Divergence (Benny Chan,05)

The usual complain about Benny Chan films is that he can deliver killer action but his attempts at handling complex emotions always falls flat. This is a somewhat excessive but not complete unfair description of most Chan films evens his more ambitious ones. The very best Benny Chan films like Heroic Duo do shoe more going on than well choreographed action and he is actually quite apt director of actors, but there’s certainly an amount of dramatic clumsiness underline many of his efforts.

To some extent the same is true of Divergence two bigger starts Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng both of whom are guarantee box office success whose best performances usually come with back-hand compliment like “he is surprising good”. Both have limited range and can often coast too much, but they can be very apt in the right role. Divergence wants to make such complains disappears as it present itself as large operation set towards make all of us recognize that Chan, Kwok and Cheng deserve to be taking serious. To heavy extent this a commercial trailer that betrays a heavy anxiety as it present a true double one going on the plot and another in the filmmaking.

They got at this trough a a complex script by well respect screenwriter Ivy Ho, all actors are intentionally cast against type and despite some quality action (there’s a great chase sequence midway through it) , Chan’s direction stresses character and emotion front and center. Kwok cop is a former star detective down to tough times since his girlfriend disappeared 10 years ago, he gets very invested in his new case after the man whose extradition he is supervising is killed by hired gun Daniel Wu; from then on, Kwok is obsessed with finding the killer to learn what is going on but not as much as he still is obsessed with his missing girlfriend. Everything keeps connecting to mysterious lawyer Cheng who seems to work for criminals only.

Divergence mostly delivers in its intentions: Ho mystery is solid if predictably better at settling questions than answering then, Kwok and Wu are very compelling in their roles (Cheng is solid but one suspects he is letting his glasses do most of his acting). Things get a bit muddled in the last act but even when narrative falters, Divergence feels emotional right (something that happens more often in benny Chan films than he get credit).

Does it add to everything it wants? Probably not, it betrays that initial anxiety too much exposing its filmmakers as much as appeasing them. Aaron Kwok won a best actor at Hong Kong Film Awards (a fact which probably justify the project intentions by itself), mostly for emoting in a way that make such insecurity front and center. Thankfully scene by scene Divergence is a en evolving experience that is much more than it’s filmmakers collective insecurities, it succeds by been the potboiler it is try so hard to leave behind.

All About Women (Tsui Hark,08)

What exactly can one do with Tsui Hark at this point of his career? On its own zany way that’s the key question one ends up getting from All About Women, a very good and very specific Tsui Hark comedy that mostly failed to help boost Tsui’s very low recent reputation. What makes All About Women and other later Tsui films very curious is that thanks to the specificity of Chinese production and his own entrepreneur ways he has remain productive at a point where most filmmakers hit their twilight.

It is not an age matter as much as it is a question of style. Take a look at All About Women: it is produced the same way most bigger commercial Hong Kong romantic comedies nowadays are done with good production values and upscale sets and characters. One surface it is not much different than, let’s say, some of Milkyway comedies. The commercial objective is obvious: Mainland China. Only thing is Tsui, the producer might search mainland audience and budget, but Tsui the director don’t know how to operate this way. The same reason that Tsui failed to adapt to Hollywood makes him a filmmaker at lost nowadays. All About Women is pretty much a mid-90’s Lunar New Year Film Workshop comedy: the same wild zany tone that want to entertain but does it at its own pace and idea of what’s fun. That just isn’t quality according to contemporary commercial Chinese film, so All About Women remains an unsolved film, a crowd pleaser that don’t have a crowd as its crowd has leave the theatre long ago.

The film is far from great and its attempt at giving a truer feminine spin on genre mostly fails (it’s ultimately too much about the guys as most romantic comedies are). Kwai Lun-Mei, Zhou Xun and Kitty Zhang are all game and throw themselves on All About Women’s idea of humor with the necessary energy to make their material work and Tsui keeps the larger comic set pieces funny in their over the top silly way. All About Women is too much and at almost two hours clear overlong but Tsui keeps things so busy that one barely feels that way until very late.

Usually when genre directors hit this stretch of their careers when they are pretty much doing their own thing disconnected from audiences interests, their output slowdowns a lot, if not almost stops completely after one or two panned flops. Tsui Hark on other hand keeps working a lot (he did slow his, but only by his insane productive standards) and as of later seems to move toward accepting his position as something of Hong Kong’s industry official ghost. If his other 2008 film, Missing can be seen as a cop-out, his mostly messy attempt of adapting himself to current needs and failing, All About Women seems set to set the clock back and just accept himself as his own one-man industry. That’s what Tsui Hark has always been and as his later superior reworking of martial arts period film remembered, what we really need of him.  Behind its great production values, All About Women is just a breathless silly ride towards Tsui wild humor and that’s pleasure enough.

Breaking News (Johnnie To,2004)

Between being selected for the Cannes film festival and be a return to more conventional action work after a few of years of comedies and offbeat material, Breaking News seems to be surprisingly popular among some western To fans. It’s certainly a solid piece of work, but it’s fairly shallow for its auteur usual high standards.  It does have clear critical approved hook and offer more action set pieces than any To film since at least 2001, so to some extent it does function as a more ideal Milkyway film to some.

Breaking News opens with a great steadicam sequence and includes enough good action to remain a thrilling experience to sit trough. It’s the frame around the action that often falters: after Richie Ren gang makes literally a lot of noise in the opener, cop Kelly Chen convinces her bosses to make a media circus out of his capture. Ren understands what the cops are doing and start his own underground media counterattack, all the while also needing to deal with Nick Cheung renegade cop unit that decide to keep persuing them against Chen’s orders. It’s a solid premise but ultimately it doesn’t seem to mean much to Johnnie To. Breaking News exploits the idea of media critique more than attempting to offer one.  The Richie Ren sequences have some bit as Breaking News can go around a deal with how the web change information, but most of the media war feels like an initial concept that give us a clear hook but To can’t quite put his hands on.

Breaking News might actually had been stronger if it was just centered around the usual cat and mouse game between Ren and Nick Cheung obsessed cop. It’s usual material that To himself has given stronger treatment before many times but there’s more energy there than into the central idea. There’s also some potential interesting material in the conflict between the units as it allows To an opportunity to deal about Hong police poilitcs that also feels stronger than what the film centers itself on. Breaking News might have make up for it with stronger character work but despite solid performances and some attempts to make Chen’s character more interesting and nuanced, everyone remains just part of the big thrill ride.

Ultimately there’s nothing really wrong with Breaking News, It just comes at the end of one of Johnnie To’s richer and more creative periods (PTU, Running on Karma, Throw Down) and so feels too standard and narrow, as slick on its own way than some of his more obvious commercial work. Breaking News is ultimately a victim of its own context: the reason it might seem so appealing to some To fans is why it can also disappoint others.