Director Derek Yee's film that opened the HK International Film Festival was released a week later in the cinemas. Set in the underworld (no vampires here, except figuratively) of Tokyo in the 90s, this is the story of an illegal Chinese immigrant Steelhead, arguably the most dramatic role that Jackie Chan has tackled to-date.
The storyline line is simple. Steelhead goes to Tokyo as an illegal labourer in search of his sweetheart from the innocent days, and gets entangled with the gangland war between Chinese gangs from various backgrounds. A born leader, he organizes his co-workers, initially for self-preservation, but gradually moves into shady, profitable activities. As the local Chinese gangs have yakuzas backups, the power struggle soon escalates. Siding with a powerful yakuzas gang, Steelhead successfully cuts a profitable tuft for his gang. But when he feels that it's time to make a gradual transition into legitimate business (what responsible underworld leader wouldn't – think Vito and Michael Corleone), he finds that he is already too far down in the road of no return.
Despite being set in relatively exotic Shinjuku, this gangster movie, on the surface, does not seem to offer anything new. What Director Yee has done however is crafted a consistently engaging movie that stay on course throughout, depicting a world where there is no true hero. Everything is done with mixed motivations, altruistic as well as self-serving. Jackie Chan portrays the protagonist's dilemma particularly well in the final confrontation with his blood brothers who have turned against him.
Another interesting plot line, which has a bit of John Woo flavour, is the relationship between Steelhead and Inspector Kitano, whose life he saved in an accident. The moral parrying between the two in quite engaging, especially with the good performance of Naoto Takenaka who departs temporary from his comic persona to play a serious role here.
Still another interesting subplot is the character development of Jie, a most tragic character played powerfully by Daniel Wu. Without revealing the details, I'll just say that Jie starts as one of the boys, the most timid and good natured of the lot, and ends up as a reckless leader of a young gang dealing in drugs. Watching Wu towards the end of the movie, you may be reminded of Heath Ledger's appearance as Joker. It might even be an intentional tribute.
The romance department is no more than decorative. While we have two very attractive actors who can act – XU Jinglei and FAN Bingbing (especially Xu) – their respective roles as Steelhead's ex and current sweetheart don't offer much opportunity for them to.
Under Yee's confident, no-nonsense direction, the story is told with crisp clarity. It is not one of those movies that try to sell on gore and blood, but when it is called for, it's grittier than most. While even the typical violent movie would handle the bloodiest scenes with quick flashes, this movie dwells on them. And there is a reason for it – to register the devastation on the victim. The audience better be psychologically prepared for this.
The storyline line is simple. Steelhead goes to Tokyo as an illegal labourer in search of his sweetheart from the innocent days, and gets entangled with the gangland war between Chinese gangs from various backgrounds. A born leader, he organizes his co-workers, initially for self-preservation, but gradually moves into shady, profitable activities. As the local Chinese gangs have yakuzas backups, the power struggle soon escalates. Siding with a powerful yakuzas gang, Steelhead successfully cuts a profitable tuft for his gang. But when he feels that it's time to make a gradual transition into legitimate business (what responsible underworld leader wouldn't – think Vito and Michael Corleone), he finds that he is already too far down in the road of no return.
Despite being set in relatively exotic Shinjuku, this gangster movie, on the surface, does not seem to offer anything new. What Director Yee has done however is crafted a consistently engaging movie that stay on course throughout, depicting a world where there is no true hero. Everything is done with mixed motivations, altruistic as well as self-serving. Jackie Chan portrays the protagonist's dilemma particularly well in the final confrontation with his blood brothers who have turned against him.
Another interesting plot line, which has a bit of John Woo flavour, is the relationship between Steelhead and Inspector Kitano, whose life he saved in an accident. The moral parrying between the two in quite engaging, especially with the good performance of Naoto Takenaka who departs temporary from his comic persona to play a serious role here.
Still another interesting subplot is the character development of Jie, a most tragic character played powerfully by Daniel Wu. Without revealing the details, I'll just say that Jie starts as one of the boys, the most timid and good natured of the lot, and ends up as a reckless leader of a young gang dealing in drugs. Watching Wu towards the end of the movie, you may be reminded of Heath Ledger's appearance as Joker. It might even be an intentional tribute.
The romance department is no more than decorative. While we have two very attractive actors who can act – XU Jinglei and FAN Bingbing (especially Xu) – their respective roles as Steelhead's ex and current sweetheart don't offer much opportunity for them to.
Under Yee's confident, no-nonsense direction, the story is told with crisp clarity. It is not one of those movies that try to sell on gore and blood, but when it is called for, it's grittier than most. While even the typical violent movie would handle the bloodiest scenes with quick flashes, this movie dwells on them. And there is a reason for it – to register the devastation on the victim. The audience better be psychologically prepared for this.