The Pye-Dog

Year:2007
Director:Derek Kwok Chi-Kin
Cast:Eason Chan Yik-Shun, Gia Lin, Wen Jun-Hui, Eric Tsang Chi-Wai, George Lam Chi-Cheung, Cheung Kwok-Keung, Siu Yam-Yam, Loletta Lee Lai-Chun, Billy Lau Nam-Kwong, Emily Kwan Bo-Wai, Li Ting-Fung
Description:
There's
plenty worth recommending in The Pye-Dog, but
I'll single out two things. One, director Derek Kwok
is a young filmmaker to watch. The first-time director
delivers a surprisingly assured and entertaining movie
that's well worth the Hong Kong Cinema label. Two,
the movie stars Eason Chan. Chan's last film was the
excellent Crazy N' The City, and while Pye-Dog
isn't as good as Crazy, it's simliar in that
it takes genre elements, mixes in a whole lot of character,
and delivers a cinema experience that feels uniquely
Hong Kong. That Chan is in both films is a bit ironic.
While Chan has always shown obvious potential, his
penchant for obscene overacting and showy mugging
once branded him as more of a screen nuisance than
someone worth watching. No longer; the guy has graduated
from an undisciplined, sometimes wasted talent into
one of Hong Kong Cinema's best actors. We can forgive
him for Cop Shop Babes because right now, Eason
Chan is money. Life is full of surprises, isn't it?
Chan is Dui, a triad gofer
who has a particular affinity for assembling, though
not necessarily shooting guns. He's sent undercover
in an elementary school to ferret out the kid of a
powerful gangster. The gangster is on his way back
to Hong Kong to assume power, which threatens all
sorts of triad muck-a-mucks who don't want anyone
messing with the status quo. Dui's bosses are among
the threatened, so they order Dui to find the kid
to use him as a bargaining chip. Dui takes up a job
as a janitor at the kid's school and sets about finding
the boy, but his oddball personality soon attracts
another oddball: young Wang , a seemingly
mute kid who first catches Dui's eye when he's roughhousing
with a bunch of kids over a collectible Japanese trading
card.
Their first encounter puts
Dui at odds with Wang, but before long, the two forge
some sort of common bond. Joining them is new teacher
Miss Cheung , who's a bit of an oddball herself.
Together, the trio brave messed up field trips and
difficult art assignments - oh, the horror! Meanwhile,
there's triad action afoot, as Dui can't spend all
this time screwing around in school on someone else's
dime. Soon, people start asking how his mission is
going, and Dui has to respond. Despite the innocous,
warm-and-fuzzy storyline going on, guns and the men
who carry them will soon make an appearance. Will
the bullets and blood shatter Dui's idyllic new life?
The story of Pye-Dog doesn't seem too spectacular; it's a genre mishmash
mixing themes and iconography seen in gangster films,
heroic bloodshed, and father-son bonding flicks. None
of these genres is referenced in an overt fashion.
Nobody flies through the air with guns held akimbo,
nor is this a hyperemotional, sweaty affair. The genre
elements are grounded, and even subdued, and instead
used to support the film's character elements. And
those character elements? Somewhat maudlin and decidedly
quirky. Sure, these people are involved in some kind
of triad turf war, but they're more concerned with
putting together a makeshift stage for the upcoming
Christmas pageant. This is one of those films where
quirky oddballs form heartwarming bonds, and love
blossoms in a largely
unspoken, indirect fashion. It would be safe to say
that this sort of storyline and these sorts of genre
elements have been seen before.
But hey, genre/character
flicks are probably what Hong Kong does best - or
at least, it did them best once upon a time. Pye-Dog seems cut from the same cloth as the earlier films
of Wilson Yip, e,.g. Yip's excellent 1998 crimer Bullets
Over Summer. That film was ostensibly about a
cop stakeout, but it was deceptively aimless, meandering
along but also delivering characters and relationships
that were most definitely felt. Pye-Dog has
gangster film elements, but it's really a character
piece about oddballs connecting, frequently through
fantasy or simply playing around. Dui bonds with Wang
over lots of make believe; when caught raiding the
school files by Wang, Dui cons him by pretending he's
an undercover cop. A trip to the woods includes a
dream sequence involving an imaginary boogeyman, and
the construction of an eclectic, fanciful Christmas
Pageant stage manages to connect Dui, Wang, and Miss
Cheung. There's a likable innocence in the characters'
relationships; they're all very much children, and
seeing them bond is quite enjoyable and surprisingly
affecting.
Once again, Derek Kwok gets
plenty of credit. He and cinematogrpaher O Sing-Pui
give the film a dirty/pretty look, with a dark, but
rich palette of colors and a keen use of shadow to
add depth to each frame. Pye-Dog looks like
quality cinema, which is actually pretty rare for
a Hong Kong film. More importantly, the film is told
in a remarkably assured manner. Kwok gives the film
many funny moments, but they're not "haha"
guffaws, and instead mine irony and a familiarity
with the actors and the genres being referenced. Besides
yet another patented Eric Tsang supporting turn, Pye-Dog features appearances from Loletta Lee, George Lam,
Shaw Brothers veteran Siu Yam-Yam, and even Cheung
Kwok-Cheung in a
surprisingly effective turn as a hitman. Cheung gets
soulful, wannabe meaningful dialogue that would probably
ring false in most films. Hell, it's still paper-thin
here, but Pye-Dog does enough right that its
forays into the hackneyed bowels of genre cinema are
easily accepted and forgiven.
It's not all great in Pye-Dog.
The combination of genre and character does lead to
some out-of-nowhere plot revelations, and some of
the twists don't entirely convince. Certain characters
are revealed to be more than they are, and while some
are expected, others feel too far-fetched to completely
buy. Also, the film has the chutzpah to sell its emotional
baggage with a key montage set to the strains of "You
Light Up My Life", a directorial move that can
either A) emotionally move, or B) completely alienate.
If Dog Bite Dog is any evidence, the presence
of a sappy song at a crucial moment can discredit
a film, and in Pye-Dog, that eventuality comes
dangerously close to happening.
But Derek Kwok manages to
sell his moment of sap through solid direction, and
very endearing characters. Young Wen Jun-Hui is no
Goum Ian Iskandar, but he gives Wang a felt innocence,
and as mentioned before, Eason Chan has grown into
a solid screen presence. Dui is a character who rediscovers
his moral center as a result of his contact with Wang
and Miss Cheung, and Eason Chan handles Dui's character
arc with affecting dignity. Dui is rude and a bit
of a lout, but Chan makes his eventual nobility and
decency easy to believe in. Gia Lin is a bit less
convincing as Miss Cheung, though her pairing with
Eason Chan manages to be effective. Pye-Dog mixes subdued emotions with gooshy, soaring moments
of feeling, and that balancing act is frequently a
dangerous one. The film's sentimentality may lose
it a few points among harder-edged moviegoers, but
the odd wit, welcome genre nods, and felt emotions
are hard to resist. Given all its excesses, the film
could easily have been seen as cloying, or perhaps
too sure of its own cleverness. However, Derek Kwok
and company manage to pull it off. Pye-Dog could have been a bad movie, but gratefully, it's
far from it.