Comeuppance
Reviewed by YTSL
For some people, the key defining characteristics
of Hong Kong movies are an "over the top" bombastic feel and a frenetic
pace. These are traits that most definitely are not evident in that
which appears to be the least heralded of Milkyway Image Production's year
2000 output. As such, those looking for an adrenaline rush of a film
viewing experience are advised to look elsewhere than this Derek Chiu directed
-- and Johnnie To produced -- work whose three main characters act more
like zeroes than heroes. Still, others -- especially those who can
appreciate an all-round well-made effort -- would do well to check out
this quiet but quite intriguing offering, which starts off in a not particularly
gripping manner but really did gather steam and hold my interest the further
along I got into it.
COMEUPPANCE's story revolves around a series of
fatal poisonings -- in varied settings (including a bar, restaurant and
sauna) and from a variety of toxins (most of which is swallowed but one
of which is air-borne) -- of Triad bigwigs and their minions by a single
individual whose identity the police and gangsters, not to mention journalists
and the public, seek to know but have difficulty determining. Right
from the start though, viewers of this clever film know who is "Heaven's
Assassin" (the Chinese title of this quality offering). It thus should
be clear that this is not a suspenseful whodunit. Nonetheless, it
is an imaginative movie which requires its viewers to pay attention to
many little details in order for them to really understand and appreciate
what is going on as well as how matters, lives and deaths do intersect
and connect.
Patrick Tam convincingly portrays the nondescript
appearing man named Sung Ping who takes it upon himself to slowly but surely
rid Hong Kong of some not very nice and/or dangerous figures. His
screen time is shared in about equal measures with two other low-key acting
Everyman types. As hard as it might be for those who know him best
as the extroverted "Young and Dangerous" Chicken to imagine, Jordan Chan
does give an admirably restrained performance in COMEUPPANCE as Hak:
The journalist who starts off covering an actual crime but then gets paid
to write a fictitious serial on "The Kings of the Underworld" -- which
regularly has the characters he has named and modeled after real life individuals
dying from poisons -- whose tales start coming true. Similarly, HK
film fans who are most familiar with Sunny Chan by way of "Cheap Killers"
and/or "Hold You Tight" will surely be surprised to see how good -- and
charismatic -- he is as the quietly competent detective named Michael whose
in charge of investigating the linked murder cases.
Over the course of COMEUPPANCE, the paths of this
trio cross, criss-cross and come together. Two other persons who
at least a couple of these men interact with -- and captured the interest
of this (re)viewer -- are: The Mandarin-speaking Speck, a gang leader
who likes to cook, loves abalone and once was a writer (Wu Hsing Kuo plays
him as an increasingly idiosyncratic -- to say the least... -- individual);
and Lucy, a woman who becomes Michael's girlfriend, an avid reader of Hak's
columns and -- via those writings -- one of the public who is more interested
than she might otherwise be in the real world as well as fictitious killings
of underworld bosses (Crystal Lui is another of this film's cast who endows
her character with an "everyday" yet far from dull-to-watch personality).
In addition to those already mentioned, credit
is also definitely due to COMEUPPANCE's creative scriptwriter (Benny Li)
and cinematographer (Tony Cheung) for making it be as well as look a cut
above many of the films produced in the HKSAR. For all of its obvious
positives though, I have to admit that this is not an offering that I entirely
warmed to. The primary reason for this being so is that this dramatic
work just does not seem dramatic enough to make me care all that much about
the focused events and the characters involved in them. Perhaps the
lesson to be learnt from this is that certain stylistically understated
productions run the risk of their audience feeling emotionally detached
from highlighted proceedings and consequently not feeling sufficiently
satisfied even when they get provided with unexpected yet logical outcomes
that ought to be to their liking.
My rating for this film: 7.5
DVD Information:
Distributed by Mei Ah
The transfer is fine - sharp, good colors,
clean.
Letterboxed
Cantonese and Mandarin language tracks - Dolby
surround sound
9 Chapters
The subtitles are Chinese or English or none.
There is no trailer for this film - or any
other extras.