Fist Power (2000)Ex-British forces marine Charles (Wong) is happily playing with his stepson Tony in the park when a gangster and his wife show up. The duo are the parents who ditched the kid on Charles years ago. Now they're back to snatch the child from Charles - they're planning to whisk Tony to the US as part of a sweet inheritance deal. Charles is less than amused and goes to the police and Social Welfare Department to claim the child back. He's met with government indifference. But being a social justice kind of guy he loads up on explosive firepower, calls in three ex-army buddies, and takes an entire school hostage until the boy is given back to him. Otherwise, he'll blow the place sky high. By way of coincidence, Charles is in luck. While the cops are uncooperatively calling in their SDU folks to wipe out the vigilante foursome, it turns out a Shenzhen-based kung-fu and security specialist named Brian (Chiu) is in town. And his nephew's one of the hostages in the school. Brian doesn't want his relative blown to smithereens and heads straight to the airport along with a petrolhead hoon (Lee) and a "famous reporter" (Lai) to bring back Tony. A few car stunts later and Tony's pinched back from the parents and happily heading back to Charles at the school. Now the gangster's less than amused. He orders hitmen and a terrific hitwoman (Li) to cream both Charles and Brian and get back his son. Action ensues. The pre-credits sequence's visual style hints at who the director is, and his trademark styles - facial closeups, interesting edits and compositions and a hazy and washed-out, yet crisp, feel - are present throughout the rest of his film. But as much as I enjoy Chang's usual direction, the martial arts filming here is far from fluid and littered with quickfire edits, dishing up fast-paced silliness over style. And that's a pity, because the gist of the film is straight up action and Chiu Man-cheuk really shows off his moves here. Fans of Chiu miffed by Body Weapon certainly have more to gawk at in Fist Power's lengthy and numerous bouts. Pre-credits, the man pulps scores of security guards as he battles his way up a Shenzhen skyscraper for a final fisticuff sequence shot with roving camera and even an encircling helicopter perspective. Later there are more enjoyable fights in store on a Star Ferry and in a cycling duel in West Kowloon. And there's a fight on the Airport Express too - though the train's actually heading the wrong way, it's still an enjoyable first for HK cinema. So that's Chiu's bit. Less can be said for the other lead actors. Anthony Wong is not overly animated in a role that smacks of cues from Fruit Chan's The Longest Summer. Sam Lee seems typecast as the weird young fella again in his part as a hothead mechanic named Horn. And as for Gigi Lai; despite the action woven into the runtime she only throws only a single, and I must say rather weak, punch in the whole film. And as a journalist, she's somewhat unconvincing whenever she snaps away photos with her camera lens covered. Thankfully the plot they're placed in is, for the most part, direct; kept simple enough to throw in all the fights. Sure there's a lot to get all pernickety about in the casting, acting and details, but considering the ample fist power from main provider Chiu Man-cheuk on display, it really isn't all that bad. DVD information: Mei Ah's disc of this silly little film impressed me. The print is as clean and overly bright as it was in the cinema and the transfer ably holds Chiu, Poyer and Li's speedy movements. Director Chang's framings and facial shots work well on the small screen, though close-ups suffer from the poor dubbing ‚ no fault of the disc manufacturer. The Dolby 5.1 mixes are punchy in both Cantonese and Putongua and the originals are provided too. The active Fist Power trailer is included too. Nine chapters divide the film and the subtitle choices are Chinese simplified and traditional, and English. The plot synopsis "feature" repeats info from the back of the box and the chatty Winner Takes All trailer is the Best Buy choice. |
Credits: Directed by Aman Chang |
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