Twilight Garden (2000)Hong Kong cops Tsi (Cheung) and Wah (Tse) bungle a suicide rescue and are packed off to patrol remote Tinpin Village. The rural locale, dubbed a "Graveyard for Policemen" by the village's head cop (Lam), hasn't seen a reported crime in 20 years. Life at Tinpin is slow - "I'm bored to vomit", Tsi moans a few days later - but it turns out the lads need the all the free time they can get... One day a girl named Queenie (Wu) returns from England to visit the village. She has with her a bracelet and she wants to give it to her mother; dottering local Aunt Nun (Law). Queenie also hopes to spruce up the nearby Chrysanthemum field for the old lady to better recall the past. While a shady young man (Poyer) won't let her stay in the village for more than five days, Queenie still finds time to get involved with Tsi as his first love. Meanwhile, Wah has a stroke of bad luck. His uncle (Lau) suddenly appears in the village, is beaten up as a suspected illegal immigrant and is taken in for the night. It turns out Uncle's actually a Western-style vampire, with a minor wolf howl, an itchy backside and a requisite thirst for blood. Wah gets the bite and together the pair start a ridiculous search for the red juice. The first of the stories is routine, right down to another typecast Law Lan role. But Twilight Garden's strengths lie in the off-kilter vampire happening. The afflicted's trial-and-error approach to finding good blood is amusing and Uncle's relationship with the village doctor (Woman Prison's Lo Fun) becomes a hoot. I'm not sure what the producers asked for when they commissioned this film but these lowbrow sequences are strangely appealing on screen. Production appears to be on the fast side, with few clothing changes and certain actors providing what appears to be a single day's work. The script is on the poor side, burdened by a main plot obvious to the viewer from the opening scenes onwards, and filler scenes drag. Plotfalls regardless, the quality is above par for what's essentially a home video catalogue title. The New Territories scenery is emphasised on screen, filling the frame with green and peaceful environs. Wide shots allow surprising amounts of foliage to fill the outdoor compositions, even losing the characters in the picture at times. Direct sound keeps ambient noise particularly clear throughout. A standout sequence with its raucous sex scene is "voiced" completely by hand-written speech bubbles, passing sound duties to a bouncy keyboard track reminiscent in spirit of a pianist's silent film accompaniment. With moments like this, I'm glad such absurdity still makes it onto the big screen, even if only for a week at just two Hong Kong cinemas. DVD information: The Universe DVD edition offers worthwhile improvement on the earlier VCD release. The letterboxed picture is crisp and bright, though occasionally hazy, and the outdoor scenes are slightly easier to follow against background foliage. Unlike on the VCD, the on-screen text preceding the credits is subtitled for the DVD. Minor variations in the subtitle translation appear elsewhere but in no way harm the film. The movie is split into nine chapters and features Star's Files for Julian Cheung, Annie Wu and Helena Law (all current up to 1998). The latter is very informative, though having Law's filmography start with 1968 is misleading - seeing her in The Kid (1950) suggests a much longer career. The enjoyable Twilight Garden trailer is provided, as are trailers for A Wicked Ghost: The Fear and the dreadful Deathnet.com. Note: This film review is based on viewing the Universe VCD and DVD editions and not on theatrical release. As a result I can't comment on the big screen presentation. The Universe DVD cover is pictured at the top of this page. |
Credits: Directed by Aman Cheung Man |
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