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Review
by Kozo: |
The
final film from ubiquitous character actor/stunt driver
Blacky Ko Sau-Leung, Life Express certainly
fits the description for well-meaning cinema. A country-hopping
drama about the race to save one little boy's life
with a bone marrow transplant, Life Express
could be prime fodder for movie of the week status
on the Lifetime network, and as such is a hard movie
to deride. Indeed, much of the drama is preprogrammed
to affect, such that being overly-critical of the
film would be like kicking Puss in Boots from Shrek
2 when he does that cute doe-eyed stare. Most
audiences will likely forgive the fact that the film
is uneven, and pretty much a textbook exercise in
audience manipulation. For more discerning audiences,
at least the movie doesn't bore.
Richie Ren is the required
big name in Life Express. He plays Kao, a hotshot
Taiwanese surgeon who works primarily on bone marrow
transplants, and also rides to work on his mountainbike
in cool, kickass BMX style. His co-worker Yan Yan
(Ruby Lin) is also his girlfriend, and has promised
to marry him after he's saved the life of twenty people
who need bone marrow transplants. Kao is up to eighteen
such successful surgeries, so it looks like Yan Yan
may be Mrs. Kao sometime pretty soon. But first, they
need two more successful operations, which only can
occur when rare matching donors for the afflicted
are found. The deal is: Kao removes the bone marrow,
Yan Yan arranges transport, and Kao handles the transplant.
They're the ultimate popstar life-saving team this
side of the Twins, who've probably cured mass suicide
with their sheer cuddliness. But we digress.
While Doctor Kao and
Yan Yan are hemming and hawing over marital plans,
a medical crisis erupts in Shanghai. Young Luk Fei
(Liu Ci-Hang) falls ill, and is diagnosed with Type-4
Hemophilia (Ed note: that's what the subtitles say.
Nobody who works here went to med school, so if the
info is erroneous, we wouldn't know.). He needs a
bone marrow transplant, but the only compatible donor
is a Taiwanese convict (director Blacky Ko) who isn't
so keen on getting his bone marrow sucked out. Yet.
Meanwhile, Luk Fei's mom and the doctors struggle
mightily with the truth of the illness, which includes
the low chances of finding a compatible donor, and
the ugly realities that come with treatment (chemotherapy,
losing one's hair, etc.). Luk Fei also meets similarly
afflicted children who are still waiting for their
transplants. All that the child has to keep going
is his desire to one day be a star football (AKA:
soccer) player like David Beckham. Could this film
be any more manufactured?
The answer to that:
probably not. Life Express seems written from
a blueprint of obvious drama that could only piss
off hopeless curmudgeons or people who just have a
problem with medical dramas. Every character in this
film is a recognizable type, and the actual nuts-and-bolts
conflict (A kid will die unless people struggle to
save him!) is so inherently loaded with expected pathos
that yawning while sitting in the audience would probably
invite public scorn, or perhaps a sound beating by
more sensitive people. Life Express pushes
all the required buttons with machine-like efficiency;
at the very least, Blacky Ko doesn't offend with his
obvious drama, though there are some syrupy moments
that go so far as to be laughable. However, laughing
is another action that could incur public scorn, or
again, a sound beating from more sensitive individuals
in the audience. Who knew watching Life Express could be hazardous to your health?
Despite being programmed
to affect, Life Express is not a sensitive,
subtle drama because let's face it: this is one unsubtle
motion picture. It's full of characters and events
designed to do just one thing: elicit an emotional
response, preferably sympathy if not all-out weeping.
At the very least, the "ticking clock" aspect
of the storyline is enough to get the tension pumping,
and the actors turn in unobtrusive, workable performances.
Life Express isn't a standout production, EXCEPT
during the final climactic transport sequence. The
donated blood marrow (No big surprise, but they eventually
find a donor.) must get moved from Taipei to Shanghai
in 24 hours or the child's life is forfeit, but Taiwan
gets rocked with a large earthquake! The solution:
Doctor Kao races his expensive luxury car to the airport
with awesome Initial D-like power drifting
and daredevil driving that could only happen in a
movie directed by Blacky Ko Sau-Leung! He also uses
his car to perform a mind-boggling stunt that simply
screams, "To hell with my auto insurance!"
The sequence itself is a little far-fetched (Anyone
ever hear of a helicopter?), but the energy and selflessness
portrayed make rousing cinema, and is enough to warrant
a quick "thumbs up." Blacky Ko may not have
set the world on fire with his final film, but it's
wonderful that he left us with one last bit of his
stunt driving genius. (Kozo 2004) |
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