Chinese Odyssey 2002
Director: Jeff Lau
Year: 2002
Rating: 8.0
Though this Chinese
New Year’s film may have a few patchy spots crisscrossing its surface like
a beat up old childhood stuffed teddy bear, there is something about this
film that is quite lovable and in need of a hug. There is really not a lot
that could be considered innovative here – it follows New Year film conventions
to a large degree – but it is packaged in such a charming menagerie of cross-dressing,
genre confusion, class confusion, songs, parodies, martial arts and silliness
that it feels like meeting an old friend that you have missed. Most of the
humor is far from fall down funny, but it is genial and affectionate and
becomes more of a smile on your face mood piece as it goes along.
Back in 1993 Jeff Lau as director and Wong Kar-wai as producer collaborated
on the notoriously zany Eagle Shooting Heroes that skewered the martial arts
flying fantasy films that were so popular at the time. In Chinese Odyssey
2002 they once again team up to create a film that to some degree resembles
their previous effort as it too lovingly mocks this genre as well as taking
the opportunity for numerous potshots at some of Wong Kar-wai’s own films
(Ashes of Time, Chungking Express). Unlike Eagle though in which frantic
motion often seemed to be a substitute for a story, this is a much gentler
and leisurely film in which quirky romance eventually pushes itself to the
foreground and the film becomes surprisingly sentimental and touching by
the end.
Tinged with a strong dose of nostalgia for the films of the early 90’s this
almost feels like He’s the Man, She’s the Woman meets Ashes of Time. In fact
the near final line of the film brings this home as Tony Leung Chiu-wai says
“It doesn’t matter who's the man and who's the woman” as he sits contemplating
under a blossom tree. His character could almost be that of the one in Ashes
if he had taken a different road and reached a different fate – if instead
of pining for his lost love Peach Blossom, he finds an unexpected fairy tale
love that leads him far away from that fateful day in Ashes of Time. Not
that this film in any way equals either of those two classic films – it feels
thrown together quite quickly – and it is in no way serious. Think of Chang
Chen, the roving romantic bandit of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon spending
much of this film in an Afro for some reason or Tony and Faye Wong buried
up to their heads in mud as chickens and ducks swarm about them or Vicky
Zhao contentedly lying in bed with the wide-eyed surprised Faye Wong. It
is a silly farce that manages to quietly burrow its way under your skin.
Tony is a swordsman (Bully the Kid!) and ruffian who turned rotten (but not
really too rotten!) when he was spurned by his girlfriend years before. He
returns to his small village to visit his sister, Vicky, where he discovers
that his reputation is keeping the men away and making his sister an old
maid. He decides to find her a husband and thinks he has found the perfect
man when a stranger walks into town. Dressed in male clothing, Faye is actually
a royal princess who has escaped from the palace and the Empress (Rebecca
Pan) in a bid for freedom. Tony tries to push Faye on his sister and all
three spend a night gaily cross-dressing (Faye as a woman) and end up in
bed together. As in most of these cross-gender type films, one has to suspend
loads of belief that Tony and Vicky would take Faye as a man!
Faye’s royal brother (Chang Chen) comes looking for her but meets Vicky instead
and decides he would rather be Superfly than the next Emperor and hangs around
until mother loses patience and sends the soldiers to bring her wayward children
home. In the meantime Tony and Faye fall in love (he fears he is gay of course),
get stuck in mud and perform a song and dance number about chopsticks. Into
this mix are bits from Roy Cheung as a kung fu villain looking for revenge,
Athena Chu as a mysterious fortuneteller and possibly a rabbit and Eric Kot
in a small cameo as a smug little twit.
I thought it all worked wonderfully well, but I wonder if it is the type
of film that might not have wide appeal. It does have its weaknesses – many
of the jokes fall very flat, Faye seems to go through much of it as if she
is surprised to be back with her Chungking partner and is wondering why she
is wearing this goofy hat throughout (but still is quite a pleasure to watch
for me) and the script could have used a bit of tightening. I showed it to
three friends and they didn’t think much of it at all much to my surprise.
For me though it is almost a flashback to the Hong Kong comedy cinema of
a decade ago that I rather miss.