A Chinese Tall Story

Year:2005
Director:Jeff Lau Chun-Wai
Cast:Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung, Charlene Choi Cheuk-Yin, Fan Bing-Bing, Wilson Chen, Kenny Kwan Chi-Bun, Steven Cheung Chi-Hung, Isabella Leong, Kara Hui Ying-Hung, Gordon Liu Chia-Hui, Yuen Wah, Patrick Tam Yiu-Man, Wong Yat-Fei, GC Goo Bi, Lee Kin-Yan, Tats Lau Yi-Tat, Chan Wai-Man, Lai Yiu-Cheung
Description:
Jeff
Lau returns to Monkey King territory for the fantasy/adventure/kiddie-epic
[], a loosely-based reimagining
of The Journey to the West funded by powerhouse
entertainment group EEG. By "loosely-based",
we mean really loosely-based, i.e. it bears
almost no resemblance to its source material whatsoever.
The film doesn't even concentrate on the Monkey King
Sun Wukong, and instead focuses on his master, the
Tang Priest assigned to fetch Buddhist scriptures
from the West. The hook: the Tang Priest discovers
love with a female imp, testing his suitability for
his heavenly mission. The even bigger hook: everyone
in the film is played by an EEG star, meaning even
more marketing tie-ins and possible kickbacks. It's
a cynical business.
Nicholas Tse is Tripitaka,
the Tang monk on a quest to retrieve Buddhist scriptures
with his three disciples Sun Wukong , Sandy , and Piggy .
But on a stop in Shache City, Tripitaka comes under
siege by the minions of the evil Tree Demon, who wants
to feast on Tripitaka's flesh to become immortal.
After a blowout CG battle worthy of the Sony Playstation,
Sun Wukong ties Tripitaka to his fabled Golden Staff
and throws the monk far, far away to keep him safe.
The three disciples become captives of the Tree Demon,
leaving Tripitaka to his own devices - which isn't
such a hot idea. Though he's been given a very important
task, Tripitaka is still quite naive, and thinks love
and long-winded speeches are the way to humble the
masses. His efforts usually earn him a quick, and
not undeserved beating.
Tripitaka lands with
a group of lizard imps, who believe he's actually
Sun Wukong because he possesses the golden staff.
Of course, if they knew he was Tripitaka they'd eat
him because that's what everybody in Monkey King movies
wants to do. Guarding him is Meiyan ,
a fabulously ugly lizard imp deemed an outcast even
by her own people. Thanks to the magic of misinterpreted
words and circumstances, Meiyan thinks Tripitaka loves
her, and even when he denies it she remains steadfast
in her belief that the monk will make her his one
and only. Meiyan decides to help Tripitaka rescue
his disciples, but not without plenty of ensuing hijinks
including accidental murders, an elaborate plan to
make Tripitaka a bad boy, and plenty of CG effects
courtesy of the Golden Staff, which has the ability
to transform into just about any handy device, from
a mini jetplane to a boat to a battlemech out of The
Matrix Revolutions. Will Tripitaka save his disciples,
and can he actually love an ugly imp like Meiyan?
And what's with the occasional appearances by aliens,
or the extended sequence of Nicholas Tse in a Spider-Man
costume? Could this movie make less sense?
Probably not, but making
no sense is what director Jeff Lau does best. The
auteur behind the Chinese Odyssey films makes
mo lei tau his business, and he brings it full
force to Chinese Tall Story. Characters engage
in obtuse verbal jousting, anachronisms appear left
and right, minor details crop up only to be forgotten
five minutes later, and people get randomly socked
in the face - all in the name of wacky, anything goes
humor. The effect can be both tiresome and amusing.
Certainly, Twins detractors will enjoy the sight of
Charlene Choi accidentally getting punched in the
face by Nicholas Tse, and there's humor value in Tripitaka's
need to convert others through love. As described
earlier, his earnest effort usually earns him beatings
, but it can be amusing
stuff. True to form, Jeff Lau also lampoons Wong Kar-Wai's
works whenever possible. The Golden Staff can only
be activated if someone says to it, "I will love
you for 10,000 years." When we first get introduced
to Sun Wukong, he's telling a secret to a hole in
the wall like Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in In the Mood
for the Love. The necessity of such moments? Absolutely
none. The humor value? Surprisingly ample.
It's not all wacky fun
and games, though. What made the Chinese Odyssey
films so successful was their ability to switch from
silly humor to sometimes affecting emotions, and
Chinese Tall Story tries that too. The results
are less effective here, partly because it's not Stephen
Chow or Tony Leung Chiu-Wai playing the lead. Nicholas
Tse is an engaging comedian, but when he gets soulful
it sometimes seems like a bit too much. Charlene Choi
is quite effective when she's playing ugly, though
when she finally gets pretty she becomes far less
interesting. To be fair, the film does make their
pairing attractive, and the score by Joe Hisaishi
sells the emotions
with such ardent need that getting sucked in isn't
hard. Hisaishi knows how to score a fantasy film,
and if he got more for his work than the usual Hong
Kong composer then he earned every penny. If the movie
doesn't really affect you, at least Hisaishi's score
might fool you into getting a little misty.
That is, until the blowout
visual effects occur. Menfond Digital handled the
extensive CGI, and their work would feel right at
home on the Playstation 2. However, the big screen
is another story. The climactic battle between the
Tree Demon and the newly-transformed Meiyan is all
told through visual effects. It's sometimes impressive,
but the artificial sheen of the effects combined with
the RPG-like plot
feels more like a cutscene in a Final Fantasy
game than a Hong Kong movie. Overall, the effects
feel empty, and possess none of the messy charm of
the quick-cut wire-fu of the Chinese Odyssey
films. Compounding things is yet another climax, which
slams on the emotions with such relentless force that
it becomes uncomfortable to watch. That everything
gets resolved with a deux ex machina device
makes it even less affecting. It's usually more interesting
to watch people solve their own problems than having
some hand of god deal with it all.
A Chinese Tall Story
is like a Frankenstein Hong Kong film, filled with
numerous ill-fitting parts that only work some of
the time. The visual effects can be effective, but
they're also somewhat alienating. The stars are photogenic
and likable, but don't entirely convince. The plot
zips all over the place, and the comedy misses as
frequently as it hits. And does anyone really want
to see a competely CG version of Charlene Choi? Yet
despite the above, there's some minor entertainment
value in Chinese Tall Story. Some of the comedy
is fun, and there's even some "spot the star"
value with appearances by Yuen Wah, Kara Hui, and
Gordon Liu, among others. And give Jeff Lau credit:
he had the foresight to get rid of the Boy'z for a
good 90% of the film, plus he manages some poignancy
through his tweaking of familiar Journey to the
West iconography. As a mixture of silliness, sap,
and CG-enhanced mania, Chinese Tall Story occasionally
suffices. It's nowhere near as good as the Chinese
Odyssey films, and ultimately feels like a bombastic
mess, but somewhere in there is something that feels
like Hong Kong Cinema. That's gotta be worth something.