Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Don’t know a thing about this one, but Lau is a pretty mammoth star after the INFERNAL AFFAIRS series. That automatically makes this a high-profile HK export. Is it any good? Let’s see...
Hey Harry,
Not sure if you've done this one already so here it is.
Running on Karma stars Asian hot pot, Andy Lau, whom we all know as the cool as fuck killer from Fulltime Killer and the Infernal Affairs series. I think he's around 40 now, but already he can be seen as a Sean Connery or Jack Nicholson, in that he will be just as cool 20 years from now. And since it looks like he does most of his own fighting, he's not slowing down any.
The film, as I see it, has two parallel cores that sort of graze each other along the way, but never really connect. With one, undercover cop cutey Cecilia Cheung meets Andy as he strips to his bare ass in a strip club. At the same time the cops are investigating a murder where a contortionist Indian has killed his friend out of rage and is now on the run. This parallel runs like a comedic super hero film where buff Andy, who's name is "Big" by the way, helps solve the murder and beat the shit out of the bad guy. I was fine with this being the plot for the entire film, but it ends half way through.
On the other parallel, we have the back story of Big, a monk who's girlfriend was murdered. In rage he kills a sparrow and meditates in front of it for 7 days. After that, he quits being a monk, but now has the ability to see people's past lives. This evolves into the "you can't escape your fate" plot line, where Andy can see Cecilia's past life was of a murderous Japanese during WWII. To pay for her sins in that life, she must die in this one.
The meat of this plot picks up in a scene that feels like it was tossed in as an afterthought. The cops are chasing a thief who has oiled himself up, across the rooftops. Just as Cecilia is about to fall, Big comes flying in from nowhere and rescues her. He then catches the thief, after some pretty cool choreography, in a satellite dish, folding him up like a fortune cookie so he cant' slip away.
As Cecilia and Big become closer, Big's past unravels and Cecilia finds out about her karma. Knowing she will die, Cecilia vows to catch the man that killed Big's girlfriend. She hikes up in the mountains to find him and after a week, Big runs up the mountain looking for her. This is where it does a David Lynch.
(SPOILER) Turns out Big finds his enemy, but it's actually him. Its the him that would have been if he hadn't gone off into the world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. They duke it out and Big finally realizes the missing puzzle piece. After 5 years, he finds the man who killed his girlfriend, and forgives him. He then returns to become a monk again. The end. (END SPOILER)
As you can see there is a lot to follow and nothing is really fleshed out enough to make it profound. It actually feels like two films. The first one ends with Big catching the Indian. The second one begins with the pursuit of Big's girlfriend's killer. If they had stuck with the fun of the bumbling big guy action, or dug deeper into the karma thing, I think it would have been more enjoyable. It was like craving a piece of pie, but only getting a spoonful along with turkey, carrots, and cranberries.
Now I know what everyone who knows about this film is asking. How does Andy's muscle suit look? It looks like a muscle suit. A pretty good muscle suit, but still a muscle suit. There is a scene where Andy enters a bodybuilding competition, where from a distance, blends right in with other guys, but lack of relaxation and flex in the muscles are what give it away so easily.
Especially since he can't seem to keep his clothes on.
Honestly, I don't see why they had to go so extreme with this muscle thing. During one of the funny pieces in the film, Andy is trying to follow a police pursuit on a scooter. Because he was a monk, he's never driven before. The problem though, while he's smashing this and twisting that during other scenes, he is really struggling to push the scooter along. He does most of what he does because he's a monk, anyway. No need for the overdoes on roids.
I've seen Jonny To and Ka-Fai Wai's other films, and this, while entertaining, just didn't stand up. Even the romantic comedy Turn Left, Turn Right felt like a more solid and engrossing movie. I had to see this because I'm an Andy Lau fan, and the body suit, while pointless, calls a smile whenever Andy does something ridiculous to draw upon it. But as for the movie, it's just an OK.
eff you see kay the emm pee double A
Thanks, man. Nice review. I do recall hearing about this, the “muscle suit movie,” and it’s nice to read a review of it.
"Moriarty" out.
