First of all this title might be confusing, it has the same title of an alain delon movie i didn't know existed, and of course it has the same title as the remake which was made by the same director in 1996, but the latter was an attempt to please western audiences anyways, after his immigration to North America, but today we are talking about the greater one with Chow Yun-Fat, and Leslie Cheung.
So you have Joe , jim and "red bean" Cherie (Chow Yun-Fat, Leslie Cheung, Cherie Chung) who are orphans who were raised in the streets of Hong Kong, by their ruthless tutor hung, who is the one who taught them pickpocketing and other theft techniques, and their other parental figure, a cop who is the one who taught them about dignity and lover and loyalty.
Years later the trio has evolved and their techniques too, they are now a high tech (by the standards of 90) Art Burglars, who go only to the most expensive and safely keeped artworks, naturally in the south of France, which is somehow the officious capital of art burglary in the world.
So the First deal goes right, and they say "hey, let's pull up a last one before retiring" this is the one of course which goes wrong, and then escalating the stakes to a place where their loyalty to each other, to their parental figure is severly tested, in a journey that takes them back to Hong Kong.
Of course this story is a "seen it before" one and the reason is obvious, it's a John Woo movie, and a Hong Kong movie, which means that the story is a vehicle for two things which are the most important in this genre, the action scenes, and the stories of male loyalty, which is the righteous heir to the martial arts code of honour one, which is seen in all Hong Kong martial arts movies.
The action scenes are beautiful, from the car chases in the south of france (non digital, good old stunts) and the martial arts scenes, the acrobaties, and the world famous John Woo gunfight scenes which no one does better then him.
Speaking of which, i mean this movie has one vilain throwing cards as weapons, like in 90's videogames, and another one who attacks using flames, there is one thing you must be sure of, the John Woo influence on the Video Gaming industry is so enormous that they should pay him a percentage of every action game sold.
The rest is the obvious love they are forming, which center's shift throughout the film, and the beautiful loyalty between the characters played by Chow Yun Fat, and the late and great Leslie Cheung, and the relationship they have with their two parental figures, one representing the good in them, and the other one representing the evil.
You also have the stealing scenes with the laser beam classic scene and the locked in the safe one, these are some kind of genres musts, and when it comes to respect genre's codes, or to invent new ones, Mr Woo is the man.
So this is a Hong Kong movie like we love them, with an ounce of humour, and romance which is really well welcome, and please remember that this movie is about Hong Kong before it returned to China, and before Woo and Yun-Fat immigrated to United States, now making movies which are fit for western and international audiences, thus alienating their old fans.
And of course you have the multi talented and awesome Leslie Cheung, who died too young infortunatly, making him the right equivalent of a James Dean, or lately, a Heath Ledger.
So you have Joe , jim and "red bean" Cherie (Chow Yun-Fat, Leslie Cheung, Cherie Chung) who are orphans who were raised in the streets of Hong Kong, by their ruthless tutor hung, who is the one who taught them pickpocketing and other theft techniques, and their other parental figure, a cop who is the one who taught them about dignity and lover and loyalty.
Years later the trio has evolved and their techniques too, they are now a high tech (by the standards of 90) Art Burglars, who go only to the most expensive and safely keeped artworks, naturally in the south of France, which is somehow the officious capital of art burglary in the world.
So the First deal goes right, and they say "hey, let's pull up a last one before retiring" this is the one of course which goes wrong, and then escalating the stakes to a place where their loyalty to each other, to their parental figure is severly tested, in a journey that takes them back to Hong Kong.
Of course this story is a "seen it before" one and the reason is obvious, it's a John Woo movie, and a Hong Kong movie, which means that the story is a vehicle for two things which are the most important in this genre, the action scenes, and the stories of male loyalty, which is the righteous heir to the martial arts code of honour one, which is seen in all Hong Kong martial arts movies.
The action scenes are beautiful, from the car chases in the south of france (non digital, good old stunts) and the martial arts scenes, the acrobaties, and the world famous John Woo gunfight scenes which no one does better then him.
Speaking of which, i mean this movie has one vilain throwing cards as weapons, like in 90's videogames, and another one who attacks using flames, there is one thing you must be sure of, the John Woo influence on the Video Gaming industry is so enormous that they should pay him a percentage of every action game sold.
The rest is the obvious love they are forming, which center's shift throughout the film, and the beautiful loyalty between the characters played by Chow Yun Fat, and the late and great Leslie Cheung, and the relationship they have with their two parental figures, one representing the good in them, and the other one representing the evil.
You also have the stealing scenes with the laser beam classic scene and the locked in the safe one, these are some kind of genres musts, and when it comes to respect genre's codes, or to invent new ones, Mr Woo is the man.
So this is a Hong Kong movie like we love them, with an ounce of humour, and romance which is really well welcome, and please remember that this movie is about Hong Kong before it returned to China, and before Woo and Yun-Fat immigrated to United States, now making movies which are fit for western and international audiences, thus alienating their old fans.
And of course you have the multi talented and awesome Leslie Cheung, who died too young infortunatly, making him the right equivalent of a James Dean, or lately, a Heath Ledger.
No comments:
Post a Comment