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Wong Jing is one of my favorite directors. He make some of the best... and worst...
movies in Hong Kong. THE LAST TYCOON charts the rise of Chen Daqi, who is loosely
based on real-life gangster Du Yusheng, who was also known as Big-Eared Du. He is played
alternately by Huang Xiaoming as the younger version and Chow Yun Fat as the elder
incarnation. Big-Eared Du essentially ran Shanghai in partnership with 'Pockmarked'
Huang Jinrong. That's
the grumpiest *** addict I've ever seen. He's the obvious model for Sammo
Hung's character. That's the fattest *** addict I've ever seen.
In order to make the movie 'China- friendly,' Wong Jing can't call these characters
gangsters, though, because there are no gangsters in China,
so he has to call them tycoons. In other words, he's not allowed to be too
accurate with history. It's not like he was at risk of doing that anyway. Not only
does that give him a lot of protection from criticism, it actually supports and even
perpetuates 'China-friendly' handling of history in film.
That's why the ascendant Chen Daqi can
righteously proclaim to everyone in Shanghai that under his rule there will
be no drugs, no prostitution, and no gambling in the French Concession.
Because in real life, Big-Eared Du said exactly the same thing, but at the end he
said "Except mine!" See how that works?
But even with just a
tenuous relationship with history, and truth,
the story is
mostly cohesive, and like
almost all of Wong Jing's films, moves
Pretty briskly along. This film is not without its share of flaws both
major and minor
but as I note,
the beauty of Wong Jing films is that when they inevitably, even briefly,
plunge three fathoms below suck,
you can just smile because this is part of what Wong Jing does. It's part of who he is..
If his films weren't bad, they wouldn't be Wong Jing films. The story doesn't
unfold, it just
assails you with a nearly non-stop barrage of images, sounds and events that
have all the subtlety and grace of a nineteenth-century epileptic surgeon.
CIRCUMCISIONS! FIVE YUAN! But that's a big part of the fun. Wong shamelessly
recycles both Chow Yun Fat and John Woo to a degree that would
embarrass Quentin Tarantino. Even so, I have to admit that when I see Chow Yun Fat
in a white suit, holding a pistol, it makes me kinda nostalgic. Sammo Hung has
actually turned out to be pretty good actor, and he does a commendable job
here, working with
not very much. He spends a disturbing amount of time topless in the film, but it
mostly makes narrative sense, so I could mostly overlook it. "You have the biggest
*** in this movie!" "And you made DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION, so you can go f@#$ yourself!"
Francis Ng provides a very impressive turn as a KMT official whose hands are so
deep into crime he needs to wear short-sleeved shirts. And he looks great in a
uniform, ladies. If anyone can be said to have no reason to be ashamed of their
part in this film, it's him. And if you can be in a Wong Jing movie without shame, you're very
lucky. Huang Xiaoming
plays his role well,
and I imagine he had some fun essentially imitating Chow Yun Fat. See?
One actor who really did impress me was Gao Hu. It's hard to explain
why, except to say that he really sold me on his character.
Now if I could just figure out why he reminds me of Gary Oldman. These characters all
interactive in a violent miasma of crime, nationalism, love, and guns. It's basically an
Irish
Catholic Christmas movie.
As the story moves forward, we get into what seems to be the now-requisite
segment showing us how evil,
brutal,
and evil
Japan was during WWII (and by extension ever since). But here again
Wong's heavy hand manages to leaven what I would otherwise find an infuriating
nod to the Chinese government's nearly obsessive need to demonize Japan. The
portrayals and events are so poorly presented, so overacted, and so
histrionically overwrought that they're laughable. I really enjoyed THE LAST TYCOON.
It's not a great movie by any stretch, but it's great fun, and that's really all
we can reasonably ask of Wong Jing. In this case, at least, we got what we asked for, and we
actually got quite a bit more. Watch this movie on DVD. Don't download it! If you
enjoyed this review please let me know. If you disliked it, please let me know, and
I'll let you know what I think about your opinion. If you think that my
pronunciation stinks, that's fine.
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make me have a f@#$in' aneurysm
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