A reader called Zorachus sent in this look at two titles from the great Johnnie To.
There's a lot of information here, so I'll get out of the way & let Zorachus do the rest...
Zorachus here...
Johnnie To and Stephen Chow are my favorite Hong Kong directors.
To actually directed Chow in a couple of movies back in the early 90's, Justice My Foot and The Mad Monk; they were still friends after the first one, which was a hit, but they had a big fight over the second movie, and it was a flop. Anyway, in spite of the fact that I think I like Chow’s movies more, his output sure has dropped way off; whereas To just keeps on pumping out good and sometimes great movies movies at a fantastic rate. It’s your basic Tiger Tank versus T-34 situation. Right at the moment at least, To is overwhelming Chow with numbers.
He’s been turning out product since the mid eighties, and he works in all sorts of genres. Some of his early hits were romantic comedies with Chow Yun-fat, but he also made a super grisly cop flick for Tsui Hark called The Big Hit. My introduction to his work was The Heroic Trio, which I’m sure you’re all familiar with...after that, I laid my hands on every To movie I could, and discovered he had an incredibly high batting average. Even when he wasn’t directing, his fingerprints were all over other people’s wonderful movies. He founded a production company (with a very strange unreadable logo) called Milkyway Image, and MI’s still at it, making very good flicks of every description. Frequently he co-directs with a guy named Wai Ka Fai.
They did this dynamite Spaghetti Western homage called A Hero Never Dies, produced an excellent bullet fest called Beyond Hypothermia, and parodied ER with a hilarious hospital comedy called Help. They also made three very engaging chick-flicks called Needing You, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts, and Turn Left, Turn Right...then went their separate ways. To did a couple of movies that I didn’t like (Yesterday Once More, Throw-Down) and one which kinda worked but almost didn’t called Running on Karma. Then he came roaring back with Breaking News, the Election movies, and one of the ass-kickingest gangster gunfight movies ever, Exiled.
Now To’s collaborating with Wai Ka-Fai again, and the result is Mad Detective; on top of that, he also just released a ghost movie called Linger...Holy shit this guy works hard.
The Mad Detective
For some reason I went into this thing thinking it was going to be some kind of comic romp, and while some of it is pretty funny, the primary effect is extremely disturbing. The great Lau Ching Wan, who stopped making movies for a while there, plays the title character, Inspector Bun...in one of the best openings in recent films, we’re introduced to Bun’s character and methods...first we see him stabbing a pig carcass repeatedly...then he has a subordinate zip him into a suitcase and roll him down the stairs...then, at his boss’s retirement party, Bun saws his own ear off and presents it as his farewell gift.
Flash forward...we’re introduced to crooked cop Chi-Wai (Lam Ka Tung) who’s on stakeout. When his partner goes to take a whizz, Chi Wai rifles his wallet, but his partner finds out and threatens to report him. The guy they’re looking for shows up, they give chase...Chi-Wai’s partner get killed, and the thief—supposedly---winds up with Chi-Wai’s gun. A rash of robberies breaks out, in which the stolen gun is used...Ho (Andy On) a young cop, is assigned to crack the case, but comes to Bun for advice. It turns out that Bun has retired after the gift-ear incident...while On is trying to talk to him, Bun is constantly talking to his ex-wife, whom we eventually learn is a figment of his imagination, or more accurately, a fragment of his own personality. Bun, you see, gets wireless telegraphy from God, and he can see these alter-egoes that hover around people and give them advice...some people have entire swarms of them, comprised of cool HK character actors like Lam Suet. Anyway, for one reason and another, Bun decides to help On, and off they go into a series of situations that are alternately harrowing, hilarious, and touching, and always strange....
This flick has gotten a lot of buzz at film festivals, and richly deserves it. It bears a certain resemblance to the less successful Running on Karma, but it’s still very much its own beast...you know you’re looking at a Johnnie To movie, but he’s very far from repeating himself. It establishes interesting premises, and then elaborates on them nicely; it moves right along, and you really don’t know what’s going to happen; Lau Ching Wan turns in an excellent performance. If I have a complaint, it’s that To doesn’t care much if you can follow his story....he doesn’t spoonfeed you. But things that puzzle you on a first viewing usually sort themselves on a second or third...I’ve seen Mad Detective three times this month.
Highly recommended.
Linger
This is a very different cup of tea. Whereas Detective is unsettling, quick, and completely off-kilter, Linger is slow, romantic and lyrical, and works very well on its own terms. It starts off as though it’s going to be a horror movie, but it quickly morphs into something else...it’s very different from your usual Chinese ghost stories, or other sorts of Asian fright flicks. In some ways it reminded me of an old Anita Mui movie called Rouge...but it’s not as depressing.
Li Bingbing (who seems to be playing a Bride With White Hair clone in that upcoming Jet Li Jacky Chan thing) plays Gia, a college girl who’s involved with Tung (Vic Chou). He’s still seeing another girl...Gia and Tung quarrel, and she takes off in a car. He follows on a motorcycle; there’s an accident with pretty hair raising stunt work. He’s killed; Gia is severely racked up, and has horrible nightmares that can only be quelled with pills. Three years later, she’s advised by her doctor to ease back on the drugs, and she starts seeing Tung again. He’s been hanging about since his death, and has decided he really loves her, but the pills have prevented her from seeing him. Now he gets to resolve all the issues that have kept him from going on to Heaven, or wherever, and she realizes that she liked him a whole lot better than she thought...
The first few scenes where he manifests himself are effectively creepy, and Li Bingbing really gives you the impression that she’s seeing a ghost and truly hates it...most upsetting. After that, things get romantic, but that’s okay....the movie has a small, intimate feel. While I was watching, I was a bit detached from it, since I didn’t know how it was going to turn out. Luckily, the resolution tied up all the threads and was downright moving.
I suspect most AICN fans would much prefer things like Exiled and Mad Detective, but my wife and I enjoyed Linger quite a bit, and I fully intend to take a second look sometime soon.
