2016 ‘樹大招風’ Directed by Frank Hui, Jevons Au Man-Kit …
The film is set in Hong Kong before its handover to China in 1997, when the city’s booming economy inadvertently attracts three infamous criminals from Mainland China to cross the border and make their fortune in Hong Kong. Although unknown to one another, their notoriety has bred the rumor that the triumvirate will join forces to stage a shocking heist together, so much so that the criminals themselves get wind of it and are tempted to do just that.
Richie Ren Gordon Lam Ka-Tung Jordan Chan To Yin-Gor Zhang Kai Le Zi-Long Philip Keung Thimjapo Chattida Aoi Ma Lau Ga-Yung Kam Loi-Kwan Huang Kai-Sen Tommy Wong Jimmy Wong Wa-Wo Lam Suet Ben Yuen Belinda Yan Law Chi-Sing Ho Ka-Wah Hui Bing-Hang Li Ying-Tao Leung Kin-Ping Elliot Ngok Stephen Au Vincent Wan Yeung-Ming Chiu Chi-Shing Lee Man-Biu Frankie Ng Xiong Xin-Xin
A Johnnie To produced triptych about a trio of gangsters in the approaching days of the 1997 holdover and dealing in their own quiet desperate way with their irrelevance in face of the new order. Each story is handled by a different director (Frank Hui, Jevons Au and Vicky Wong) but edited together in a way that suggests To’s earlier Life Without Principle. It seems like every 10 year anniversary of the holdover brings new batch of movies haunted by it (2006-2007 batch included Milkyway’s own Hooked on You), this one can be a bit muddled on spots but the anxiety is real and carries the film along.
Only example I can think of in a crime film when a character ingests too much coke and it's the soft drink.
Berlinale 2016 #12: Johnnie To's Milkyway Productions, which took this project under its wings, presents an intertwined tale of the portraits of three legendary gangsters from Hong Kong. A film that combines the efforts of three debutante directors. The time and place is just moments before the handover in 1997 in HK itself and in Ghuangzhou, China, where they try to set up a new business in trading luxury goods illegally. The cinematography is done quite well and you'll find some Hk styled pathos and humour, too - as well as some blood shedded heroically. This is not an unforgettable film, but a solid effort that knows very well how to entertain.
three fallen kings as twilight falls on their world. like to's three the curtain falls just as we expect the climax, and realize we weren't watching that kind of film after all. lovingly obsessed with procedure, language, manners, and a sort of formalized/falsely-convivial dialogue; none of the shoot-outs are half as interesting as the obsessive exchange of vases. as always lam suet gets the best laugh.
Trivisa is the latest product of Johnnie To’s Milkyway Image studio (at least, until his new film opens here on June 24th). Directed by the young trio of Jevons Au, Vicky Wong and Frank Hui, it’s a crime story set on the eve of Hong Kong’s handover to Mainland China in 1997. A trio of arch-criminals, the so-called “Kings of Thieves” try to make ends meet in the increasingly troublesome last days of the British imperium. Lam Ka-tung tries to keep a low-profile, going after small jewelry store scores, Richie Jen transitions from firearm-heavy bank robbery to business-like smuggling operations, sneaking electronics into the PRC with the full complicity of the local government (and necessitating a series of humiliating meetings…
Definitely a really solid film, but nothing about it stood out for me especially, it was just a straight line at the "Good" level, with no dips in quality, but not many especially high points either. Also, and this is more of a language barrier thing than much else, but it took me a fair while to be able to keep track of who's who as far as the names go. I see this a lot in Hong Kong films, where each character has like three different ways of saying their name. I even used the Wikipedia page on the movie for reference of their names, but sometimes they'd get called something that wasn't related (to me as an English…
Surely one of the better HK movies that came out recently. It was quite boring at some parts but then it got better and I really enjoyed the last 20-30 minutes of the film. Worth watching.
We expect the triumphant return of the 3 "kings of thieves", and so do themselves as they get wind about a reunion. The play on expectations works well enough as we realize this isn't that type of movie, but is more about how the new world they see themselves in has left them behind to live of smaller crimes. The plot is really thin and loses track of it's focus, which for a 96 minute film is somewhat worrying. Gordon Lam's storyline is by far the most focused and successful one, giving us a lot more insight into his past life, where as the other 2 mob bosses don't get as much attention sadly. The last scene is also a great bonus, a bit gimmicky but entertaining nonetheless.
The movie is saved by it's cinematography and performances no doubt, the actors aren't given much to work with, but they make due with what is there and elevate it.
Definitely a really solid film, but nothing about it stood out for me especially, it was just a straight line at the "Good" level, with no dips in quality, but not many especially high points either. Also, and this is more of a language barrier thing than much else, but it took me a fair while to be able to keep track of who's who as far as the names go. I see this a lot in Hong Kong films, where each character has like three different ways of saying their name. I even used the Wikipedia page on the movie for reference of their names, but sometimes they'd get called something that wasn't related (to me as an English…
Latest treasure for Hong Kong movie fans. so glad we still have this kind of films in Hong Kong
Destins croisés de trois malfrats de Hong Kong à la veille de la rétrocession.
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