Capsule Time. Isabella, East Meets West 2011 and Missing

A few little short reviews, hopefully some more major movies coming up soon, but for now I have been playing catch-up in my DVD and downloads pile.

Starting with “Isabella”, a film I have been wanting to see for a couple of years, mostly as it is from Edmond Pang.  Set in pre-handover Macau, corrupt Cop Chapman To is approached by a girl (Isabella Leong) who claims to be his daughter.  After an uncomfortable first meeting (which thankfully is put into a more acceptable focus a bit later on), they start to form a father/daughter relationship, though the ghosts of To’s characters deeds will eventually catch up with him.

Beautifully shot, it captures a sense of mood and time perfectly, with Leong being utterly entrancing and playful.  She isn’t the Isabella of the title (that is her dog), although you can quite happily view it as her as it, as she is the main focus.  Full of Pang’s trademarks of playing with time, and excellent, realistic dialogue, the film grows on you after a quite uncertain and fractured beginning.  Leong is the catalyst here, but the real story is that of To’s character, who has allowed himself to be dragged into corruption, and a never ending set of relationships with women (both paid for and not).  He is forced to grow up, and become a father, although the relationship is somewhat skewed due to her age.  It is probably the strongest performance I have seen from To, as he tends to just do cameos, or small comedy roles.  Here he has a somewhat dark character to display, full of contradictions, and I think he plays it very well indeed.

Occasionally heart-rending, and often hilarious, this is a clever and sensitive film.  It’s not perfect, as I really could not buy To actually being Leong’s father (either in age or looks – but then again, we have a spoiler to ignore), but on the whole I find it Highly Recommended.

A Jeff Lau 无厘头 comedy, “East Meets West 2011”, is fun, surreal and actually quite touching addition to his CV.  A bunch of Hong Kong residents (with some recognisable faces amongst the new ones) find out they are actually reincarnated gods, and become super-heroes.  Tie in with this a romantic subplot involving Karen Mok and Eason Chan, and you actually get a film that despite the genre nearly hangs together.

Jaycee Chan gets the best sight gags, some of which are utterly side-splitting.  In fact, for a Hong Kong comedy, I did not feel quite as lost as I normally do, mostly due to the film playing with physical and visual comedy, rather than untranslatable wordplay and local pop culture (there IS some of that as well).  Mok and Chan do well with their storyline, which actually ends up being far more touching than you might expect from this sort of film.

It does however drag a little towards the end, with the conclusion taking just a bit too long to resolve itself, but it was far more enjoyable than I expected.  I liked, so Recommended.

Over at Neko’s Litterbox, it came to light that neither of had seen Tsui Hark’s “Missing”.  I had to resolve this, and I am afraid there may have been a good reason for us ignoring it.  Angelica Lee plays a doctor whose husband/boyfriend/fiancé (I never could quite work that out) dies in an underwater accident, that she can’t remember.  Desperate to see him again, she uses hypnotism and a mentally ill patient to try and contact his spirit. 

It is sadly a terrible mess.  It is obviously trying to ape the Pang Bros. “Eye” films (along with some of their other films), and suffers in comparison.  But if that is all it was, and the film ended 5 minutes after the big reveal is made, it might be an acceptable bit of thriller/horror.  Sadly, the film just has no idea when to stop, and tags on at least 4 extra endings, which makes the final third of the film an utter chore to complete.

The biggest shame is that there is some good stuff here.  There are some excellent performances, some gorgeous underwater photography, a brilliant title sequence, and even the horror set pieces (whilst not being original in the slightest) are impressive.  Its just that they feel like they have all been thrown in the air, mixed in with bits from some other films and edited together very unsatisfactorily. 

Imitation may well be the sincerest form of flattery, but if you are as talented as Hark is, there is just no need to pretend to be someone else.  Utterly forgettable, and Not Recommended.  Go watch “The Eye” and “Peking Opera Blues” instead.  That way you will see a proper Pang Bothers film, and Hark at his peak.