Silver Hawk (2004)

Silver Hawk (2004)
Chinese Title: 飛鷹
Translation: Flying Eagle

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Richie Ren, Luke Goss, Michael Jai White, Brandon Chang, Li Bing-Bing
Director: Jingle Ma
Action Director: Ailen Sit

Ah yes...Michelle Yeoh. She is definitely one of my...if not THE...all-time favorite actresses of all time. She beats Chingmy Yau. She beats Cynthia Khan. She beats Sigourney Weaver. I'm not sure there are any actresses who measure up to Michelle's combination of athletic ability, beauty, and charisma. I doubt any non-Asian actress (action or otherwise) comes even close to toppling Michelle from her perch. Most of the Asian actresses today are simply pop-stars going through the motions when it comes to charm and inspired butt whooping. I don't think Michelle has anything to worry about these days--she is the true queen of action.

I've had this site for nearly two years now and interestingly enough, I haven't reviewed a Michelle Yeoh movie. As we now move into Fighting Female February, I think that a Michelle movie is in order. Having read a variety of negative reviews about this film, Silver Hawk seems to be one of more the logical choices for a film to review. When you think about it, she doesn't have a lot of universally hated films. Even the few she has still have their share of supporters. A lot of people hate Holy Weapon, although that may be based more on their intolerance of Wong Jing's humor. I haven't read a lot of good things about Wonder Seven, although I haven't read a lot of things period about that movie. The Touch is generally considered to be a grand disappointment. Those aside, most of her movies are either genre classics or at least are pretty evenly split down the middle.

Another good reason to choose this film (other than the fact that it's one of the ONLY Michelle Yeoh movies that I have with me here in Brazil) is that it works well as a companion piece for my other February review: Elektra. Both are superhero movies made within a year of each other and, if you've read my Elektra review, you'll that both function as sort of a "yin" and "yang" as to how and how not to make a female superhero movie.

Before I get into actual movie, I'll come right out and address (and probably attack) the concerns and criticisms leveled against this movie. Usually my logic dictates that I review a movie in the following way: 1) Introduction, 2) Summary of the movie up until around the half-way point, and 3)Comments and judgements about the movie. But let me address the criticisms beforehand. First of all, a lot of people attack the movie, calling it a "vanity project" or "pretentious" or gosh-knows-what. If "vanity project" is to be defined as "a movie in which one of filmdom's most stunning action actresses gets to strut around looking pretty while engaging in well-choreographed fights," then "vanity projects" are what we need more of.

I understand "pretentious" as meaning something along the lines of "self-important." You know, the type of movie that tries to make itself deeper and more profound than it actually is. This is a comic book movie, short and simple. It never aspires to be more than "bubblegum entertainment." No sir. It's simply a comic book action film with a glossy production design and some humorous elements meant to keep everything light.

There have been some criticisms leveled at the action direction, but I'll get to that later. Well, the movie was obviously made on a higher budget, although it ended up flopping at the Hong Kong Box Office. I guess that's not too surprising--it seems that HK filmgoers have always been a trendy and fickle bunch. The movie supposedly did better in other parts of Asia so that's some consolation.

Anyways, this movie starts out the way all movies should: a fight scene. In the very first scene in the movie, we see Michelle as the Silver Hawk jumping over the Great Wall of China in a motorcycle. She chases down a truck and with the help of some high technology, she gets on top of the truck and guess what, she gets in a martial arts fight with the obvious bad guys dressed in black. The first scene sets the light tone of the movie from the start, from the light music to the playful attitude of Michelle as she deals out the martial arts justice. Oh, and just so you know, the guys were panda smugglers.

We then cut to the Silver Hawk's alter-ego, Lulu Wong, on an airplane flying back to Polaris City (re: Shanghai). There she meets with Man (Richie Ren) a policeman who's on his way to Polaris City to be promoted to Superintendant of the Police Department. Although Man doesn't recognize her, Lulu does and we're treated to a flashback in which the two studied together at the Shaolin Temple.

Man tries to put the moves on Lulu, who playfully lets him. That word basically describes Michelle's attitude for most of the movie. Actually, if you watch Wing Chun, that was her attitude for most of that movie, too. From the cover of the magazine that we see and the size of her house, we can only assume that Lulu is some hyper-successful megamodel or something. I wouldn't be surprised, Michelle is one of the few actresses who beauty seems to increase with age. Anyways, she's a rich girl, much like a female version of Bruce Wayne, but without the emotional baggage. Shortly after she arrives, her aunt comes over and tries to set Lulu up with a nerdy scientist.

Their meeting is awkward and is thankfully interrupted by her sneaking out of the house to become the Silver Hawk and beat up some random drug dealers in some building. She does it all before the police arrive, angering Man, who's out to arrest Lulu. While out on some more escapades, Silver Hawk happens upon some thugs trying to gang rape a young lady. When SH intervenes, it's none other than Man in drag (memories of Sylvester Stallone's Nighthawks come to mind) trying to set a trap for her. They get into a fight and SH bests him, getting away scot-free.

The next day(?), Lulu is supposed to go on a date with that professor guy but instead finds his assistant Kit (Brandon Chang) waiting for her. Supposedly this professor is a researcher in the field of AI and is going to present his latest creation to the public. His invention is a failure and the presentation is interrupted by two assailants (Michael Jai White and Li Bingbing). They kidnap the professor and Silver Hawk comes to the rescue. She is unable to save the professor, however and the two get away (but not before a motorcycle chase and a fight scene).

Man takes Kit in for questioning and the two discover that a Telecommunications Company called Shiraishi Enterprises had been trying to get the professor to work for them for some time. Man and Kit then go to Zenda (re: Japan) to question Shiraishi, the company's CEO. When they arrive, they discover that Shiraishi is, in fact, Lulu's "uncle" and Lulu is already on the case. Before they can discover anything, Shiraishi's daughter is kidnapped by the same two assailants who got the professor. Lulu tries to engage them in personal combat, not realizing that she's being watched.

Who's the culprit behind all of this? Why, it's Alexander Wolfe, a criminal mastermind out to conquer the world using mind control. He plans on using the scientist's A.I. invention and inserting into Shiraishi's cell phones and thus being to control the minds of the entire populace. That is, unless, Silver Hawk, Man, and Kit can stop him.

11 years after making the Heroic Trio series, Michelle produced and starred in another superhero movie, Silver Hawk. Now evidently, Silver Hawk is based on a famous heroine character from old Chinese movies in the 1960s (or so I’ve read), although the movie is set in the future in what I’d just as well call an alternate world. In any case, watching this movie gives me another reason to say that Michelle Yeoh is my favorite actress of all time. I don’t know many 40 year-old women that can fight and look as beautiful as Michelle Yeoh does is this movie, but if there are I don’t care. I love this movie and it’s a great example of Hong Kong superhero moviemaking.

I guess you can call her the female Chinese Bruce Wayne. Well, she has an alter ego: Silver Hawk. Silver Hawk is a masked crime fighter who fights for truth and justice…just like Batman. And she has a lot of cool gadgets…just like Batman. And she drives a cool motorcycle…just like Batman. And she lives in a fictitious city (Polaris City)…just like Batman. But unlike Batman (and more like the Iron Monkey), the police don’t like her antics and are just as concerned with catching her as they are catching the criminals she fights.

Yup, what we have here is a combination of Batman and a Jackie Chan movie. Like I mentioned above, Silver Hawk and Batman are alike in some aspects, but the film on the whole is like a Jackie Chan movie: a thin, basic plot which exists as almost nothing more than an excuse for the action scenes. Some people criticize the plot for that reason, but come on, a lot of the same people praise Jackie Chan movies that have plots that are just as simple. In any case, I’m glad to say that it doesn’t suffer the same flaws as Royal Warriors and Yes Madam in having the middle sections filled with the antics of idiotic supporting characters. Yes, there are goofy supporting characters, but they’re not too goofy; I found them to be quite likable. They were certainly more endearing than any member of the cast of Twins Effect 2, that's for sure.

I liked the main characters of this movie. There was a good relationship between Michelle's and Richie Ren's characters, and between Richie Ren's and Brandon Chang's characters. Lulu and Man's scenes at the Shaolin Temple are quite charming and we get to see some of Man's unintentional influence in Lulu's later life decisions. The two kids are a treat to watch. I guess a lot of people find Brandon Chang annoying. I liked him enough. Goofy and childish, but his scenes with Richie Ren are amusing. Actually, a lot of the characters have good chemistry together. Look at Michael Jai White and Li Bingbing. They play a pair of assassins who almost never talk, but with an obvious strong affection for one another. It's cool and it works.

Kudos to Michelle for all the work and effort she puts into this film. The first stunt of her jumping the Great Wall of China in a motorcycle was all her; no stuntmen, no wires, just pure Michelle madness on the same level as that manifested when she jumped onto the train in Supercop. What's also interesting is that she fought every fight in this movie...smiling. She not had to get down all the moves and timing and such...but she had to smile the whole time. That's rather impressive, too.

And the villains? You can't have a superhero story without arch-enemies. Well, we have Luke Goss (Blade II) as the bionic-armed Alexander Wolfe and his two main henchmen: Michael Jai White and Li Bing-Bing. Goss isn't bad; he never overacts and hams things up. He kind of has that dignity that so many Bond villains have...or used to have. Michael Jai White plays a henchman who walks around wearing a pilot goggles and fights with a pair of metallic gauntlets. His girlfriend is Li Bing-Bing, who sports a pair steel-toed boots and a bright anime wig for each fight she gets into. Those two never talk much, but there's an obvious unspoken affection between the two that's endearing in its own twisted way. As comic book villains they're okay; nothing too original or over-the-top. But, they're there more to provide Michelle with some decent sparring opponents than to be the next Green Goblin or Joker. So they fill that role admirably.

This movie marks the second of three collaborations between Director/Cinematographer Jingle Ma and Action Director Allen Sit. The first was Tokyo Raiders, which Hong Kong's highest grossing movie of 2000. That was a very fun little movie, which also got criticism from hardcore HK fans who miss the 80s and early 90s too much. One can spot a lot of similarities in the photography and fight direction between these two movies. To make some comparisons, Tokyo Raiders does have a more complicated and twisty storyline than this one. However, the leads in Tokyo Raiders weren’t necessarily martial artists, so the choreography was dressed up with a lot of fancy camerawork, slowing down and undercranking, and wires to hide this fact. This wasn’t a bad thing, as the fights were actually quite fun to watch. It was like watching super-stylized Jackie Chan. However, the movie kind of fizzled out during the final act, especially in the climax.

I guess you could call Allen Sit and up-and-coming action director. He has worked alongside action directors like Jackie Chan, Stanley Tong, and Ching Siu-Tung. His helped with the choreography for Rumble in the Bronx, Shaolin Soccer, China Strike Force, and First Strike. 2000 must've been a great year for him, as he got nominated for best action director for his work on Tokyo Raiders and China Strike Force(alongside Stanley Tong). While his action direction is every bit as good as Tokyo Raiders, this movie didn't even get a Best Action Design nomination for 2004. That sucks, especially considering that Twins Effect II got a nomination.

A lot of criticism is leveled against this movie because of the fight scenes. Between this movie and TR, one can see Allen Sit's choreography is more ballet-like than the intense, realistic 80s style of fight direction. Slow motion, stylish camera work, liberal use of acrobatics, etc. give the fights a more balletic quality, almost like a "Neo-chopsockey" choreography. I can dig it; I'm always down for something new. However, a lot of people criticize the fight scenes for having no spark or not being anything new. I applaud Sit for making Michelle look good even at age 42 and for giving Michael Jai White a better showcase than his other movies have done.

In this movie, he manages to give Michelle Yeoh an excellent showcase. Her agility, acrobatic ability, and booting skills seem as good as they've always been. Some of the fancy camerawork seen in Tokyo Raiders is toned down and the fights seem a lot more natural. I mean, Sit is no Yuen Woo-Ping or Sammo Hung, but he does give us some creative fights with minimum use of wires (kind of like Fist of Legend, which used them for enhancement and not to replace the actual skills of the performers). My only regret is that the movie should've had one or two more fight scenes where Michelle would fight on a legion of dudes with found objects, kind of like Tokyo Raiders or any Jackie Chan movie.

I must also say that I’m glad that Michael Jai White isn’t wasted in this film, especially after what they did to him in Exit Wounds. I feel bad for Michael. When he came on the scene with Spawn, everyone talked about how good his skills were. We only saw a little bit of that in the beginning. In 1999, he fought against Van Damme in Universal Soldier: The Return. That fight was a revelation to martial arts cinema of how good Jai White is. Two years later, he took on a villain role in Steven Seagal's "comeback" film, Exit Wounds. How was there fight? It sucked. They spend about thirty seconds swinging paper cutter blades at each other. That's all. What the heck?

I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that a milestone fight with Steven Seagal simply doesn't exist. I heard that his fight with the legendary superkicker Ken Low in Into the Sun is a badly-shot and edited mess. I heard the same of about his duel with B-movie staple Gary "Ken" Daniels in Submerged. C'mon Seagal! Is your ego so big that you can't bear to allow other people look good on film? Or do you simply not know how to make other people look good on film?

So, Jai White gets no less than four different duels against Michelle Yeoh and company. He looks quite good and probably gets more fight time than in any other movie of his. He's a good kicker and gets off a good flying kick against Richie Ren in the finale. Nonetheless, despite his small trimph in this movie, his anticipated role in Kill Bill Vol. 2 ended up being a disappointed as it was cut from the final product. Poor Michael, at least Michelle knows how to value your work.

One thing I liked a lot about the action scenes is how much they relied on good ol’ fashioned martial arts. Michelle Yeoh’s character does have her gadgets and gimmicks, but she doesn’t rely on them. She has some batarang-like weapons and rope dart-like weapons, but she doesn’t use them in all the fights. The main villain has bionic arms, but it’s never a gimmick that takes away from the actual fighting, which is good. They’re used to a greater effect then Jax’s arms in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. For being a futuristic film, it’s interesting that there’s no gunplay involved in the action. But on the same token, that’s probably one of things that spoiled Jet Li’s Black Mask and Yeoh’s earlier Executioners: the use of guns over martial arts. Another thing that spoils modern action films is use of CGI in the fights. Just look at Black Mask 2: City of Masks and how that might’ve been a watchable movie had the fights not been all CGI. This movie avoids that problem and the only real Matrix-esque scene is one where she runs up a wall and does a slow motion flip. But it looks stylish in this case.

The big "gimmick fights" of this movie are two "extreme sports fights" in the last half of the movie. One of them has Michelle fighting four dudes suspended from bungee cords (a good excuse for a bit of wire-fu). It's a creative and well-photographed fight. The second is when Michelle and company take on the starting lineup of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers. Just kidding. But she does fight a bunch of wackos in hockey gear before going down into Wolfe's inner sanctum. Those are fairly cool fights and thankfully the gimmicks doesn't mean a decrease in martial arts mayhem.

I also liked the visual style of the film. It is a very beautiful film, much like Zhang Yimou’s Hero. This movie too is color-coded; the dominating colors are silver (natch!), white, and blue. I think this works whenever you have a fantasy or a film that doesn’t take place in the real world. I do hope this kind of visual style doesn’t get overused in the future. In any case, the costumes, set-design, art direction, camerawork, etc. all make for a visually stunning film. Add to that a beautiful Michelle Yeoh whose character changes hairstyle in almost every scene (she’s still as cute as button…or two…an entire drawerful) and you get a film that is a visual delight (one that doesn’t depend on CGI for that effect).

This movie makes for a good comparison with Elektra. Elektra is one of those movies where the actors don't seem to be having fun, there are more gimmicks (CGI effect in this case) than martial arts action, and one of those plots that we've seen too many times. While this movie may be guilty of the last one, it also gives us what we really want: lots of fight scenes and Michelle looking pretty. I went into Elektra desiring martial arts action and when the movie was over, it hadn't even come close to satisfying me. Advice to filmmakers: when you make a female superhero flick, we want to see women kicking butt in abundance, not CGI effects. Why do you think Heroic Trio is a classic? Silver Hawk should've been a classic but don't worry, I defend it with all my heart.

In spite of the criticism and attacks leveled against it, this is solid Michelle Yeoh. It's her movie and no one else's. That's what I really wanted. Call if "egotistical" and "pretentious" if you want, I don't care. I want to see my martial arts starlets kicking butt and saying, "To heck with the bubblegum." The storyline may be ramshackle. It may be juvenile. It may be ripped off from some episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That's okay. We came here to watch our favorite fighting female in action and by George! That's what we came out with.