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Review
by Kozo: |
In lieu of a Milky Way-produced Lunar New Year offering,
Chinastar brings us Fantasia, the official
Milky Way substitute Lunar New Year flick. Johnnie
To's frequent partner Wai Ka-Fai produced, wrote and
directed the film, and many Milky Way regulars (Lau
Ching-Wan, Cecilia Cheung, Francis Ng, Lau Ching-Wan
and Louis Koo) all show up. The film also has the
good sense(?) to throw the Twins, Boy'z AND Shine
into the mix, thereby making this the most popstar
duo-filled Hong Kong film EVER. But lest we think
this is some fluffy populist comedy meant for the
20-and-under set, Fantasia throws its biggest
conceit at us: it recalls and celebrates an age of
Chinese Cinema that most youngsters simply aren't
familiar with. The resulting film will probably lose
the kiddies, and likely many Western-based HK film
fans too. That's a shame, because those who get the
jokes might find Fantasia to be a fun spectacle
that's refreshingly familiar.
Lau Ching-Wan is Michael,
the proprietor of a detective agency in 1969 Hong
Kong, who runs the show along with his two assistants,
Sam (Louis Koo) and Fugu (Jordan Chan). Complications
arise when a mysterious genie named Harmy Bobo (Cecilia
Cheung) appears in their lives. A disturbing dead
ringer for Harry Potter, Harmy is boyish and a malfunctioning
magic user to boot. Not only do her spells seemingly
not work (there's a time-delay thing going on), she
also loses her magical chopsticks. When licked by
a particular individual, the chopsticks turn into
The Chopstick Sisters (Twins, natch), a couple of
beehive hairdo-sporting girls who take on the personality
characteristics of the person who licked them. In
this case, the licker was the villainous Kin (Francis
Ng), who uses his new god-daughters to perform robberies
and other assorted cartoonish evil deeds. Plus, Sam
apes Bruce Lee, and Harmy wrangles with her cousin
Bug, a small, stuffed dinosaur-like creature that
grows to massive proportions and leaves large pink
droppings all over the place. Who isn't confused or
even a little turned off?
On the surface, the
"plot" of Fantasia isn't much of
a step above such recent nonsense comedies as Wong
Jing's egregious The Spy Dad. However, that
is a superficial measure. Instead of your umpteenth
lowbrow comedy parodying The Matrix, Fantasia
finds its charms in sending up and paying tribute
to a beloved time of Cantonese cinema, more specifically
the pop culture and film idols of the mid-seventies.
Chief among the targets are the Hui Brothers (Michael,
Sam and Ricky) and their many collaborations, in particular
the 1976 film The Private Eyes. Lau Ching-Wan
gets Michael Hui's mannerisms and bemused delivery
down perfectly, Louis Koo apes Sam Hui's grinning
good-guy routine well, and Jordan Chan is likably
dopey as the Ricky Hui stand-in. Cecilia Cheung may
initially be doing a parody of Harry Potter, but she
soon ditches the Hogwart's robe in favor of a plaid
shirt and umbrella ensemble that references the Lam
Ah Chun (or "Plain Jane") comedies starring
Josephine Siao. Francis Ng overacts with abandon in
a parody of Shek Kin, one of Cantonese cinema's great
villains, and the Twins send up the actual Chopstick
Sisters, a popular duo from the sixties and seventies.
Even Cousin Bug is a
walking reference. His Cantonese name is "Lap
Sap Chung", which is also the name of a cartoon
dinosaur which was once used in an old Hong Kong anti-litter
campaign. Lap Sap Chung also grows to large proportions
using fake-looking CGI and rampages around Michael's
kitchen in a direct lift from Jurassic Park.
Laughs abound thanks to the dead-on parody (director
Wai Ka-Fai even lifts the camera angles), and Lau
Ching-Wan and Louis Koo play off their CGI pal in
an amusing fashion. Even when they're called upon
to get large pink piles of Lap Sap refuse dumped on
them, the actors are unflappably game. Embarassment
doesn't seem to be a factor for anyone here, and that's
a good thing. Considering they're required to basically
mug, shriek and generally act like loons for a good
100 minutes of wackiness, some self-effacing good
cheer goes a long way.
There is, however, another
side to this. Like the aforementioned The Spy Dad,
too much wackiness can become tiresome and even irritating.
If you're not partial to actors acting like total
idiots or mugging like no tomorrow (the Twins, in
particular, mug with a gratingly pronounced glee),
Fantasia can be as annoying as anything Wong
Jing ever made. To its credit, Fantasia does
aspire to a little more than Wong Jing's comedies
do. Instead of a full-on parody/wack-fest, Wai Ka-Fai
takes care to actually reference the defining characteristics
of his beloved Cantonese cinema along with its most
famous icons. In Fantasia, Hong Kong is a hopeful,
cheery, four-color fantasyland where the working class
can find their fortunes and even get the girl—genie
or not. The comedy flies so fast and furious that
it's possible to skip by the jokes that do flatline,
and even the sentimentality comes with a witty edge.
Despite being silly and throwaway, there does seem
to be some creativity going on here.
Still, the acid test
for the Fantasia experience is probably whether
or not any of these references mean anything to you.
To some people, this type of referential cinema is
just what the doctor ordered; it recalls good times
and silly laughs, and is cheap escapist entertainment
aimed squarely at the masses. To others, it might
just be more of the same weird HK parody crap, except
without any Matrix jokes. Things to help the
Fantasia experience along: actual (or even
cursory) knowledge of the actors and films being lampooned,
a partiality to mugging popstars, and a huge mess
of people to laugh along with. Things that hurt the
Fantasia experience: nobody else in the room,
a depressing outlook on life, and a complete and utter
and contempt for the wacky Hong Kong Cinema of the
sixties and seventies. Put simply, this is not a movie
for everyone, and will likely lose many people who
lack the knowledge or patience to get its weird and
wacky ways. Those who get the jokes though, will probably
find some measure of amusement. (Kozo 2004)
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