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Hi! Welcome to The Silver Spleen.
My name is Amos Off and this is my review of
ONCE UPON A TIME IN SHANGHAI. I haven't really been a fan of
Wong Ching Po in some time. I enjoyed JIANG HU,
but after AH SOU, to be honest I skipped his next couple of films.
But I have to say I'm very impressed with his direction here.
He managed to make a movie that's suffused with antiquity
but not suffocated by it. It's a celebration of older films, but it's not a
slavish reproduction by any means. I think ONCE UPON A TIME IN SHANGHAI
really is
what Quentin Tarantino thinks KILL BILL is. ONCE UPON A TIME IN SHANGHAI is
profoundly evocative of several genres of films;
it calls to mind a whole bunch of different things, whether it's Shaw Brothers or
Bruce Lee, or even just
old classic Hollywood films. There aren't any surprises in this story
and in its own way it's completely predictable,
but you know what? So is sex and that seems pretty popular!
Early in the film, Andy On's character violently consolidates his ownership of
a nightclub.
He's apparently snubbed when he flippantly instructs the singer
to sing him a song. He turns to leave, and on a generic cue
she begins singing, and it's like the whole world stops.
Now I've seen that exact same thing
done a whole bunch of times, in a whole bunch of movies, and it was still great!
When I watch this movie again, 'cause I'm going to, that's going to remain one of
my favorite moments of the film.
There's just something about the way that it's done. Now what is new
about ONCE UPON A TIME IN SHANGHAI is the look and the feel of the film.
While it certainly is evocative of older movies, you can tell right away that this
is a brand new film.
The cinematography is just really, really nice.
It's used to accent the nostalgia rather than cover it up or try to excuse it,
and that's really what I enjoyed about this movie. I like the way that the film
winked
at the audience, and at itself, so many times,
and also did it so well. It presented characters that are
so classically stereotypical that you almost can't take the characters
seriously because
it's like they're archetypes. But you can enjoy the archetype, and to me that's where
the fun of the film is,
and I'm pretty sure that that was the intention. By the time the film reverts
to the seemingly obligatory anti-Japanese plot line,
it's developed such a nostalgic air that it seems much more organic to the plot line
than
it does in most recent films. Now certainly the depictions
of the Japanese villains are overstated and simplistic,
but really that could be said for all of the characters in this movie.
And again, I don't mean that in a bad way. They're the stereotypes we've all grown up with
and therefore we love to see them. The actors in this film deserve a lot of
credit for the dramatic work that they do.
Philip Ng obviously wasn't an actor in the 50's or 60's or 70's; I don't even
think he was born yet. But to me, he really manage to convincingly capture
that classic sort of depiction
of the smiling, naive rural bumpkin who comes to the big city and
is overwhelmed by everything he sees. His character is so
earnest its unbelievable, except that we've seen it so many times,
we know that he kind of has to be this way. If he wasn't that way we'd be
disappointed.
Philip plays the role perfectly; he's possessed of superhuman strength, an
unshakable moral foundation, and
really not much else, except the clothes on his back. Sammo Hung, Yuen Wo Ping,
Fung Hak On and Chen Kuan Tai play the leaders of Shanghai's underworld.
However, their position at the top is under threat by a rising young gangster
played by Andy On.
He's brash, volatile, and occasionally psychotic.
He's the devil that leads the innocent young man astray
with entree into a dazzling world of money, power,
and women. Andy On plays this role with remarkable dexterity,
one minute dazzlingly charming and the next coldly ruthless.
His character having once been the rural country boy himself,
he's now a crass, pragmatic, realist who realizes
that the only things you get in life are the things you take. But that doesn't
mean that you can't smile and look really good while you're doing it.
Considering these two characters are played by real-life friends,
they share more than a few Moments of Bromance
as their friendship, literally forged in a fire, grows.
As Andy's character rediscovers his humanity,
Phillips character becomes slowly but surely more worldly.
The other actors do an equally good job filling out the cast of characters
that again are people we've seen a thousand times before
but are made new for this film. Michelle Hu was really,
really cute as the petulant, aggressive young woman
who scolds Phillip's character for anything that he does, whether it's good
or bad.
She never seems to have a nice thing to say to him, because she likes him, and
that's what girls do.
It's enough to make you think that she's Irish-Catholic. Jiang Luxia
plays her sister in a role that frankly is too small for her to show off her
considerable martial arts skills,
and only gives her a couple of lines. But at least she was there.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN SHANGHAI is about martial arts
and it's certainly delivers on that level. There is some digital under-
cranking employed and
some CG is used, because you can't throw axes around in real life.
I mean, you can but... Even so, it's really obvious
when you watch it that these people know what they're doing and they're doing it
really, really well. The crispness of the action and the physicality that they
display
isn't something you can fake with a computer; you have to actually be able to
do that stuff.
Now, obviously it helps to have Yuen Wo Ping doing your action choreography
in addition to playing a role. But what helps even more is having people like
Philip Ng and Andy On, who were able to execute the things that Yuen Wo Ping
designs.
The best thing I can say about ONCE UPON A TIME IN SHANGHAI
is that yes, it's a great martial arts movie, but it's also a great movie
in and of itself. If I say I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it,
it doesn't mean I didn't have a lot of expectations, 'cause I did. What I'm saying is
it surprised me in ways that I didn't expect, and I really enjoyed them.
I smiled
the entire way through it, and I don't usually smile, as I'm sure most of you
know.
But I did, and I can hardly wait another week until it's released to cinemas and
I can go watch it again.
You know what? Movies like this are why I moved
to the far side of the world. Now obviously, I want you to see this movie
but I want you to do it without downloading it. If you're in Hong Kong
or in Asia,
go see it in a cinema and pay for it. Don't buy a bootleg DVD, don't download it,
don't be a piece of sh*t.
Eventually, when this is released to home video, I'll update the description with
links so you can buy it.
Trust me, this is Blu ray. If you enjoyed this review, please leave me a comment.
If you didn't enjoy the review,
go f@#$ yourself. If you enjoy my reviews in general, I would greatly appreciate a
subscription to the channel.
Thank you for watching and have a pleasant evening.
Early on, Andy On...