| |
Review
by Kozo: |
At some point, most Hong Kong Cinema fans will realize
that film quality doesn't always make or break a Hong
Kong movie. Sure, we'd like our movies to be well-balanced
films with good stories, good acting, and hopefully
a low level of suckage, but sometimes you should just
be happy if your favorite stars look good—or
manage to look good despite appearing in a questionable
motion picture. That thinking could be the primary
reason that Leave Me Alone, the new action
comedy from Danny Pang (of The Pang Brothers), manages
to succeed. While not really a great film, this uneven
hodgepodge of over-the-top action, dark comedy, strange
sexual politics, and unexpected weirdness manages
to entertain. Plus, it features Ekin Cheng as a homosexual
fashion designer. How could this not be an entertaining
film?
Ekin Cheng is Yiu Chun-Man,
a gay fashion designer in Hong Kong who gets a visit
from twin brother Yiu Chun-Kit (duh, also Ekin Cheng).
Kit is visiting from Thailand, and after haranguing
his bro for his fey ways, promptly takes his expensive
car out for a spin and gets into a horrendous accident.
The kicker: a woman dies in the accident, and Kit
was driving with Man's license. Since the revelation
of Kit's true identity would be a real legal tangle,
Kit is forced to assume Man's identity and vice-versa.
Even worse, Kit is now in a coma, meaning Man has
to hang out at his bro's bedside hoping that he can
clue him into the switcheroo as soon as he wakes up.
If Kit wakes up and blabs his true identity, it could
be bad news for both of the well-coiffed brothers.
Enter the inevitable
romantic complications—two of them. On one hand,
Kit's girlfriend Jane (taller Twin Charlene Choi)
needs Man to fly to Thailand to pretend to be Kit.
A bank deal needs closing and Kit's presence is required,
so Man must hop a flight to Thailand and pretend to
be a straight badass mofo. Meanwhile, back in Hong
Kong, the real Kit is about to wake up to Man's ex-boyfriend
(Jan Lam), who thinks the comatose hottie is his ex.
Even worse, Kit's dealings in Thailand are about go
to Hell. Kit owes money to bizarre loan shark King
(Dayo Wong), and Man's attempts at proving his usefulness
(both Kit and Jane judge Man to be a waste of space)
seem to be going nowhere. Jane isn't doing so hot
herself; her efforts at dealing with King are more
bloody than beneficial. But Man does show a glimmer
of competence that causes Jane to turn her head. Will
she fall for Kit's homosexual twin? Will gay Man go
straight? Will straight Kit go gay? And will Jane's
father (Kenny Bee) finally realize that Man's fashion
advice is primo stuff that will help him score with
the ladies...or any homosexual males in the area?
Yes, Leave Me Alone sounds and is rather bizarre. Aside from the stunningly
weird plot, director Danny Pang (who co-directed The
Eye) throws in plenty of comedy lampooning sexual
politics, homophobia, and Thai gang types. The gangsters
in Leave Me Alone are sunglasses-wearing bohunks
who dress like extras from a Robert Rodriguez film—when
they're wearing clothes. In one bizarre sequence,
Man (pretending to be Kit) and Jane enter a spa to
negotiate with a tough gangster, whereupon all the
guys jump up and display their privates to a non-reacting
Jane and a struggling-to-not-react Man. The sequence
gets punctuated by wannabe John Woo action, featuring
Charlene Choi brandishing a firearm like a classic
"girl with gun" from eighties Hong Kong
Cinema. There's also slow motion—which miraculously
makes the heroes impossible to hit—and some high-speed
racing action that would put Ekin Cheng's Legend
of Speed character to shame. The over-the-top
action is actually somewhat entertaining, though ridiculously
staged. While it's fun to check out some new attempts
at two-gun Asian action, the sheer silliness of these
actors pretending to be kickass action heroes is guaranteed
to overload the believability meter of anyone with
even an ounce of common sense.
Not that common sense
or reality is a factor here, because it isn't. Danny
Pang goes ultra-stylish in an uneven manner, crisscrossing
slow-motion glamour shots with over-the-top comic
music cues, some of which occur during the Jan Lam/Ekin
Cheng scenes. Watching the straight Kit attempt to
fend off the advances of Man's ex-boyfriend—who
just so happens to be a high-ranking policeman—actually
proves to be funny stuff. Much of that is due to Lam,
who's deadpan amusing in his role, but if one person
must get credit, it's Ekin Cheng. The former man called
Hero earns big points in his double duty role, especially
since he actually seems to create subtle differences
between his two characters that aren't limited to
hairstyle (Man's hair is slightly more "frilly"
than Kit's) or posture (Man doesn't walk as "cooly"
as Kit does).
Kit and Man aren't outwardly very different, but Cheng
manages to make the two seem like different guys.
Charlene Choi fares worse, as it's really hard to
imagine the diminutive pop queen as a dangerous woman
in the Anita Mui mold. She manages decent emotions,
and is much better here than in her dumber comedies
(i.e., Hidden Heroes), but Choi is tough to
buy as a kickass femme fatale.
Still, that's
ultimately what makes Leave Me Alone a surprisingly
satisfying pop-culture send-up. Nobody here is really
playing a role that one would expect, except Ekin
Cheng—and that's only half the time. Kit is a
supercool Chan Ho-Nam type that one expects Cheng
to play, but add that to his surprisingly sympathetic
turn as Man, and you have a weird, strangely entertaining
amalgamation of the Ekin Cheng you expect—and
also the one you don't. Dayo Wong makes a hilariously
oddball gang boss, Kenny Bee is amusing as Jane's
dad, and even the film's bombastic emotions have an
edge. During one sequence, Danny Pang goes psycho-syrupy
with each character's memories of love, and the result
is more laughable than touching. Still, when the relationships
get tied up, it almost seems like something actually
happened. The characters are supposed to have grown,
or realized a part of themselves through this comic-violent
ordeal, and Pang handles things with enough style
and tongue-in-cheek humor that whatever emotions he
creates are vaguely felt.
Leave Me Alone is
far from a great movie, and is even questionably good,
but it does possess a satiric edge that's quite entertaining,
especially when you consider who's playing who in
this movie. Maybe the acolytes of Ekin Cheng's Young
and Dangerous days will find the very idea to
be blasphemous, but seeing the actor in this dual
role seems to be the perfect commentary on his iconic
and sometimes questionable career. In Leave Me
Alone, Ekin Cheng is simultaneously an awesome,
too-cool action hero AND a preening pretty boy who's
more concerned with cool hair and good clothes than
kicking some ass. The fact that he plays both roles,
acts against himself (via doubles and visual effects),
and even forms two love triangles with BOTH a male
and female co-star should get this movie points for
its sheer chutzpah alone. For anyone who's watched
a lot of Ekin Cheng films (and most fans of Hong Kong
Cinema have) Leave Me Alone could prove quite
entertaining—even if you don't think the movie
is really very good. (Kozo 2004) |
|
