The Hark of the Chinese Movie

I had wanted to watch the Chinese sword-fighting movie "Seven Swords" but was unable to persuade any of my friends to do so and so eventually the interest waned and I gave up. It was not so much the plot (which did sound a bit bland) which stirred my interest but rather the person behind it, Hsui Hark.

I have always thought of Hsui Hark as a trend setter in Hong Kong's movie industry in much the same way that Steven Spielberg is in Hollywood. Take for example the following classic movies by Hsui Hark: "Once Upon A Time in China", "Swordsman" and "A Chinese Ghost Story". The success and distinctive style of these 3 movies during the period when they were first screened had the effect of either re-inventing or creating a genre and inspiring other movie or drama serial makers to cash in on similar themes to ride on the popularity of these 3 movies. "A Chinese Ghost Story" started the rage about ill-fated romances between an attractive female ghost and scholars. "Swordsman"'s original fighting scene where all the movies were accelerated to superhuman speed and where combatants hurled taunts and called out their moves as they wheeled and chased each other across vast tracts of land reinvented the entire fighting chereography of sword-fighting movies and inspired other movie makers to follow this novel style. And needless to say, the clones of "Once Upon A Time in China" were too many to count. Beside the blatant copycats that also used Huang Fei Hong as the main character, there were also a host of other movies that featured a pugilist set in the Qing Dynasty (and more often than not, acted by Jet Li).

There were also the colourful characters that made these movies stood out. The bumbling and lovelorn scholar, Ning Cai Chen (starred by Leslie Cheung, the tragic and hauntingly beautiful female ghost Xiao Qian (starred by Joey Wong, whose part in the movie probably defined Chinese eroticism more than any other actress) and the unorthdox and righteous priest Yan Chi Xia (starred by Wu Ma)whose most memorable act must be his constant sprouting of the magic chant "Bo yan bo luo mi" while he battled demons, one of which had a tongue which if truly existed would have the "French Kiss" renamed to the "Chinese Kiss"!

There was the completeness and attention to details and authenticity that made Hsui Hark's movies stood out. Watching "Once Upon A Time in China" gave one the feeling that one had just walked into 19th century China. Take for example, the background in which the story was cast. Compared to many other period dramas which always have a miserably few extras walking listlessly in the streets of towns with no apparent purpose, the streets of Guangzhou in "Once Upon A Time in China" was bustling with life and packed with people engaged in all kinds of activities. At a glance, you could see peddlars hawking their goods, customers in the taverns shouting their orders, waiters rushing, men clustered together with cages in hands talking about the birds they reared, etc. No effort was spared in re-creating the entire setting. This might not be unique in Hollywood with their big budget and higher professionalism, but in the HK movie industry, it really is rather impressive. Not to forget, no movie is ever complete without good theme songs and the soundtracks to match and some of Hsui Hark's best movies had all that as well.

However Hsui Hark's strength which is in producing movies with a distinctive Chinese flavour is also his greatest weakness, especially during the time when he was trying to break into Hollywood along with other wannabes like John Woo, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat. They all had varying degrees of success with John Woo and Jackie Chan doing better than the rest. But as they probably realised, no matter what the Americans might try to show, American culture or American entertainment tastes are far from the "universal standard". Jackie Chan probably realised that he is literally reduced to a comedic acrobat in Hollywood, hence his recent move back to the Chinese movie industry. Hsui Hark was likewise not able to bring out his strength in the 2 movies he made in Hollywood, which was his grasp of Chinese culture and spirit. To be fair Hsui Hark is not without his faults, one of which is that he is not above blatantly churning out sequel after sequel for his popular flicks. There were a total of 5 sequels for "Once Upon A Time in China" and needless to say, after the first sequel, everything went downhill. I suppose one can only have so many original ideas and one would at the end of the day need to bring the bread home. Even very good actors like Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung found themselves acting in crappy movies once in a while.

The HK movie industry has certainly lost it lustre of the 80s and mid 90s. It used to be that back then many commercial and nonsensical movies were churned out. But at least there were some gems among the pebbles. Now not only is the volume much lower, we hardly find any memorable movies. The last movie that really seized my imagination was "The Infernal Affairs" trilogy. It seemed that the Chinese movie industry has lost its heart and it would certainly take more than Hsui Hark to turn it around.