Spectacular Cinema

Why Hong Kong movies are beating Hollywood at its own game.

Charles Oliver from the November 1994 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

One of the striking things about Woo's films is that innocent people sometimes get gunned down, by mistake, by his heroes. That's something that would never be seen in an American film. Americans expect their heroes to be perfect. But Woo's heroes are fallible. One of the heroes of A Better Tomorrow 2 asks, "Why is it so difficult for a man to be good?" That seems to be the question that Woo is dramatizing in many of his films. His movies are populated by men trying to maintain their honor while living in a world of disloyalty, greed, and lust.

Which brings us to Woo's other trademark: his serpentine, super-melodramatic plots. In A Better Tomorrow 2, for example, two brothers go undercover to infiltrate a counterfeiting gang. The gang's leader finds out that the younger brother is a policeman. At the same time he is suspicious of the other man (he doesn't know they are related), so he orders the older brother to prove his loyalty by shooting the cop to death in front of the assembled gang. The brother who is to be killed whispers to the other, "Better he trusts one of us." The other brother glances at the gang surrounding them, realizes they can't fight their way out, and shoots his brother.

A man driven by duty finds himself in an untenable position: He can try to save his brother, lose their quarry, and likely fail at the rescue in the process, or he must commit the most anguishing act in order to reach his goal. Woo faces the conflict unflinchingly. An American film maker would have forced a happier resolution on the situation, if he even wrote it at all.

But there's more to Hong Kong cinema than gore and violence. There's also sex. In this area, Hong Kong cinema is closer to European standards than to U.S. ones. Hong Kong film makers regularly turn out big-budget showcases of unabashed erotica. Indeed, films such as Sex and Zen, the Erotic Ghost Story series, and Escape from the Brothel can match anything the Europeans make in abundant nudity and sexuality. And they go far beyond even the unrated versions of such U.S. films as Basic Instinct.

Many of these films are erotic thrillers whose plots echo similar American films: Someone has sex and must pay. For example, in Cash on Delivery, the protagonist has a brief encounter with a sexy young woman who develops a fatal attraction to him. When he tries to break things off, their meeting degenerates into a brawl in which he accidentally kills her husband. It turns out that this is what the young woman was planning from the start, and she accuses him of murder. In true movie fashion, the man's girlfriend is a lawyer, and only she can get him free.

But what is unique to many other erotic films made in Hong Kong is their sense of ribaldry. We really don't have anything like them in America, although some classics of English literature, such as The Canterbury Tales, are similar to the spirit of these films. Indeed, many of the best of Hong Kong's erotic films draw upon ribald classics of Chinese literature.

For example, Sex and Zen is based upon a Chinese classic. In Zen, the leading man, deciding that he is "too small," has a wizard replace his penis with that of a horse. The wizard is one of the clumsiest men around, and before the (bloodless) operation is completed, it degenerates into a sickly hilarious piece of slapstick with people getting knocked unconscious and penises rolling around on the floor.

Hong Kong film makers also draw upon Chinese literature and legends for wild epic fantasies. One of the best of this genre is The Bride with White Hair. This film centers on two lovers: a beautiful young woman who is the assassin of an evil cult and a young swordsman who is the champion of those who oppose the cult. Despite its obvious resemblance to Romeo and Juliet, this film features many touches that are unique to Hong Kong cinema. The leaders of the cult are brother and sister magicians who cannot satisfy their incestuous lust because they are joined at the spine, Siamese-twin style.

Nowhere is Hong Kong film's disdain for realism more evident than in this movie. The entire film has the look of a dream. The daytime exteriors were shot at night using artificial lights, giving the movie its strange look.

Some have said that because of this rejection of naturalism, Hong Kong films will never be accepted by mainstream American audiences. Perhaps. But these movies are attracting a growing cult audience in North America. And John Woo has already directed one American film, Hard Target, and is set to direct another. Maybe given a chance, Americans will show themselves just as appreciative of good spectacle as Asians.

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