The Heavenly Kings

Year:2006
Director:Daniel Wu
Cast:Daniel Wu, Andrew Lin Hoi, Terence Yin, Conroy Chan Chi-Chung, David Lee Wai-Seung, Tony Ho Wah-Chiu, Jo Koo, Jacky Cheung Hok-Yau, Miriam Yeung Chin-Wah, Karen Mok Man-Wai, Paul Wong Koon-Chung, Davy Chan, Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung, Jun Kung, Stephen Fung Tak-Lun, Candy Lo Hau-Yam, Josie Ho Chiu-Yi
Description:
They're
not much of a band, but they make a pretty damn entertaining
movie. The Hong Kong boy band Alive, consisting of
actors Daniel Wu, Terence Yin, Andrew Lin, and Conroy
Chan, has had the cultural impact of a wasted ferret
since their debut in 2005. Their lack of overt popularity
is really
no surprise. They may be fronted by a hot actor in
Daniel Wu, but the other three members are solid B
or C-listers who've never achieved any true stardom,
and worse, appear in movies like PTU File - Death
Trap, and Devil Face Angel Heart. Also,
their musical talents aren't very impressive, and
they can't dance either. With nothing to recommend
them besides the non-musical popularity of one of
their members, shouldn't Alive really be dead by now?
Maybe they should be,
but according to The Heavenly Kings, they're
still still chugging along. A "mockumentary"
about the group's attempted ascent into the Cantopop
stratosphere, The Heavenly Kings is part fact,
part fiction, part animated, and all amusing. Alive
produced and Daniel Wu directed this shot-on-digital-video
exercise, which basically asks the question: how does
a talent-challenged boy band make it in the shrinking
Hong Kong music market? The answer: by manipulating
the media. As revealed via "hidden" cameras
and face-to-face interviews, the boys were getting
crappy offers from the record execs, so they decided
to enter the public eye in a publicly
accepted, but still illegal way. To get their songs
heard, the boys of Alive uploaded their first single
onto the Internet, then complained to the media, and
finally "officially" offered their song
for download on their own website. It's ingenious
stuff: lie to everyone, play the victim, then become
heroes for delivering what your fans want.
It's questionable if
that's the whole truth, though. The Heavenly Kings
follows the journey of Alive in disturbingly close
detail. Many of the events depicted in the film actually
happened, such as the initial press conference covering
their downloaded single, plus their endorsements,
public appearances, and even some of their purported
conflicts. This accuracy to real events disturbs because
the question arises if Wu and company actually pulled
off their supposed deception, with this movie being
the smoking gun/self-published exposé. Is Alive
really so smart that they were able to manipulate
the media this completely from the very first day?
Possibly, and Wu's ability
to keep the audience guessing is one of the film's
strengths. It's feasible that Alive really did do
something that extreme to make headlines; as this
film plainly shows, the group is willing to bite the
hand that feeds it. In the film, director Daniel Wu
slams the HK media institution and the Cantopop industry
in general, knocking both for favoring smiling saccharine
pap over actual substance. It's a decidedly cynical
take on Hong Kong's media culture; the irreverent
attitude and the edgy animation feels very appropriate for the group's
Western attitudes and sensibilities. By poking so
much fun at the media and brazenly announcing the
crappiness of the industry in such a direct fashion,
the film goes much farther than most of its contemporaries
ever would. The cynicism on display definitely belongs
to a newer generation; you'd never see any of the
original Heavenly Kings do something this ballsy.
Still, it's really not
that ballsy. Wu and company do take the media and
Cantopop to task, but leave some targets curiously
unscathed. One of Alive's biggest media brouhahas
was their public dissing of Hong Kong Disneyland,
and their subsequent banning from TVB. None of that
gets referenced in The Heavenly Kings - which
could mean that there are some people that Alive isn't
willing to take on. Also, the more scathing stuff
is largely negated by the hijinks and tomfoolery of
the boys. The journey of Alive is interspersed with
many talking head interviews with people like Jacky
Cheung, Paul Wong of Beyond, Nicholas Tse, Miriam
Yeung, Candy Lo, Karen Mok, and more. Dirt and dish
about Cantopop gets thrown about, but in the end it
doesn't do all that much. Some of the industry's absurdities
make for good laughs, and some stories border on revealing,
but not much is really gleamed. In some ways, The
Heavenly Kings feels like a wasted opportunity
because it's not as brave as it initially seems.
But at least the film
doesn't paint Alive's journey as some sort of quest
to "keep it real". Alive doesn't give itself
props; in fact, more often than not they just appear
crappy. Wu and company are good sports, and spend
just as much time making themselves look silly as
they do dissing the media. Right away, we learn that
they started Alive to make music and have fun, but
the project has problems because the group basically
sucks. Nobody except Terence Yin can sing, and he's
portrayed as a prima donna VIP wannabe with flatulence
problems. Conroy Chan's problem is that he's married
to someone far more famous and successful . He's also fat. Daniel Wu is portrayed as
overly anxious and a bit of a control freak, while
Andrew Lin is the nice guy of the group who's really
in it just to boost his flagging career. They mostly
can't sing, none of them can dance, and they sometimes
appear stupid. None of the guys come out of film looking
all that great - which in itself is a fun commentary
on the whole idea of talent and fame. It also all
but confirms that this "documentary" is
just an act. Once the film enters its crunch time
conflict - which is whether or not the four friends
can get along again in time for the big performance
- you know some fakery is definitely on display. This
isn't a documentary; it's an facetious facsimile of
one.
It's the sense of humor
that makes The Heavenly Kings a pleasant surprise.
Those who wonder who these guys are may not get all
the jokes, but Hong Kong entertainment junkies should
find this to be a fun and even richly entertaining
experience. It's hilarious to see Alive reveal themselves
to be potentially crappy because that's what some
of us probably think when watching Naked Weapon
or Kung Fu Mahjong 2. By putting their faults
on display, the foursome
come off as likable and even sympathetic blokes -
though really, the film doesn't always portray them
as such. Daniel Wu reveals a remarkably keen sense
of humor, and his timing can be dead on. One wonders
if he could translate that talent to actual narrative
filmmaking, or if he's destined to be some sort of
ultra-lite Hong Kong Michael Moore, with cynical mockumentaries
as his specialty. Or he may never make another film
- after all, who knew that Wu was going to try a singing
career? After starting a boy band, doing the Hong
Kong version of Jackass ,
and then directing a film, it's worth wondering if
he'll put the filmmaking hat on once again. He should.