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Review
by Kozo: |
One
step forward, two steps back. Earlier this year, Wong
Jing brought us The Colour of Truth, which was
an interesting and entertaining cop thriller that actually
qualified as a good movie. It was probably not an award-worthy
exercise, but the cinematic tension and rare attention
to story seemed to indicate that maybe Wong isn't always
reading racing papers when directing his films. Well,
when shooting The Spy Dad, it seems as though
his nose was back in those racing papers again. If he
expended any effort during the shooting of The Spy
Dad, it was probably at the Hong Kong Jockey Club
AND NOT on the set of the film. The film's lazy storyline,
sophomoric comedy, and interminable series of unfunny
jokes signals the return of the Wong Jing we all know
and loathe.
Tony Leung Ka-Fai stars
as Jimmie Bon, a movie actor who plays a James Bond-like
hero in a popular series of big screen adventures. However,
despite his suave and debonair onscreen presence, he's
a total wuss of a man, and actually lost his wife Isabel
(Candy Yu On-On) because of his inability to stand up
and fight like the movie hero he plays. He's still loved
by his two daughters Cream (adorable Gillian Chung of
Twins) and Ice-Cream (Winnie Chan), who nevertheless
diss him every so often. He's even hen-pecked by his
assistant/agent Barbara (Teresa Mo), and puts up with
his layabout brother-in-law Love Kwan (Chapman To, who
is attempting a world record for highest percentage
of Hong Kong features made in a year). Bon could use
some toughening-up, or at least the chance to prove
he can stand up to something.
Bon does get his chance
to strut his stuff, and it's thanks to a manufactured
series of events that could only happen in a Hong Kong
comedy. Isabel returns from her US movie career to offer
Bon a part in a new movie, but simulataneously, Interpol
agent Tienan (Jordan Chan) arrives on the scene on a
top secret mission. He's after a pair of viruses cooked
up by the evil doctor Donno (Eric Kot with bad hair).
One of the viruses is an intelligence dengenerating
virus which makes the victim act like an incontinent
four year-old. The other virus is SUPER SARS, which
apparently means that Hong Kong can now take jokes about
the deadly virus which created big problems for the
Special Administration Region this past spring. Tienan
tries to secure the virus while Donno is dealing with
the evil Lungyi (Tsui Kam-Kong, returning from unknown
cinema exile), but things go weird and the container
of Super SARS ends up in Bon's garage. Tienan ends up
a dopey incontinent four year-old thanks to exposure
to the other virus (You getting this so far?), and soon
invades the lives of Bon and his family. Then...wackiness
ensues!
Only Wong Jing could have
cooked up this mess of a plotline, which is as logical
as letting Michael Jackson babysit your kids. Basically,
all this randomly plotted crap falls into the lap of
Bon, who now gets to stand up and show he's a man. Along
the way, he has to deal with other stuff, including
Ronald (Edison Chen), who threatens to date Cream, and
various compromising positions which make him look like
a sexual deviant in front of his ex-wife (don't ask).
There's also some weird virtual reality PDA which teaches
Gillian Chung how to fight like Jet Li, and parodies
of The Matrix, Enter the Dragon, and probably
Wong Jing's home movies. Also, Chapman To loses his
memory, goes to get deflowered at a massage parlor,
and walks around thinking Bon is not his brother-in-law,
but in fact his father. Plus there's bad-looking CGI,
various cameos by such cinema luminaries as Jim Chim
Sui-Man, Rosemary and Tats Lau, and probably a brain
hemorrhage if you're paying too close attention. Ladies
and gentlemen: this is not filmmaking.
Then again, this obviously
wasn't supposed to be. Wong Jing's work here is reminiscent
of not only his own work from the early nineties, but
nearly every other silly Hong Kong comedy released during
that time. Lazy filmmaking like this was standard operating
procedure back then, and scripts were usually written
on the spot with no attention paid to storyline, pacing
or even the caliber of jokes being cracked. The Spy
Dad wears those traits like a badge of pride, and
follows through with ninety minutes of inane comedy
and uninteresting hijinks which is guaranteed to entertain
those who want exactly what this film promises: absolutely
nothing of any value. Chances are, those who saw this
film thought, "Oh my god! Gillian Chung in a movie!
She's so cute! And hey, Chapman To! He's a funny guy!
What the hell, I'll go see The Spy Dad, even
if it stars the OTHER Tony Leung." There you go:
fifty-five wasted Hong Kong dollars.
Not that such lazy Hong
Kong hilarity was always a bad thing. Wong Jing also
put together Boys Are Easy, a 1993 lazy comedy-fest
chockful of parodies and silliness and hey, it was fun
stuff. You'd think Wong Jing would try to at least match
his earlier work, but Boys Are Easy would seem
to be the exception and not the rule. When you take
random plotting, unrelated movie parodies, actors of
varying skill (Tony Leung Ka-Fai is funny, Edison Chen
is just there), and put them together with no clue what
to do, chances are you'll end up with a total mess.
Which is just what The Spy Dad is, a total mess.
Granted, there are occasional fun jokes, but when only
1 out of every 10 jokes is any good, that means the
movie is 10% funny and 90% not. Fans of Gillian Chung
or Edison Chen may want to check the film out anyway
because hey, they're in the movie! But everyone else,
you are hereby warned: stay away from The Spy Dad.
Bottom line, this movie wastes your time and takes your
money, which are two things we all probably could use
a little more of. (Kozo 2003) |
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