries. The second half is a running action sequence that starts at public housing estates in the To Kwa Wan district, moves into Kowloon station, and ends at Kowloon stadium. 


It is also a movie in which the main protagonist, Tyler, does very little to contribute meaningfully to the action. He really is just a poor sap who consistently finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and survives thanks a combination of luck, assistance from others, and pure moxy on his part. He is almost the Hong Kong equivalent to Jack Burton when you think about it. Nicolas Tse actually does a pretty good job in the role, even though he is less of a badass than one might expect the main character to be.


That leaves the action duties to Wu Bai, playing Jack the Mercenary. I’m guessing that Wu Bai was heavily doubled during the action sequences, which require him to rappel his way through the stairwells of apartment buildings and slide around like Sub-Zero while firing guns with frightening accuracy. The actresses, Cathy Tsui and Candy Lo, have their moments, especially the latter. Much like Double Team, the climax does involve a pregnant woman, a newborn baby, and the very danger of the baby getting killed in action. But no explosions blocked soda machines here.


The action was staged by Xiong Xin Xin, who had been collaborating with Tsui Hark ever since the days of Once Upon a Time in China. Xiong had actually done some of the fight choreography for Double Team and astute viewers may find some similarities between the action in both films. The hand-to-hand combat is limited to what I would refer to as “wire-assisted grappling.” The gunplay is stylish, but in its own way. John Woo movies tend to be stylish, full of slow-mo and astronomical body counts. Johnnie To gunplay tends to be quirky in terms of the character interactions, accentuated by dreamy, surreal touches. 


The gunplay in Time and Tide tries to balance “stylish” and “acrobatic” with “tension-building” and “suspenseful.” There are some memorable moments, like Jack and Miguel rappelling of the sides of an apartment building while firing automatic weapons at each other, or a pitched fight between two men and a woman who has just given birth over a loaded gun. There is definitely a blackly funny aspect to the action (see also the scene where the SWAT team commander warns his men about how dangerous and “heavily armed” Tyler is, despite the fact that we the viewer know he has been carrying a toy gun for most of the film).


Time and Tide has style to spare. And it tries to tell a story. And it tries to have a human side to it. But different from other classics Tsui Hark has directed, these elements tend to get in each other’s way, especially when it comes to Tyler’s relationship with his baby’s momma, Jo. I think a little more could have been done with that part of the story. But if you like over-elegant gunplay, you might enjoy this. Personally, I prefer Double Team and Knock Off.

Monday, October 7, 2024

Capsule Reviews - 1976 in film (Part II)

One-Armed Against Nine Killers (Taiwan, 1976)
aka The One-Armed Swordsman vs. the 9 Killers 
Chinese Title: 獨臂拳王勇戰楚門九子
Translation: The one-armed boxing champion bravely fights against the Nine Chu School Disciples




Starring: Jimmy Wang Yu, Tsung Hua, Chen Hung-Lieh, Lo Lieh, Tsao Chien, Lung Fei, Wan Shan, Kao Chen-Peng, Hsieh Hsing
Director: Hsu Tseng-Hung
Action Director: Huang Kuo-Chu

Entertaining, if confusing little wuxia adventure about a one-armed boxer--yes, boxer--who is going around looking for the titular characters to avenge for his family's massacre three years prior. The main culprit behind the slaughter is the head of the Chu clan, who employed nine assassins to wipe out JWY's clan after his dad refused to participate in a rebellion. The film is basically JWY walking around the countryside and getting in one fight after another with a whole plethora of colorful villains, like a transsexual/hermaphrodite monk and a guy who practices the "turtle style." There are several twists along the way, a few I saw coming and a few I did not.

Highlights of the film include Chen Hung-Lieh wielding a Cloud-sized sword; a guy who plays chess with real people for some reason; Lo Lieh with a blowgun-flute; and JWY almost decapitating a prostitute with a tea tray. The fights are fun, if a bit simple (and fast). There are lots of weapons being used, including fans, spears, swords, sabers, sickles, and even a tonfa-sword. My main problem is the dubbing, which confuses the names of two or three of the assassins, and the fact that there are several assassin characters who are 
not the nine killers of the title. That makes the movie a little confusing. The Wu Tang Collection has a clean 76-minute version from a German rip, although another user on Youtube has grainier 83-minute version uploaded, which is the one I watched.

For anyone watching who can't keep score:

Clan Leader Chu - Tsao Chien (The Gallant Knights)

The 9 killers:
Lu Sao Fung - (killed before movie starts)
Mung Sing-Hung (guy at beginning) - Tsung Hua (Super-Chaser)
Yen Hsi-Su - Lung Fei (Bruce Lee, We Miss You)
Fu Pai-Su (tonfa-blade guy) - Wang Chi-Sheng (Revengeful Swordswoman)
Yang Chi (female assassin)
Chu Lu (brothel guy) - Wan Shan (Chivalry Deadly Feud)
Liu Fei-Dong (big sword guy) - Chen Hung-Lieh (Cub Tiger from Kwangtung)
Shao Si-Yu (Lu Yen?) - Lo Lieh (Five Fingers of Death)
Tang Han (spear) - Choe Song (The Black Enforcer)

Other villains:
Lo Pu (chess guy) - Wu Ho (Woman Guerilla with Two Guns)
Wong Pa, the "Turtle" - Hou Po-Wei (Flying Swallow)
Dr. Poison - Yu Heng (The Hero)
Lu Ta-Chia (shows up in forest) - Hsieh Hsing (The Ghost Hill)
Fortune Teller - Kao Chen-Peng (The Deadly Silver Spear)
Tai Li-Wai (sickle killer) - Chin Lung (Heroine of Tribulation)
Chu Clan 4 Killers (dressed like scholars)
Lo Pai-Do (throwing dagger killer)


Spy Ring Kokuryukai (Taiwan, 1976)
aka Lady Karate
Chinese Title: 黑龍會
Translation: Black Dragon Society




Starring: Chia Ling, Chang Yi, Lung Hsiung, Sally Chen Sha-Li, Kam Kong, Chin Chien, Miao Tian, Tien Yeh, Ke Tian, Yi Yuan, Hsieh Chung-Mou
Director
Ting Shan-Hsi
Action Director: Shan Mao, Ho Wei-Hsiung

This is a pseudo-martial arts take on the story of the infamous Manchurian/Japanese spy, Yoshiko Kawashima. The movie is set in the early 1930s, with Kawashima (Chia Ling, in an atypical role) living in Japan. The Japanese army has taken Manchuria, but it's still something of a No Man's Land. The Prime Minister figures that if they can't tame the place before the Nationalist Army arrives, they'll lose it. So, they decide to set up the puppet state of Manchukuo, with "the Last Emperor" Pu Yi. Yoshiko is given the task to help Pu Yi escape from his exile mansion in Tientsin and take him to Manchuria.


The premise is pretty simple, but the execution is a bit complicated. There are a lot of different parties getting in the way, and for their own reasons. The local Japanese authorities, led by Lung Hsiung and Miao Tien, are something of a hindrance to her...although I'm not really sure why. There is a band of anti-Japanese revolutionaries led by Chang Yi, who also moonlights as a cape-and-mask hero called the Plum Bandit. The Plum Bandit is eventually joined by a Nationalist spy named Bluebird (Sally Chen). There is a rival spy played by Kam Kong who's in love with Yoshiko. There is a random bunch of Japanese samurai led by Yi Yuan. Finally, Yoshiko's own estranged Mongolian husband, Ganjuurjab (Tien Yeh), shows up to complicate things even more.

Despite the American title, there isn't a whole lot of fighting in this. There is a fight at the very beginning where Chia Ling demonstrates her skills against a whole bunch of karate fighters. We're about halfway through when we get a sword-and-knife tussle between Kam Kong and Pu Yi's guards, inlcuding Jimmy Wang Yu regular Hsueh Han. There's a gunfight that becomes a sword-and-bayonet fight between the revolutionaries and the Japanese soldiers which is well staged. The showstopper is a huge raid by the aforementioned samurai on the restaurant that Yoshiko runs her operations from, which has her fighting of dozesn of katana-wielding killers with a tanto dagger. It's the best scene in the film, although I can't place Yi Yuan's motives. Finally, there's a final shoot-out between the revolutionaries and the soldiers as Pu Yi and Yoshiko are escaping into the harbor. 

Oh, and kung fu viewers may be surprised that Chia Ling has two sex scenes in the film, although she might be using a butt double during her sex scene with Kam Kong.

The character of Yoshiko Kawashima has been portrayed in other films and do-ramas:

Beautiful Spy, Kawashima Yoshiko (1955) - portrayed by Pak Ming
Sen'un Ajia no Joō (1957) - portrayed by Miyuki Takakura
The Last Emperor (1987) - portrayed by Maggie Han
Kawashima Yoshiko (1989) - portrayed by Zhang Xiaomin
Kawashima Yoshiko (1990) - portrayed by Anita Mui
Ri Kouran (TV, 2007) - portrayed by Rei Kikukawa
Dansō no Reijin: Kawashima Yoshiko no Shōgai (TV, 2008) - portrayed by Meisa Kuroki
Chasing Kawashima Yoshiko (2023) - portrayed by Lynn Xiong

Friday, October 4, 2024

The Traitorous (1976)

The Traitorous (1976)
Aka: Shaolin Traitorous
Chinese Title:
 大太監
Translation: Great Eunuch

 


Starring: Carter Wong, Polly Shang-Kuan Ling-Feng, Chang Yi, Sammo Hung, Huang Feilong, Hou Po-Wei, Lin Hsiao-Hu, Li Ying, Hsieh Hsing
Director: Sung Ting-Mei
Producer: Yen Wu-Tong
Writer: Chang Hsin-Yi
Action Director: Chan Chuen, Ko Pao

 

The Traitorous is one of not two, not three, but a whopping fourteen movies that Carter Wong made in 1976. That definitely should set some sort of a record for a leading man. Carter Wong is a beloved figure among genre fans, and American moviegoers may recognize him as the Elemental who famously inflates himself to death in John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China. But before he took that role, he had been a fixture in kung fu films since the early 1970s.

Some martial arts movies fans like to talk about “who is the real deal?” Carter Wong definitely fit that description. He started studying Southern Shaolin kung fu both Wudan Qigong when he was kid. He also practiced Karate, Hapkido, and Muay Thai. That last one was notable because he was a champion kickboxer is Asia during from the late 1960s up through the mid-1980s. He also served as a martial instructor for the police in Hong Kong, New York, and São Paulo, Brazil. He founded his own kung fu style, Chung Hop Kuen, which is a synthesis of all the different styles he studied over the years.

Carter got his start in film in 1972 with Golden Harvest. His first film was opposite Angela Mao and Sammo Hung in Hap Ki Do, where he plays one of the three main protagonists. He would also star with Angela Mao in both The TournamentWhen Tae Kwon Do Strikes; and Deadly China Doll. He worked with Golden Harvest until 1975, at which point he became a free agent. From that point on, Carter mainly worked out of Taiwan, although he did have a notable supporting role in Chang Cheh’s Marco Polo. Wong remained a regular presence in Taiwanese martial arts films until the early 1980s, at which point his career slowed down and he started focusing on teaching kung fu. His most beloved films to this day include Joseph Kuo’s Born Invincible; the 18 Bronzemen movies; and Hap Ki Do (although that’s more for Angela Mao’s performance than Wong’s).

The Traitorous is set during the Ming Dynasty and purports to be based on real events. The crux of the story is that there is a eunuch, Wei Zhongxian (a real-life historical personage), who has accumulated quite a lot of power thanks to the Emperor’s tendency to delegate too much of his job to in favor of worldly pleasures. Wei has given a lot of power to his second-in-command, Tin Erh-Kang (Chang Yi). When we meet Tin, he and his entourage (including Sammo Hung as a captain) are visiting a little shack in the country inhabited by the exiled General Shang. Tin and his men slaughter Shang, his daughter, and his son. The only survivor is Shang Yung, the general’s grandson, who goes to Shaolin. After a powerful demonstration of stoic devotion, Shang Yung is accepted at the temple as a pupil.

Ten years or so later, Shang Yung has finished his training and is allowed to leave the temple. He heads into the town where Tin Ehr-Kang is established and makes an unholy nuisance of himself, beating up officials wherever he can. His first victim is Tin’s third-in-command (Huang Feilong). This catches the attention of Tin’s adopted daughter, Tso Yun-Lan (Polly Shang-Kwan), who is just the kung fu bad ass that Shang has become. The two have a few showdowns together until it becomes clear that Tso’s allegiances are questionable. We later learn that her parents were unjustly murdered by Tin (at Wei’s request), so she has blood debt to pay. The two eventually team up to defeat the wicked eunuch.

Storywise, The Traitorous is a very simple film. It does resemble movies like The 18 Bronzemen in terms of its story, but is a lot more streamlined. The training portions only take up the first act or so, after which the film is non-stop fighting up through the protracted finale between our heroes and the evil Tin Ehr-Kang. Unlike some of those contemporary Joseph Kuo films, like the Bronzemen movies and Shaolin Kids, this film makes expert use of both Carter Wong and Polly Shang-Kwan, giving both performers ample opportunity to demonstrate their skills.

Carter’s focus in this film is Shaolin kung fu, which was part of his original training in real life. He performs a lot of animal styles in his fights, especially the panther style, which is refreshing. Carter gets flack from some fans because, despite his off-the-screen fighting pedigree, he did not always look great on film. His larger and more muscular physique made him look stiff in a lot of his fights. I personally found that less of a problem in this film, and choreographers Chan Chuen (who’d worked with Carter during his Golden Harvest days) and Ko Pao (who choreographed Carter in The Rebel of Shaolin and Dragon Gate) get a good performance out of Wong.

As usual, Polly Shang-Kwan puts in a great fighting demonstration in her role as the feisty Tso Lun-Yan. She plays down her Taekwondo skills, which had been the focus of her fighting in her earlier basher films, and focuses on handwork, no doubt taken from her Karate training. She punches the living hell out of everyone in her path and threatens to steal the show from the Carter, as she was wont to do at the time.

Joining them are two more genre favorites: Sammo Hung and Chang Yi. The latter plays the second-in-command to the main villain. Sammo uses the praying mantis style in his fights, with low stances and his index fingers extended. In a memorable scene, he kills Carter Wong’s mother by gouging her eyes out with his mantis skills, despite the fact that she was a defenseless woman. When Carter faces off with Sammo near the end, the latter does get to fight briefly with the 3-section staff. Chang Yi, now entering the villain phase of his career, uses what appears to be a mixture of different animal styles, including the praying mantis and the dragon style. He would return to the mantis style for a few more of his films, including The Secret of the Shaolin Poles and Eagle’s Claw.

The Traitorous also appears to be one of the earlier films of this vintage to have people fight in formations. In this case, it is not the Shaolin monks, but the guards of the Eastern Depot—sort of like the Ming Dynasty NSA or FBI—who have a special attack formation set to the beating of drums. The fighters circle their opponents and sometimes form a human wall with the fighters standing on each other’s shoulders. Once in a while, the men at the top will attack with a net to ensnare their opponents. While certainly making for some visually interesting fights, the idea of characters fighting in formation doesn’t make a lot of sense outside the Shaolin Temple. If you’re trying to capture rebels and traitors, you don’t want to have to set up a drum set to get your men fighting: your targets can just run away!

All things considered, I think The Traitorous can easily hold its own with anything Joseph Kuo was making at the same time, or even with Chang Cheh’s concurrent Shaolin films—at least on a pure choreography level. And unlike Chang Cheh’s The Shaolin Temple (made the same year), this film doesn’t waste the talents of its female protagonists. It embraces and amplifies them; it reminds us that Polly Shang-Kwan was one of the fighting divas of the 1970s. Add that to Carter Wong’s Southern Shaolin showcase and some strong villains and you got an indie fu film that deserves more attention.

Time and Tide (2000)

Time and Tide (2000) Chinese Title : 順流逆流 Translation : Forward flow reverse flow Starring : Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung, Wu Bai, Anthony Wong Ch...