Ah Sou

Year:2005
Director:Wong Ching-Po
Cast:Annie Liu , Karena Lam Ka-Yan, Eric Tsang Chi-Wai, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Simon Yam Tat-Wah, Alex Fong Chung-Sun, Liu Ye, Yuen Wah, Liu Kai-Chi, Lawrence Cheng Tan-Shui
Description:
Last
year, Wong Ching-Po made Jiang Hu, a ballyhooed
mob film that announced his appointment as a "Hong
Kong Cinema director of the future." The label
was spread about by everyone from Eric Tsang to Andy
Lau to probably Wong Ching-Po himself, though it was
actually fairly accurate. Jiang Hu didn't reinvent
the Hong Kong gangster film, but it was legitimately
interesting and exceptionally well-made. The main
flaws: an inflated sense of self-importance and a
predictable twist ending. Wong Ching-Po's follow-up
film Ah Sou is also
interesting and exceptionally well-made, and thankfully,
doesn't have a twist ending. Unfortunately, Ah
Sou is also self-important, and on a scale that's
staggering in its sheer garishness. Prepare to be
bludgeoned.
Newcomer Annie Liu turns
in an unimpressive debut performance as Phoebe, a
young woman who survived a family massacre at the
hands of blazing angry mob sister Nova . Phoebe's dad handed her to respected big brother
Gent , who brazenly claims that Phoebe
will one day become his wife when she turns eighteen,
the implication being that if Nova offs the girl,
she'll be offing the future Mrs. Gent. The claim doesn't
deter Nova one bit, but a nice slapdown from Whacko
stops her right quick. Whacko is an
old triad pal of Gent's, and is joined by Buddy and Chance to form a quartet of
too-awesome triad dudes, all of whom would give their
lives for Phoebe. The girl grows to young womanhood,
and comes to know Gent as her father, and the other
three as her uncles.
But Nova is still out there,
thirsting for Phoebe's life. When Phoebe returns from
her schooling in the states, there's an immediate
attempt on her life, but it's stopped by her four
protectors, plus Gent's bodyguard Pilot , who seemingly would also give his life for
Phoebe. Basically, everyone loves Phoebe - though
occasionally they need to be shocked into remembering
that. When Phoebe is actually promoted to the head
of the triad, some of her protectors seem to forget
that they cared for her in the first place, leading
to plenty of spilled blood, misplaced anger, and bad
stuff that could have been avoided by a nice little
chat. At the center of this Phoebe struggles to maintain
her innocence, even as Nova reappears with a still
blazing grudge against the young girl. Can Phoebe
stop her uncles from wiping each other out? Can she
solve her differences with Nova? And will she realize
her puppy love with the pizza boy who wears the red
hat? And do we even care?
The answer to that:
sometimes yes, sometimes no. In Pizza Boy's case,
it would be amazing to find someone who actually found
his subplot to be integral or interesting, but Wong
Ching-Po and screenwriter Szeto Kam-Yuen throw it in there anyway.
Of greater interest are the murky partnerships/rivalries
between Whacko, Chance, and Buddy, made so in large
part due to the actors playing them. Simon Yam and
Anthony Wong are two of the coolest actors around,
and Alex Fong - while not on the same level of cool
as the other two actors - has solid screen presence.
Eric Tsang overacts somewhat, but is every bit the
triad big brother, and Wong Ching-Po gives each classic
introductions. The four are first glimpsed preparing
gifts for Phoebe's return from the states, and the
sequence not only defines each man's personality,
but sets an involving tone and atmosphere for the
film. Thanks to the excellent camerawork and effective
style, Wong Ching-Po seems to be signaling in the
opening minutes, "Hey, this is going to be one
damn good movie." It would be great if he could
deliver.
Unfortunately, he doesn't.
The opening sequence is a combination of cinematic
dazzle and obvious film school technique, but it works.
The problem is Wong Ching-Po doesn't stop. From minute
one he pounds on the slow-motion style and cinematic
excess, rendering Ah Sou an overdone bit of
filmmaking that proves to be just too much. The music
score is effective at first, but soon grows overbearing.
The cinematography and camerawork, while beautiful
and even mesmerizing, get distracting and even obvious
in their showy "look at me" flourishes.
When Wong turns the camera on its side to follow Phoebe
running down the street, the only thought is, "What
the hell was that for?" The same goes for all
the slow motion, which is sometimes effective and sometimes annoying
. Wong's varied use of filmmaking technique
is appreciable, but after a while it becomes just
too much.
Still, such overdone
technique is not the kiss of death for every film
or every filmmaker. Witness Wong Kar-Wai, whose films
are loaded with MTV-style film technique and still
manage to earn the admiration and respect of cinephiles
worldwide. However, what Wong Kar-Wai does manage
to do is tie emotion to technique, and he balances
his "director as star" tendencies with fine
acting and an undercurrent of actual emotion. Wong
Ching-Po's love of obvious filmmaking technique seems
less about character and story and more about pulling
a new rabbit out of his filmmaking hat every ten or
so minutes. Some restraint would be nice.
But Wong Ching-Po's excess
of technique isn't the ultimate reason for the "thumbs
down." The big reason for Ah Sou's fall:
it tries to mean too much. When the final moments
of the film roll around, Wong Ching-Po proffers ultimate
significance with his "girl among the gang"
fable, as if he had just accomplished something grand
in the film's 90-minute running time . Even Pizza Boy with the red hat is given massive
significance, as if his presence gives meaning and
weight to the film. Big surprise: Pizza Boy doesn't
deserve the meaning given him, and neither does Phoebe
nor the entire film. Ah Sou tries to find meaning
in clichéd and maudlin storytelling, and the
fact that its played so straight makes it either A)
grave and meaningful, or B) totally ridiculous. Sadly,
Ah Sou leans towards the latter, which is a
shame because it wastes great locations, a solid genre
plot, and some fine acting from the likes of Anthony
Wong, Simon Yam, and Liu Ye. Sometimes a film should
just be a film, and shouldn't try to be more. By loading
the film with egregious verbalized meaning, Wong Ching-Po
buries Ah Sou beneath its own undue self-importance.