Summertime is movie time – at least, it is for Hollywood movies because comparatively fewer Hong Kong films get released. During the summer months, local demand for Hollywood blockbusters is so high that there’s little room in cinemas for anything else. If Avengers 2: They Fight Amongst Themselves and Then Make Up was to come to the city it would take up entire multiplexes and leave no screens free for movies starring Hong Kong actors. Well, unless the actor was Andy Lau. Thanks, (Captain) America!
To be fair, Hong Kong is getting some local summer fare, though it’s arguable if any of it is 100 percent local. An ongoing issue with Hong Kong cinema is that it’s increasingly targeted towards China, if not elsewhere. During its Eighties and Nineties heyday, Hong Kong cinema was heavily exported and audiences took whatever was given because they actually liked Hong Kong movies. Now changes are needed to secure investment from foreign distributors, not to mention increase audience interest.
The upside to foreign distribution – most especially to China – is that there’s more money to be made. The downside? Hong Kong films that aren’t totally Hong Kong films. Here are this summer’s Hong Kong movies rated by their Hong Kong Cinema Identity Percentage (HKCIP), a completely non-scientific and totally made-up measure of a film’s ’Hong Kong-ness.‘ Take it seriously at your own peril.
SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
(Out June 18)
The unrelated sequel to the 2005 Donnie Yen crime classic, SPL 2 DOES NOT star Donnie Yen. Oops! Luckily, it does feature martial artists like China’s Wu Jing and Zhang Jin, Thailand’s Tony Jaa, and also Louis Koo – who isn’t a martial artist but does sport an entertaining hairstyle that makes him look like an angry orchestra conductor. SPL 2 may or may not have a story but it will definitely have fights between guys who can really fight. Fights between guys who can really fight are a beloved part of Hong Kong cinema history, so this is good.
HKCIP: Maybe 76%. The action stars are not local and the film is mostly anticipated by Western audiences, but this is a Hong Kong-style action movie through-and-through.
Wild City (July 16)
Director Ringo Lam returns with Wild City, his first full-length Hong Kong film in over a decade. This action thriller focuses on crime and greed in Hong Kong’s seedy underbelly, and stars big local names like Louis Koo, Shawn Yue and Simon Yam. However, Taiwan’s Joseph Chang and China’s Tong Li-ya also take leading roles, and China co-production may prevent Lam from exploring the dark and nihilistic themes that he did in his earlier classics. One of the former joys of Hong Kong cinema was its unpredictability, especially in genre films, so if Wild City gets stuck with a predictable ’justice triumphs‘ ending, that would be disappointing.
HKCIP: 63% with some wiggle room. That’s a low score for a movie that takes place in Hong Kong, but Wild City is a China co-production so it will likely have thematic compromises.
Monster Hunt (July 16)
Shrek 3 co-director Raman Hui brings us a period fantasy featuring a huggable CGI creature. The film also stars Bai Bai-he and originally Kai Ko, but he was cut from the film after his recent drug scandal. All of Ko’s scenes were reshot with Jing Bo-ran, delaying the film from its planned Lunar New Year release and earning the production the unfortunate ‘troubled’ label. Frankly speaking, the actors mean very little, because the film’s selling point is the plump CGI critter and not the human beings. Sorry, Bai Bai-he, you’re playing second fiddle to something stored on a hard drive.
HKCIP: 17%. The Hong Kong director and investment are a plus, but the lack of local stars and the film’s obvious targeting to the China audience makes this the least Hong Kong of the bunch.
To the Fore (August 6)
Director Dante Lam’s cycling drama To the Fore is partially shot in Hong Kong and features local actors like Carlos Chan and Andrew Lin, but both are distant support to the real stars, Taiwan’s Eddie Peng and Korea’s Choi Si-won. Chinese actors Shawn Dou and Wang Luo-dan also show up, and the film travels to many other regions for its cycling action. Hong Kong-ness aside, most of these young actors are ones to watch, and Dante Lam’s Unbeatable showed that he knows a thing or two about sports narratives.
HKCIP: 37%. Lam is on a roll, so To the Fore could be the summer movie to beat. However, it’s far and away the least Hong Kong-ish of all his works.
Office (release date to be confirmed at time of press)
Director Johnnie To does a musical comedy with a to-die-for cast made up of Chow Yun-fat, Sylvia Chang, Eason Chan and Tang Wei in an adaptation of Chang’s stage play Design for Living. To has proven over the years that he can do anything, so he should feel right at home with this contemporary look at office politics and romance. Also, Office is To’s first collaboration with Chow Yun-fat and Sylvia Chang in 25 years (they last worked together on All About Ah Long in 1990), which makes it a Hong Kong cinema must-see.
HKCIP: 88%. Office would rate higher but it is based on a stage play that was originally performed in Mandarin. For that reason, it arbitrarily loses 12 percent.
Love Detective (release date to be confirmed at time of press)
From Patrick Kong, the auteur of numerous quality-challenged relationship comedies, Love Detective stars two-time Hong Kong film award winner Ivana Wong as a policewoman who goes undercover and presumably finds love. Basically a Miss Congeniality clone, the film may be worthwhile for seeing rising star Ivana Wong, but Patrick Kong’s track record is a huge red flag. At the same time, he’s become a brand name for a demographic of young Hongkongers who enjoy his cynical take on young love.
HKCIP: 100%. Love Detective may be the most effective counter-programming for those looking for a break from the Hollywood blockbuster deluge. Also, almost nobody outside of Hong Kong cares about Patrick Kong movies.
Hong Kong cinema lives again!
The opinion’s expressed in this column are the author’s own.
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