Hey folks, Harry here... I'm a big fan of Johnny To's filmwork -- he can make great films and mediocre films, but I always find them at least interesting and sometimes exhilarating. RUNNING ON KARMA sounds like another great To film. I look forward to getting my hands on it! Here ya go...
RUNNING ON KARMA Review
It seemed, for a long time, that the Hong Kong Movie business was finished. At least for those of us Gwilos who wanted flying swordsmen and slow-motion gunfights. The overemphasis on CGI, on putting pop stars in every interesting role and, last but not least, on romantic comedies instead of action made Hong Kong less interesting than before, compared to Japan and Korea.
Not that the Japanese and Korean movie studios copied the old Hong Kong style, they just made more interesting movies, stuff we hadn’t seen before. Movies like Battle Royale, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Attack the Gas Station, Ping Pong, Happiness of the Katakuris and , of course, a slew of brilliant horror movies. The occasional HK great Hong Kong movie still came out, of course (Shaolin Soccer, The Eye, Chinese Oddyssey 2002), but very few directors could be depended upon to consistently deliver the goods.
Johnnie To is credited with directing 36 movies on IMDB. I read somewhere that he makes about four movies a year; one for himself, three for his studio. That is probably why he still doesn’t have a big name in the west. I first got introduced to his movies through this site. I bought Fulltime Killer because of its’ place on Harry’s best of 2001 list. I wasn’t disappointed. Here at last was a movie that had some of the greatness of pre-Hollywood John Woo and not only that; in the final act it left the action movie template behind, becoming something else entirely. Also, it showed that cantopop stars sometimes can act; Andy Lau’s performance was great.
After Fulltime Killer, Johnnie To has made seven movies, the ones I’ve seen are MY LEFT EYE SEES GHOSTS, a sweet and actually funny comedy starring Sammi Cheng (current HK pop queen) and PTU, a night in the life of some shady HK cops. Both are recommended, but the point of all this is RUNNING ON KARMA. I should mention that there are minor spoilers ahead, so please don’t read on if you already want to see this.
Superficially, RUNNING ON KARMA looks like standard HK fluff (but above average fluff, since it’s a To movie). Andy Lau (in a big muscle suit) stars as a monk turned male stripper who can see people’s karma. He befriends cop Cecilia Cheung, and tries to save her from her karmic fate while helping her solve a crime or two. Textbook stuff, right? Combine PTU (the bad cops), My left Eye sees Ghosts (the visions), Love on a Diet (Andy Lau in a fat suit) and leave it in the microwave for half an hour.
WRONG. I haven’t mentioned the Indian assasin (sort of like the guy with the arms in Master of the Flying Guillotine) who can fold himself into a small cardboard box, the gore, the cinematography, Andy Lau’s performance (his best yet IMO, even better than in Infernal Affairs), the fights (only a couple of short ones, but they’re cool), humour that actually works (a rarity in HK movies) and an ending that I certainly won’t spoil yet, but which is sure to piss people off royally. That little list should be enough to make the average AICN’er want to see this movie.
It’s hard to pin down a movie which features both a man in a fat suit repeatedly falling off a scooter and a climax that’s as grim as Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, but that’s exactly how I want my Hong Kong movies. Technically brilliant, with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in to make me forget that it’s minus 20 degrees celcius outside and I have to get up early to go to work tomorrow. And it’s under 90 minutes long.
What takes the movie from great to exceptional however, is it’s treatments of Bhuddist beliefs in Pacifism and karma. Somehow, between all the coolness mentioned above there are big philosophical themes mixed in. I have to discuss the ending now, so those who don’t want a
MAJOR SPOILER
Should go away now.
The ending is hard to take, but absolutely essential, considering the movie’s themes. It would be so easy to somehow resurrect Cecilia Cheung in the end. But the fact that she dies horribly, and Big decides to NOT take revenge for her is makes for a powerful finish to a great movie. How many times haven’t we seen the hero making horrendous sacrifices, but when he finally “wins” the moviemakers manipulate us into believing it was somehow worth it?
Big realizes it isn’t right to take another life. His understanding of karma makes him realize that it’s wrong, no matter what. And he walks away. I’ve longed to see a movie where the main character does this. In my opinion it’s the right thing to do, the HEROIC thing to do. And it’s an outcome rarely explored in mainstream art. The strength to just let it go.
It was a painful, but ultimately satisfying end to what will be one of the best movies I’ll se this year. Let’s see Hollywood try remake this. And Johnnie To just went from being a dependable filmmaker to becoming a truly great one. See this film.
Gigaloff
