|
Review
by Kozo: |
Thanks
to its "two dopey guys and a few ducks"
poster image, Moonlight in Tokyo looks to be
a fun buddy comedy. The half-dazed grin on Leon Lai's
face lends credence to that notion, and the presence
of serial wacky sidekick Chapman To all but seals
the deal. Except there's one hitch: this is not a
fun buddy comedy. It's got fun and comedy, and does
resemble a buddy film, but Moonlight in Tokyo
is much more. It's a surprisingly dark, oddly existential,
and thoroughly bizarre motion picture that takes a
loaded plot and does the unexpected with it. The sight
of Leon Lai as a Chinese half-wit pretending to be
a Korean gigolo in Japan is unexpected enough, but
Moonlight in Tokyo manages a few more surprises.
The biggest surprise of all: this is actually a decent
movie.
Leon Lai is Jun, a borderline
retarded fellow stranded in Tokyo after his brother's
family abandoned him there. Luckily, Jun runs into
Hoi (Chapman To), who he recognizes as a former classmate.
Unluckily, Hoi is a right bastard, who's on the hook
for a sizable amount of dough lent to him by an unsavory
yakuza. Hoi used the money to import foreign prostitutes,
but the girls ran, leaving him without any means of
paying back his loan. However, once Hoi discovers
Jun's hidden talents, he has the start of a new business.
Jun has the power to comfort others through his manly
embrace, and provided that he keeps his mouth shut,
he's a shoo-in for Shinjuku's next top gigolo. Hoi's
mamasan pal Yan (Taiwanese actress Yang Kuei-Mei)
recommends that Jun pretend to be a Korean, which
will only drive the Japanese female clientele wild
with desire. Hoi gives Jun lessons in manliness, and
the money starts rolling in. But with their success
comes a growing friendship. Before long, Hoi begins
questioning the ethics of pimping out a friend (short
answer: it's a crappy thing to do to a buddy). And
is Jun really as dumb as he appears to be?
That's the simple skinny
of Moonlight in Tokyo, but much, much more
goes on. That is, when there aren't jokes being made.
Directors/writers Alan Mak and Felix Chong (two-thirds
of the Infernal Affairs braintrust) get plenty
of gags out of their mismatched buddies. In addition
to some hilarious "learn to be suave" lessons
that Hoi gives Jun - which include sex lessons on
an inflatable woman - there are also numerous gags
involving slapstick violence and the sordid realities
of their biz. Jun gets introduced to a variety of
wacky customers, including the requisite S&M loving
female and even a shifty male customer (Roy Cheung
in a cameo). It's dirty, funny, and sometimes disturbing
stuff. It's hard to get too chummy with a movie about
a guy pimping out an almost-retarded dope; after a
while, the comedy seems more disgusting than just
harmlessly dirty. This is especially true since the
film is not an all-out farce. Mak and Chong take pains
to develop both Jun and Hoi, and though each becomes
a well-rounded character, the film eventually ceases
to be funny.
But that's fine, because
these guys do drama too. As Jun, Leon Lai cuts an
exceptionally sympathetic figure, appearing both lovably
dopey and deceptively clever - even when his character
loses control of his emotions and does something that
he shouldn't. This is departure for Lai, as Jun is
neither cool nor romantic, and is instead untidy and
given to disturbing and sometimes pathetic emotional
instabilities. Ten or fifteen years ago, this would
have been a role owned by Chow Yun-Fat, but Lai makes
it work for him. Chapman To is convincingly sleazy
as Hoi, managing to give his difficult character the
required duality. Hoi is both morally bankrupt and
innately decent, and though To overacts at times,
he still manages to convince. Each eventually becomes
a character worth caring about, and the bond between
the two takes on surprising emotional weight.
But the filmmakers change
things up - again. Slapstick violence again shows
up, along with a wacky subplot involving a deranged
mob boss, and a darker one involving a murdered client.
There's also a woefully underdeveloped subplot involving
Hoi's estranged wife (TVB star Michelle Ye), plus
numerous sightings of Leon Lai and Chapman To locked
in heterosexual male clinches. And there's ballet
(?). Given all the varying subplots - some given serious
weight and others not - Moonlight in Tokyo ultimately becomes disjointed and even needless. But
it's all good; Alan Mak and Felix Chong convey all
of this with a hip soundtrack, cool cinematography,
and whiplash-inducing shifts in tone. Moonlight
in Tokyo goes from raunchy comedy to sentimental
overdone sap to dangerous, sudden violence - sometimes
within a second. The effect can be labored; at times,
the shifts in tone are tough to take. Watching Moonlight
in Tokyo is sometimes like getting blindsided
by a bus: you didn't see it coming, and yes, it was
painful.
The fact that the film is
not happy-happy for its entire running time may turn
off those looking for crowd-pleasing cinematic junk.
Moonlight in Tokyo is a difficult film to really
grasp, as its verbalized lessons seem more arbitrary
than fitting. But the film does manage to involve
and strangely entertain in a way Hong Kong movies
seldom do anymore - which may be the key to why it
works. Moonlight in Tokyo is seemingly an old-new
HK combo. The style and professional look of the film
is more current, but the wild emotional shifts, exaggerated
characters, and mixture of comedy and drama recall
an older Hong Kong movie. Back then, movies could
feature family drama, slow-motion romance, slapstick
comedy, bawdy sex humor, undue existentialism, and
sudden tragedy all in the span of ninety minutes. Moonlight in Tokyo mirrors that, except with
jazzed-up production design, cooler style, and maybe
a bit more intelligence. Given 2005's terrible Hong
Kong Cinema output (a Top 10 might have to be truncated
to a Top 6 to insure some level of quality), Moonlight
in Tokyo is easily one of the year's better films,
and a movie that absolutely surpasses its immediate
expectations. Hell, we'll even say it's good. (Kozo
2006) |
|
