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Film: Sparrow
Year of production: 2008
UK Release date: 9th May 2011
Distributor: Terracotta
Certificate: 15
Running time: 87 mins
Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Simon Yam, Kelly Lin, Lam Ka-tung, Lo Hoi-pang, Law Wing-cheong
Genre: Comedy/Crime/Drama/Romance
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese/Mandarin
Review by: Daryl Wing
The 'Jerry Bruckheimer of Hong Kong', Johnnie To has enjoyed a startling career to date, ending the 1990s on a high before suffocating in the creative and financial lull endured by a struggling Hong Kong film industry in 2001. Hitting form again with the release of award winner Running On Karma (2003), Breaking News (2004) and Throw Down (2004), the prolific auteur then delivered the mighty Election (2005) and its follow up. Not afraid to venture into the world of comedy, crime-caper Sparrow attempts to merge the criminal world with humour and romance, but will a tale about pickpockets falling for the same mysterious woman leave an audience feeling short changed?
A band of pick-pockets (‘sparrow’ in Hong Kong slang) are enjoying a profitable year when their corrupt world is disrupted by the sudden appearance of a beautiful and mysterious lady, who has the nerve to turn the tables on them.
Following her trail, the pick-pockets are led to a face-off on the streets of Hong Kong with a rival pick-pocket gang, with both gangs vying for the possession of this enigmatic lady.
As both sides struggle to decide who she plans to side with, revelations about her past reveal a sweeter side to her personality, and a hidden yearning for freedom…
An avian attack in waiting then, with hundreds of starved cynics perched on the edge of their seats, claws freshly sharpened, all waiting silently for any false move so they could take to the sky and begin their savage assault on one of Honk Kong’s most consistent directors – and Sparrow disappointingly allows them all to scratch his eyes out, despite bearing a vivid hallmark of good intent.
It houses all the trappings of a decent gambol across the innocent pastures cultivated by some of Hollywood’s greats from the 1950s and ‘60s. So much so, in fact, if Sparrow starred Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, you would probably appreciate its little oddities far more. The problem is that Johnnie To appears to have lost himself in such a sugar-coated world that he failed to construct a plot that can’t be written down on the back of a postage stamp.
Overpopulated with thinly-drawn characters (and over familiar casting), it’s hindered by a cheap impersonation of Hitchcock’s worst material, and suffers from a director keen to stamp his authority all over key scenes whilst forgetting the rest. The introduction neatly pulls the viewer into this world of over indulgence – and it also sets the stage of expectation at a level the ensuing 80-minutes fail to meet.
It’s difficult to work out whether or not the pacing is deliberately sluggish, because just as scenes start to sag, To does something quite magical, upping the ante, not to mention the interest levels. With a Breakfast At Tiffany’s vibe running throughout, impressive moments include our main protagonist being outsmarted by a girl who can clearly drink until the cows come home, an amusing escape in a crowded lift, To’s obsession with dressing his male leads in ladies rags continuing with a tense massage scene, and the visually poetic finale in the rain with a handful of umbrellas. They may not be searching for a ginger cat, there’s no kiss in the downpour, and it may not make a great deal of sense to western viewers, if to anyone at all, but it’s certainly captivating, and easily the highlight of the film – if indeed you make it that far.
Whether a few minutes of pleasure justifies enduring the other 80 minutes is debatable however, because it takes an eternity for the plot to find its feet, tripped up by an unexplained interest in photography, a cigarette smoking scene about as erotic as kissing an ashtray, To trying to convince the audience that men on crutches can climb ladders just as easily as those without (in fact, they can do everything just as well), an unpaid set-up involving a café owner that laughs at his customers, and not enough back-story or characterisation to convince us that the heroine/villain deserves such puppy-eyed adulation.
In its favour, Sparrow is able to walk a careful line between nostalgic crime-caper trappings (the damsel in distress, the sophisticated charmer, quirky side-kicks and goofy innocence) and modern, crime-riddled realism, even if it does frustrate with a fanciful feathered friend who is only too happy to be a flying metaphor. Where is that ginger cat when you need it? How it all ties together is anyone’s guess, and how the journey wasn’t as painful as this review sounds is a bigger crime than those witnessed throughout; in any case, it’s visually satisfying and bizarrely intriguing, with performances impossible to assess and a dreamlike experience suited to Sunday afternoon viewing.
Nestling snugly between his successes and failures, Johnnie To’s Sparrow almost falls fowl of the audience with a film that never really takes flight, and yet has enough magic to carry you through to its fascinating and equally perplexing finale. DW
Daily proceedings of a band of pick-pockets (‘sparrow’ in Hong Kong slang) are disrupted by the sudden appearance of a beautiful and mysterious lady, who turns the tables on them.
Following her trail, the pick-pockets are led to a face-off on the streets of Hong Kong with a rival pick-pocket gang, with both gangs vying for the possession of this enigmatic lady.
A comedy caper with comparisons to French New Wave work such as Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, Sparrow has the stylish trademarks of a Johnnie To film, with a wonderful jazz-tinged soundtrack and a photographic blend of the nostalgic old Hong Kong and the modern sky-scraper city.
Starring To regulars Simon Yam (Tomb Raider 3. Election), Lam Kar Tung (Election, Triangle, Vengeance) and Kelly Lin (Reign of Assassins).
Film: Sparrow
Release date: 15th April 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 87 mins
Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Simon Yam, Kelly Lin, Lam Ka-tung, Lo Hoi-pang, Law Wing-cheong
Genre: Comedy/Crime/Drama/Romance
Studio: Terracotta
Format: Cinema
Country: Hong Kong
Film: Mad Detective
Release date: 3rd November 2008
Certificate: 18
Running time: 89 mins
Director: Johnnie To & Wai Ka-Fai
Starring: Lau Ching-Wan, Andy On, Lam Ka Tung, Kelly Lin, Lee Kwok-Lun Lee
Genre: Action/Crime/Thriller
Studio: Eureka!
Format: DVD
Country: Hong Kong
Prolific director Johnnie To (Election, Exiled) collaborating with Wai Ka-Fai delivers an inventive spin on the police crime thriller in the form of a raving mad detective who can see inner personalities and endures mental and physical extremes in order to solve cases in the highest grossing Hong Kong film of 2007.
It is clear from the very beginning of the film just how mad our ‘mad detective’, Bun, is. The opening scene shows him tackling a homicide in which a student was stabbed to death and stuffed into a suitcase. Bun stabs the carcass of a pig repeatedly with a knife as colleagues look on before instructing new recruit Ho to hurl him down three flights of steps in a suitcase. He then leaps out of the case and solves the crime on the spot. In the following scene, as the boss is applauded by colleagues at the police station upon his retirement, Bun slices off his own ear and offers it to him as a token.
Jump forward eighteen months, and Bun has been discharged for his crazy behaviour. The main plot of the film then revolves around the disappearance of a detective named Wong, and consequent armed robberies and murders carried-out with his gun. The main suspect is Wong’s partner, Chi-wai, who was with Wong on a stake-out the night he disappeared. The detective put in charge of the case, Ho, turns to disgraced ‘mad detective’ Bun to help him find out the truth.
While at first he admires Bun’s subversive methods, as he gets closer to the truth, Ho becomes suspicious and scared, and thinks Bun is just imagining everything and putting his career at risk. By now Bun has his teeth into the case - and refuses to let go…
Mad Detective could have so easily been just another of the formulaic police crime thrillers that Hong Kong churns out by the dozen. Instead, Bun’s ability to see inner personalities provides freshness and originality, as the audience is never quite sure what he is going to see or do next. He is a highly likable character brilliantly played by Lau Ching-Wan, who gets the delicate blend of madness and pathos just right. He wears the same grey suit in every scene, with trouser legs that come down to the top of his ankles, and sports scruffy black hair and a bandage on his head. He looks like the misfit he is. As a spectator, you can’t help but like him and pity him, while all the time thinking what a total loon he is.
Bun’s madness doesn’t end there. It transpires that Bun is able to see the inner personalities of other people, or thinks he sees them. The more complex and conflicted a person is, the more inner personalities he or she has. Bun sees seven personalities within suspect Chi-wai, including a cowardly fat man and an attractive, intelligent woman who tells Chi-wai what to say. There is a flashback seen in the film showing how these personalities affect the behaviour of the character, and this is a constant theme in the narrative.
Bun also sees and hears his former wife, argues with her at home, and takes her out for dinner at a restaurant, even though no-one else can see her. Bun is a tortured soul who appears crazy to the outside world, which is no surprise when his behaviour is about as barking mad as it gets. A shot of Bun’s reflection in a shattered bathroom mirror in a restaurant scene perfectly captures the fractured mental state of the protagonist.
Unlike a number of To’s previous films, the emphasis is less on style and more on character, and thanks to the impressive central performance this works well. That said, and as with all To’s films, Mad Detective looks stylish with first-class cinematography. There are some very effective, well thought-out shots and compositions, such as the use of shattered glass in the climatic shoot-out to show the multiple personalities. The production values are very good, as are the performances, and direction is tight and inventive. The film has a low-key aesthetic with a dominant grey tone. Music is used unobtrusively and effectively.
There is little wrong with Mad Detective. That said, it does require the audience to work, and does not spell everything out. It is a film which is thematically multi-layered and asks questions about who we are and what we will do for self preservation. This is not a criticism but it might alienate some viewers who could find it frustrating. Dramatically, the film never fully explodes and, while the ending is good, you do feel that there should have been something more in the final third to elevate the film to the classic status it very nearly reaches.
A highly original and satisfying film which deserves the success it has achieved both commercially and critically. It is rare to be surprised by this type of genre film but Mad Detective comes across as completely fresh. It is also worth seeing for the excellent performance of Lau Ching-Wan as Bun who steals the show. Recommended. LM
“We're extremely happy to be working with Sparrow by the much respected director Johnnie To,” announced the distributor. The crime caper stars Johnnie To regulars Simon Yam and Lam Kar Tung as pickpockets who are outwitted by a rival gang. The film promises “lots of stylish trademark Johnnie To shots for fans of his work!”
The Detective is directed by Oxide Pang, one half of the Pang Brothers who came to international prominence with The Eye. In The Detective, Asian mega-star Aaron Kwok stars as a private eye who takes on the case of a missing person - the further he digs, though, the more sinister, and seemingly supernatural, the circumstances surrounding the missing woman becomes.
Expect to see Sparrow out in selected cinemas in the first quarter of next year and both films out on DVD in April. Keep checking subtitledonline.com for more information on both releases in the New Year.
Film: Vengeance
Release date: 28th June 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 104 mins
Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Testud, Anthony Wong, Simon Yam
Genre: Crime/Action/Thriller
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: Hong Kong/France
This is an English-Language release.
For many years, director Johnny To was Hong Kong’s best kept secret. Although Hong Kong fans became aware of his stylish direction with the likes of Heroic Trio, Executioners and Barefoot Kid, it wasn’t until 2005’s Election that the international film critics really took notice. Since then, every film baring To’s name has been eagerly anticipated. Last year’s Terracotta Asian Film Festival showcased To’s Sparrow (2008), and this year the festival featured his latest, Vengeance.
Johnny Hallyday is Costello, a retired hitman who now owns a restaurant in Paris. When his daughter’s family is brutally assassinated in Macau, he heads there to take revenge on those responsible. Meanwhile, Kwai (Wong) is ordered by his boss George Fung to kill his lover, who’s having an affair with one of his bodyguards.
Costello’s path crosses with Kwai and a job offer is made – help him find and kill those responsible for his daughter’s death. Two problems arise in their arrangement: Costello is losing his memory due to an old bullet lodged in his brain, and the man behind the assassination is close to Kwai...
There is so much to take in with Vengeance. On the surface, it’s a straightforward tale of revenge, as a father looks for his daughter’s killers. But, typically with Johnny To, there is much more on offer here. Vengeance is the final part of the loose trilogy, which includes The Mission and Exiled, and is another examination of the morals and codes of honour hitmen live by in the world of cinema. On top of that, the way the film is directed, acted, framed, shot, edited and scored puts it on a level of artistry few other films, genre or not, can achieve.
Take, for example, the scene when Costello first crosses paths with Kwai and his crew, who have arrived at the same hotel Costello is staying in to assassinate Fung’s straying lover. The hit itself is cold and methodical – the couple in bed don’t have time to realise what’s happening to them. As they come out into the corridor, Chu (Ka Tung Lam) turns left, his back to the camera. Lok (Lam Suet) turns right, and freezes, looking past our (the camera’s) shoulder. Finally, Kwai exits the room. It takes him a second to register something is amiss, and he and Chu turn to face in Lok’s direction. The camera then gives the reverse shot, showing what they are looking at: Costello, wearing a black raincoat and fedora (the look that Alain Delon made famous in Le Samourai) with oversized sunglasses. Not a word has been spoken. The four men stare at each other for a few heartbeats, then Costello slowly turns and walks away. Kwai, somehow sensing that the stranger is not a threat but a kindred spirit, turns and walks in the other direction, clicking his fingers to signal his gang to follow suit. Vengeance is full of such meticulously staged and framed shots. Even a simple scene showing the gang arriving by boat into Hong Kong ends up being a stylishly shot moment.
If you were to compare Johnny To to any other director, it would have to be Takeshi Kitano. There are moments in Vengeance which reminded me so much of Sonatine and Brother, in that certain scenes would drift off into a moment of complete whimsy. When Costello tells Kwai that he needs a gun, he’s gently ribbed about whether he’s ever used one before, which leads him and Chu into a competition to see who can re-assemble a field-stripped pistol the quickest while blind-folded. When the gang take Costello to get a gun from Kwai’s cousin, they end up using an old bicycle as target practice. The sunset lighting in this scene gives it a nostalgic, halcyon days flavour, and it ends with the four walking off in the distance while the shot-up bike keeps trundling on.
Aside from incredibly stylish shots and moments of whimsy, Vengeance also delivers some great action scenes. From the shocking opening to the exquisite locations and set-up of the finale, the film produces refreshingly new and innovative shoot-outs. Some are so sudden that blink and you might miss them; others, such as the shoot-out at the rubbish dump, are intricate dances of death.
There are a couple of elements which niggle, though. The first is the language barrier. Costello is French, the gang Chinese, so the middle-ground is English, a language they all murder to some degree. Luckily there isn’t a lot of English dialogue – these are men of few words after all – but what there is ends up sounding very stilted.
The second niggle concerns the plot about Costello slowly losing his memory due to the bullet lodged in his brain. In itself, it’s fine, and takes certain scenes in directions you just don’t expect. However, there is one scene where the gang have to remind him why he’s in Hong Kong – to get revenge – and Costello asks, “What is revenge?” Losing your memory is one thing, losing the ability to understand the meaning of revenge is something else. Luckily, the script agrees with me and sticks with the loss of memory angle from then on in. I was still not onside with the loss-of-memory plot until the finale, when it becomes a huge factor in the way Costello targets the guy ultimately responsible for his daughter’s murder. The set-up for the scene brings to mind Brian De Palma. You can see it slowly building, the pieces coming together, until you get a clear view of the whole picture - it just feels so inspired.
Most of the usual Milkyway players are present – the exception being Lau Ching Wan (Running Out Of Time, Overheard). Anthony Wong has never been cooler than he is here, and even Lam Suet manages to look tough. Simon Yam does ham it up a little as the Big Boss, though. As for Johnny Hallyday, his eyes look like those of a reptile, and he brings a stylish stillness to his role. He also manages to act in both a fatherly manner (both with his daughter and the gang) and as a lost, fragile person having to trust people he barely knows or even remembers (he takes polaroids of them at the beginning).
Finally, a mention for Tayu Lo, who did the score. It’s very sparingly used but when it is, a mix of heavy bass and blues guitars fits the mood perfectly.
One of the most stylish thrillers you’re likely to see this year, Johnny To’s Vengeance is a film likely to be discussed for ages by filmatists dissecting each and every scene. Full of action, moments of light frivolity and gorgeous camera-work, Vengeance is a treat. MOW
