Dealer/Healer (Review)
Dealer/Healer
aka 毒。誡
2017
Written by Chan Man-Keung and Sana Lam Wai-Kuk
Directed by Lawrence Lau Kwok-Cheong
The true story of redemption, Dealer/Healer spans the life of a gangster addict who turns his life around and begins helping others break their addition. The story is inspiring and jumps around the years between the 60s and the 90s (thus giving some nice costumes), but even with some great performances, the film just doesn’t gel together correctly, seemingly disjointed with the different time periods. It is a good story, too bad parts are rushed to get to the rest of it.
Hua (Sean Lau Ching-Wan) leads a gang in the late 60s (the 13 Warlocks, which is a neat name) with compatriots Bullhorn (Gordon Lam Ka-Tung) and Cat (Zhang Jin), the trio are confident and powerful, and definitely look like they are going places. Except as we see from the time jumps, by the 70s they are a bunch of addicts low-lifing in Kowloon Walled City while secretly dealing behind the local triads’ backs. But we also know from the jumps further ahead that Cheater Hua (a nickname he brashly takes for himself as a youth) is clean and works at a rehab center helping other young people get clean. Despite the three timelines, there is really only two tracks followed, the youth gang activities are just added as background flavor.
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Meow Brings a Giant Alien Cat Invasion!
New Hong Kong fantasy Meow features a family that adopts a giant cat, who just happens to be a vanguard of an invasion of Earth to turn people into pets. If this sounds ridiculous, you are correct, it is ridiculous. It’s also very very real! Emperor Motion Pictures is the production company behind Meow, and it’s directed by Benny Chan Muk-Sing (Gen-X Cops, New Police Story)
“There are very few fantasy films in Hong Kong and that’s precisely why we made this one,” said director Benny Chan. It was produced on a budget of over $14.5 million (RMB100 million).
Meow stars Louis Koo Tin-Lok, Mary Ma Li, Liu Chu-Tian, Louis Yuen Siu-Cheung, Wong Sing-Yuen, and Michelle Wai.
If the giant orange cat doing things looks vaguely familiar, it might be because of the Mannings Cat advertising campaign that started in 2011, where a cat searches for a magic herb to heal its master, only to be defeated by the herb wilting and then just buying a cure from Mannings:
Obviously very inspired. Meow looks ridiculous and I hope it does well just to help fund other ridiculous stuff, but I honestly don’t have that much confidence. Still, how many movies have giant alien cats shooting laser eyes? Avengers, eat your heart out!
via AsianFilmStrike, Variety
Categories: Movie News Tags: Benny Chan Muk-Sing, Hong Kong, Liu Chu-Tian, Louis Koo Tin-Lok, Louis Yuen Siu-Cheung, Mary Ma Li, Michelle Wai, Wong Sing-Yuen
Magic To Win – 開心魔法 – teaser
Magic To Win – 開心魔法 (also listed as Happy Magic) – is Wilson Yip Wai-Shun next film due out in December. It takes place in the world of magic, so it’s got lots of dudes with wizard elemental powers charging up in the trailer below.
The cast (probably just descriptions of characters instead of the names):
Water Magician – Raymond Wong Pak-Ming
Earth Magician – Wu Chun
Fire Magician – Wu Jing
Metal Magician – Tonny Jan
Wood Magician – Louis Koo Tin-Lok
Devilish Coach – Yan Ni from All’s Well, Ends Well 2011
Magical New Star – Karena Ng
Trailer:
Poster:
via @LoveHKFilm
Categories: Movie News Tags: Happy Magic, Karena Ng, Louis Koo Tin-Lok, Magic To Win, Raymond Wong Pak-Ming, Tonny Jan, Wilson Yip Wai-Shun, Wu Chun, Wu Jing, Yan Ni
All’s Well Ends Well 2011 (Review)
All’s Well Ends Well 2011
aka 最強囍事 aka Ji keung hei si 2011
2011
Directed by Chan Hing-Kar and Janet Chun Siu-Jan
Written by Chan Hing-Kar, Ho Miu-Kei, and Fung Ching-Ching
All’s Well Ends Well 2011 follows in the footprints of it’s four predecessors in presenting a series of couples who spend the majority of the film bickering about the nature of love and then end up all marrying or getting together at the end. The previous film a year prior reset the action to ancient China, but we’re back to modern day and with an almost entirely new cast, save Louis Koo and a few brief cameos (AngelaBaby, Ronald Cheng Chung-Kei, Stephy Tang Lai-Yan, and a billion others!) The story is a mix of several stereotypical lovers stories, with a healthy mix of fantasy scenes and goofy side characters to keep things going until everyone gets married.
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Categories: Movie Reviews, Ugly Tags: AngelaBaby, Carina Lau Ka-Ling, Cecilia Cheung Pak-Chi, Chan Hing-Kar, Chapman To Man-Chat, Donnie Yen Ji-Dan, Fung Ching-Ching, Ho Miu-Kei, Hong Kong, Janet Chun Siu-Jan, Lee Heung-Kam, Louis Koo Tin-Lok, Lynn Hung Doi-Lam, Maggie Li Man-Kwan, Margie Tsang Wah-Sin, Marie Zhuge, Nancy Sit Ka-Yin, Raymond Wong Pak-Ming, Ronald Cheng Chung-Kei, Stephy Tang Lai-Yan, Yan Ni
Mr. and Mrs. Incredible (Review)
Mr. and Mrs. Incredible
aka San kei hap lui aka 神奇俠侶
2011
Directed by Vincent Kok Tak-Chiu
Written by Steven Fung Min-Hang, Vincent Kok Tak-Chiu, and Chan Po-Chun
I’ll be blunt – Mr. and Mrs. Incredible is the best film I’ve seen out of Hong Kong in 2011 so far. That’s either great praise for Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, or a scathing indictment of this year’s crop of movies. It’s both, actually! Mr. and Mrs. Incredible is less of an action fest superhero movie, and more of a film about couples and conflicts that arise in a relationship that just happens to be between two superbeings. And it’s pretty damn good. A costumed period piece that takes queues from The Incredibles and several other super hero in real world pictures, we join Gazer Warrior and Aroma Warrior ten years into retirement as Flint and Rouge, living out their lives in a peaceful village in the middle of nowhere. But fate has decreed that the two superheroes will once again don their uniforms.
The real world super hero subgenre has grown significantly as of late, with storytellers finding the same thing Marvel did in the 1960s, that it is much more interesting to have actual people be the super heroes vs. mythological perfect beings with no problems ever. Movies like Watchmen, Super, and Defendor show real people with real problems donning capes and punching people. Now, the leads of Mr. and Mrs. Incredible don’t have deep psychological problems, emotional abuse issues, anger management problems, delusions, or revenge fantasies brought about by murdered parents. Their problems are much the same as most real couples. Part of Mr. and Mrs. Incredible‘s strength is that it sounds like familiar arguments even as it is surrounded by super hero antics and wacky comedy.
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Categories: Good, Movie Reviews Tags: Chan Po-Chun, He Yunwei, Hong Kong, Li Qin, Louis Koo Tin-Lok, Sandra Ng Kwun-Yu, Steven Fung Min-Hang, super heroes, Vincent Kok Tak-Chiu, Wang Bo-Chieh
