HK three greats: Lau Ching-wan, Francis Ng and Anthony Wong

I had never been a great fan of HK cinema, although I do have the whole body of works from Wong Kar-wai, counting In the Mood of Love one of my favourite films, and regarding Tong Leung and Maggie Cheung two of the great actors. When a HK neighbour lent me nearly 100 HK films in one go prior to her one month holiday in her native HK, I was not overtly enthusiastic.

I do like Lau Ching-wan a lot after his My Name Is Fame and that was what spurred me to figure out which ones to watch first. Typical of HK cinema though, most of the projects he was involved in are commercial ones with half-baked scripts and directed by those who are more keen to exploit the mass market than to explore the social or psychological aspects of stories or protagonists. Even with Lau on, I found, at times, I was pressing fast-forward mode on the remote control.

Disappointment was however not the only harvest last week when I took one week off for my beloved media of entertainment. Along the way, I was happily surprised and found other great actors and interesting directors. If I was asked now, my new favourite would be Francis Ng, who bears striking resemblance to the late German actor Ulrich Muhe both in appearance and in his intensive way of looking - the way that really grips your heart and made you follow him at all times.

I had watched him on some HK dramas before, but somehow, I had been unimpressed. I was however converted whole-heartedly when watching Bullets over Summer, a seemingly just another one in the action/cop genre, the favourite genre in HK. Checking on the Internet, I realise now that he was by then, 1999, 38 years old and had worked as an film actor for eight years after some six years on the small screen. He looked totally fresh and entirely relaxed in his role of a small time cop who just wanted to committed to whatever his task and at the meanwhile wishing for a family of his own having been an orphan himself. In fact Ng was so good at this head strong character with a secret human and fragile inside that I found myself sorry for his character and wished him a happy ending wherein he could help raise another man's child with an abandoned young woman. Here Ng was the embodiment of understated performance that HK actors excel at. He did not act, he became the character, like Ulrich Muhe in The Lives of Others.

I was really glad and even relieved when I watched Infernal Affairs II to find him allocated a role as the then head of the underworld. If Infernal Affairs series can be taken as who-is-who in HK cinema, then this role, my wishful thinking was, testifies that Ng's screen presence has been widely accepted as one of the great ones not to be missed. Ng didn't let me down in it. Indeed, with a pair of spectacle on, he could easily be thought to be an intellectual - and hence brought out the amazing side of Ng - that he can also excel at roles rather than those run of the mill genre films such as cop-gangster ones.

As to directors, I found Johnnie To to be one to look out for and his The Mission reminded me of Chinatown and French Connection, the no nonsense action genre films that are austere, simple and stylish. Francis Ng looked his best when he was this intense gangster turned bodyguard who had his own principles and committed to his mission whatever it was.

Also in this film is Anthony Wong, another extremely prolific and versatile actor. Unlike Lau Ching-wan and Francis Ng who seem to be, despite their success, the victims of some level of stereotype casting (Lau usually playing the types who are resourceful and would go the extra miles to get things done, but at the meanwhile, easily bordering between good and evil, black and white while Ng more on the harder and darker side of characters), Wong seems to have better luck than both of them in that his roles are always more varied than the combination of both of them.

Overall, I find HK cinema to be in healthy state - there are directors who are constantly looking out for new ways of engaging the audience and actors who are really into their roles whatever they are. I have one wish though - that in not too far a future, there will be more actors like Maggie Cheung who can afford to take a break and look out for quality roles. It is a huge waste to see even the greatest actors in HK cinema seem to be committed to such suicidally heavy workload.

Echoes of the rainbow

I am not a great fan of Hong Kong films, but if I was asked what I liked the most recently, two from Hong Kong would be on the list: Echoes of the Rainbow by Alex Law, and My Name is Fame by Lawrence Lou.

Oh Alfie

This could easily be one of the worst I have watched lately. The original title made in 1966 didn't impress me much, but I picked up the remake nevertheless - for the sake of Jude Law. Not that I am a great fan - this despite his credible performance in Closer, and the 'campaign of many years by a my Anglophilia cineast friend who was so crazy about him that her email address is simply called ilovejude!

I still cannot pinpoint what went wrong with the film, but Jude Law seemed to be a factor: he had not carried the role well by striking the right note of a sheer womaniser with a sleeping conscience. The tone of the film is 'wrong' too: overwhelmed with a moral lecturing for my taste...

A real disaster and the only thing that kept me stayed tuned was the hope that, like some French films, there would be something worthy coming out from a long and boring process. But this reward didn't come. For the level of disappointment, it is in the same category as The Man Who Loves Women by Francois Trufaunt.

Sylvia

Finally got a chance to watch this most poignant film, which treats the subject with great sensitivity. I am most impressed by the acting, especially that from the two in leading ones. DC surprises me here - for his ability to immerse in the role, and proving himself quite capable of a romantic/tragic role.

I am most interested in the sequences that reflect on how their relationship turn sour, and how, in particular, Sylvia deals with it by losing herself into her most creative period of her life. GP is simply sublime in this role as a suicidal poet who cannot pick herself up - other than pouring out her frustration and despair creatively - in everyday life.

Tragedies might vary in forms, but they are also similar in that they all involved people who cannot 'think outside the box'.

The fabulous baker boys

What a surprise find this was! I didn't expect much from it despite the many rave reviews of its leading lady Michelle Pfeiffer, but her performance throughout was simply impeccable, that is, even without the now most famous scene where she sang on the piano. This makes me wonder why there aren't more film of such calibre from Hollywood - super script, great performance from all leading actors, and undeniable chemistry between the romantic leads! And more puzzling - where is Michelle Pfeiffer now?

The lives of others

This is the one I watched first among the four I brought home, and it took me a week before I was ready to view it for the second, third, and the fourth time. I was simply, mesmerised.

Yes, there are loopholes where the scripts could be developed further to make it even more convincing - especially when the captain decided against following his instinct and duties. After all, after 20 years in the business, the outcome of his investigations is nothing new to him? So why change now? And to risk his own career and life?

However if we could push this bugging question aside (more of this later), the film is a super masterpiece - and I could not think of any other words to describe it - other than telling my friends that it is the best being made in recent years.

Apart from the captivating story, and the very subtle performance by all - both on and behind the camera, the core quality of the masterpiece is the incredible performance by Ulrich Muhe, who I could recognise but could not quite place where I last saw him - until my second viewing. This man is a real master of performance - or shall we say, he was capable of making us sympathise with the character with 'super control and understatement'. Hints of dramatic interior changes were usually suggested by a subtle gesture or tear drops that could be barely detected in a small screen of a television. Apparently he is also an extremely intelligent man - as all the answers he was giving during the interview included in the special feature reveal.

It made the viewing all the more poignant to know that the film partially reflected his own personal experience and the fact he died soon after the success of the film - which made him known for the first time outside his native Germany.

Back to the argument that the script could have made a strong case on why the captain experienced change at that particular moment. I gather we will just have to take the director's words for it that he was trying to show the power of music, and the fact we humans are capable of change. From a more personal point of view, I think the change is credible - just look at my father - a hardcore communist who must have done a lot of damages in his career as a political instructor and army representative. But because of his integrity (yes, it is there despite everything said about a communist) and his belief in the greater good, I imagine he is also a 'whistle blower' who was capable of making a decision that might jeopardise his cause - because he believed in the greater good and was therefore able to change...

Joyless street

It felt like a long boring film packed with stereotypes at first, especially up to the point where two women were trying to seduce the fat and vulgar butcher in order to get their hands on some precious meat for their family, but Joyless Street turned out to be yet another, shall we say, hidden, gem, where one is never really quite sure where it is leading up to.

It is a moral film, no doubt, and sometimes it even feels too much on that side. But from the moment where 'Miss Greta' walked out of her job in defense of her morality it became, it seems, more engaging. Somehow, the human tragedy began to draw you to the character when such a sad and fragile woman had to carry on her frail shoulders the heavy burden of the whole family, her invalid father on one side, and her little sister on the other.

I didn't realise Miss Greta was played by the screen icon of the namesake until she was well down her road to 'moral ruin'. Though it was only her second starring role, the qualities that made her such an incredible presence on screen was already in full bloom: her eyes seem to say thousands when she remained silent, and they had the power to empathise with her character.

The archive says that up to 90 minutes materials are still lost, and I could not imagine how long the film had been!