Black and White
Reviewed by YTSL
Many Hong Kong moviephiles (primarily) think
of Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia as the actress who plays cross-dressing martial
women -- and sometimes formidable men -- whose wrathful glare can do major
damage to the physical being and psyche of those who have wronged her (or
him). Fans of her older Taiwanese films tend to remember her fondly
as the adorably cute and sweet star of a whole host of tear-jerking melodramas
along with a few light romantic comedies. While her vivid and multiple
portrayals of such characters are indisputably a large part of her filmographic
legacy, it ought to be realized that this seriously stunning woman, whose
visage has graced at least 100 cinematic offerings, actually does have
an acting and role range which is way wider than that which she often has
been credited as possessing.
I consider it a testament to Brigitte Lin's ability
to give a multi-layered portrayal -- in pretty much any condition and circumstance
-- that quite a few of the characters she was asked to play in her interesting
career have been ones who end up being shown to be way more than first
meets the eye (General Tsao's daughter in "Peking Opera Blues", Asia the
Invincible in "Swordsman II" and Murong Yin/Yang in "Ashes Of Time" readily
come to mind but there's also the women she essayed some years earlier
in movies as diverse as "Wild Goose On The Wing", "All The Wrong Spies",
"The Other Side Of Gentlemen" and "Pink Force Commando"). In the
often opaque BLACK AND WHITE, the Miss Kuan character that she portrays
is yet another of these individuals who effectively lead double lives (and/or
have dual personae); what with her being a glamorous nightclub owner --
whose wardrobe choices are predominantly black and white (but also includes
such as the classic tan trenchcoat) -- who turns out to also be involved
with plans to smuggle out of the country a valuable arms shipment she and
her group had previously stolen from some German military men -- whose
accoutrements include Prussian-type pointed helmets, iron cross medals,
jack boots and the kind of uniforms associated with Nazis but minus their
infamous swastikas -- and their Chinese cronies.
BLACK AND WHITE's proceedings are set in an area
classified as the German Concession in China and alternately spelt as Tsingtao
and Chingtao in the offering's English subtitles. Its time frame
is not too clear though. If one were to judge from the clothes on
display, it would seem that this action film's makers sought to generally
locate it in the early part of the 20th century. However, on account
of one of them very possibly being the rather weird visioned Chu Yen Ping
(A Chao Yu-Peng is credited as the movie's executive producer), the sense
that the (re)viewer gets is much more akin to that which comes from having
stepped into a parallel universe rather than an expert recreation of a
particular historical period. Consequently, it surely would be best
to assume that this 1983 Taiwanese production is indeed entirely a work
of fiction, and thus not get too hot under the collar about such as seeing
one character's leather biker outfit looking way more contemporary looking
than that of the others but also watching a child being tortured by the
offering's chief villainous figure (the one man given to casting evil looks
at our winsome heroine, in whose seductively manipulative hands his superiors
-- Colonel Meyer and Commander Feng -- turn into putty).
BLACK AND WHITE has a story that seems rather
single-stranded and simple (revolving around the previously cited arms
shipment). However, it is rather confusingly as well as meanderingly
presented. To be sure, it did not help this non-Mandarin language
listener that a few minutes into the film, its subtitles get cropped from
the bottom and on the sides, and thus become difficult to read. I
really do think though that this work also suffers a lot from poor editing
contributing heavily to a sometimes quite jarring lack of continuity.
Something else to consider is that while this effort definitely is not
as demented, amateurish or outright bad as the absolutely atrocious "Fantasy
Mission Force" and "Amazon Commando" (both of which it looks to have shared
sets -- as well as Brigitte Lin -- with), it sure does have its share of
odd sights and Spaghetti Western-like sounds.
While mine is an admittedly biased view, I honestly
can't imagine many Hong Kong film fans wanting to hunt down BLACK AND WHITE
to watch for anyone other than the often very radiant looking Brigitte
Lin (who, in many of her Taiwanese works, really does appear to be several
classes above everyone and everything else in them). Nevertheless,
here's also mentioning two others of the movie's cast members who some
may recognize and have interest in: Sun Yueh, who here plays a man
referred to as Uncle Mai (who was initially involved in Miss Kwan's undercover
dealings in a manner which I'm unsure is entirely conscious or good but
ends up having his mother as well as himself saved from the Germans by
her and her people); and Blackie Ko, whose part as a pickpocket named Hsing
Erh -- who is one more ally of Miss Kuan -- allows him to showcase his
considerable stunt as well as his more questionable acting talents.
My (undoubtedly inflated due to its starring
Brigitte Lin) rating for this film: 5.5