July 11, 2006

Ngoh taijo hou do Chow Sing Chi ge dinying

Sally and I have been chasing up the Stephen Chow back catalogue.

Here's what we've seen:

  • Look out, officer! - Not as funny as this review suggested.
  • All for the Winner - Chow's breakthrough role as an idiot savant pisstake of Wong Jing's God of Gamblers (starring Chow Yun Fat). Since God of Gamblers was largely a pisstake of itself, All For the Winner seems a bit redundant. However Chow's performance is great, and he has fantabulous support from Ng Man Tat and Sandra Ng. Both the highlight and the worst point in the movie is an extended sequence in a restaurant where Chow talks to an enormous mole on Sandra Ng's armpit. You could try describing this as 'silly', but that word would just melt.
  • Fist of Fury '91 is a Chow attempt to remake Fist of Fury. Kenny Bee does the sidekick role in a dour sort of way. There's a few funny bits, but it's pretty much just arse. Chow's adoration of Bruce Lee can get a bit tiresome at times, and this is one of those times.
  • Then there's the Fight Back to School trilogy. In the first film Chow goes undercover at t a high school to retrieve a stolen gun. After Chow's brief and intensely hilarious foray as a teacher in 60 Million Dollar Man you'd think this premise is good, but the story is surprisingly laugh unfriendly. The sequel, featuring a very young Athena Chu, is a bit better, perhaps largely because the school they shot it at was perfect for gunfights, and the fashions (Chicago Bulls jackets!) gave me a nostalgic trip back to Onslow College in the 6th form.
  • The third Fight Back to School film is completely misnamed, since no schools were involved (or harmed) in its making. Instead, it's a parody of Basic Instinct, with (who else?) Anita Mui in the Sharon Stone role. Luckily for Chow she doesn't upstage him like she did in Justice, my foot! In all, this film is the funniest of the three, esp with wacky hamming from sidekick Ah Lek.
  • The Mad Monk has a bad rap because Chow was at his most ego-rampant (director Johnnie To reputedly took a year off afterwards to recover). In fact it's a pretty good, and the supporting performances by Maggie Cheung and Anthony Wong are fun.
  • Finally, there's Tricky Brains, which involves Chow as a confidence trickster paid to bring down Any Lau. The first half is quite tedious and not very convincing (Ng Man Tat as Andy Lau's dad???), but things warm up towards the end. Andy Lau seems a bit confused by it all. He might be a pretty good actor now, but then he was all at sea.

All in all I've been a bit disappointed watching Stephen Chow's early films. Other early ones I've seen such as Legend of the Dragon or King of Beggars suggested that the early years contain pickings as rich as the mid 90s. However, it turns out that those were the better ones. There's a couple I still haven't seen, but I can now say for fairly sure that the essential films to see are:

[ Note: This list has been superseded! ]

  • All for the Winner
  • Legend of the Dragon
  • Flirting Scholar
  • Hail the Judge
  • From Beijing with Love
  • Forbidden City Cop
  • God of Cookery
  • King of Comedy
  • Kung Fu Hustle

Second tier would be:

  • King of Beggars
  • Royal Tramp I and II
  • Fight Back to School I-III
  • 60 Million Dollar Man
  • A Chinese Odyssey I and II
  • Shaolin Soccer
  • Mad Monk
  • All's Well Ends Well

Avoid at all cost:

  • Fist of Fury '91
  • Lawyer Lawyer
  • The Lucky Guy
  • Look out, Officer
  • My Hero
  • God of Gamblers 2

I also picked up a cheap DVD version of Kung Fu Hustle which featured a Hong Kong-made 'making of' (much better than the hokey US variety), featuring cast and crew dissing the auteur (Chow) for being overly demanding and finnicky. How nice it would be to see Peter Jackson film DVD extras featuring candid criticisms of dear old PJ.

In a similar vein the commentry by director and cast was notable on the mocking heaped on just about everyone. Even the romantic interest was harrassed for having eyes that were too close together. The boss isn't above criticism here either. Long-time Chow supporting actor Tin Kai-Man upbraids Chow by pointing out a flaw in the film's narrative. He's right, too.

Posted by stuart at July 11, 2006 3:45 PM