A Nutshell Review: House of Fury

daface SG

(This review is brought to you courtesy of MovieXclusive's lucky-draw invitation, without which it won't be out today, and I wouldn't have as much fun at the gala premiere - gala premiere observations will be published separately)

The overall narrative feel of House of Fury, is a mixture of Tim Burton's Big Fish, and Pixar's The Incredibles (with super powers replaced by kungfu prowess), but the delivery is not as well polished.

Simply put, it's a story about a single father (Anthony Wong) family (with Stephen Fung, the director, and Gillian Chung, one half of HK pop duo Twins, as his children), whose secret agent past catches up with him and threatens his family. Like Big Fish, while dramatizing his colourful past in delightful unbeatable-secret-agent-kung-fu-prowess stories, his children outgrows them and their disbelief causes their relationship with their father to be distant at best. Until somewhere along the way when they discover that those stories have some element of truth behind them.

Like The Incredibles, we are shown the potential of his kids, who naturally have learned kung fu, in a similar dining table setting, and when daddy's threatened, we also know that it is up to family to bail him out, and in the process, improving their family ties.

With a title (in mandarin) containing "Jing Wu", one cannot help but expect comparisons, references and the paying of homage to Bruce Lee and his film "Fists of Fury", and yes, this film does too. The name of Anthony Wong's shop contains the letters "Jing Wu", and during his fight with Japanese ninja type adversaries, we see the slow break up of the shop's name ("zhao pai") to not-so-subtly emphasize "Jing Wu", and the very hilarious and creative use of make-shift nanchakus. There is also the obligatory fights with "Ang Mos" (Westerners), and in this show, the Ang Mo is reduced to a teenage sensation whose expertise is with the staff. (We can't expect Chuck Norris now can we?)

The artistes are no real life exponents, and it is left up to Yuen Wo Ping to fashion the martial arts scenes. I applaud the film-makers deliberate crafting of various martial arts for the lead actors - Anthony Wong's style is subtle yet forceful (funny at times), Stephen Fung's direct and in-your-face, while Gillian Chung's is graceful, elegant, yet packs a punch (I like hers best).

However, the wire-work seems to be out of place in a movie like this, and somehow isn't as disciplined, so the audience can tell when it was used, as it's not well-executed to perfection. While we can suspend our belief in martial arts shows set in pugilistic worlds, where exponents can fly from tree to tree, or in unreal worlds like The Matrix where the laws of physics do not apply to those who are "free", having a film set in a real world scenario, and yet having people float around, somehow doesn't cut it. My personal opinion is if the kung fu was more grounded (pardon the pun) then it'll be perfect. And yes, wire-work with wires digitally removed doesn't mean one should opt shoddy work - watch and you'll see what I mean.

The good looking cast does compensate somewhat though, with special appearances by Daniel Wu and Charlene Choi, but it is the veterans like Anthony Wong and Wu Ma who lent some acting weight to this otherwise fluffy teenybopper show. The villains, led by Michael Wong, a cross between Austin Power's Dr Evil and James Bond's Blofeld on a wheelchair, are one-dimensional, and most prefer to let their fighting do the talking.

Like most HK contemporary movies, it is peppered with comedic moments throughout the film, very simple romances, a predictable plot cum ending without much emotional depth or theme. During the interview before the show, Stephen Fung was asked the message this film is bringing across, but sidestepped with an answer asking the audience to watch and decide for themeselves. Not a very good sign, but enjoyable as a popcorn movie.

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: House of Fury Gala Premiere

This is the second Asian film premiere in Singapore I am attending, the first being Princess D a few years back, and it is no surprise that I drew comparisons and could see similarities between the two, in the way the premiere was handled.

Collected my tickets courtesy of a movieXclusive contest, met the site administrator for the first time, and after dinner, made my way to the Prince 1 foyer - and the sight was one funny one...

Wonder why Singaporeans queue, for everything! I was greeted by this extremely long queue... there's this table set up by the radio station Yes933, and I thought the queue originated there for those to claim their tickets from the station. But NO! I was so wrong! The queue was actually starting from the theatre doors. Like, Hello?? Why can't everyone just hang around the lobby and mingle, instead of forming this inane queue? No idea.

Anyhow, the foyer wasn't decorated much. You only suspect there's a premiere with the film's posters being the only posters put up all around, and that's it. Guess not much budget left after giving away all the tickets to probably the largest cinema hall in Singapore.

I was wrong to think that everyone would be in the foyer to await the arrival of the VIPs that night - director/actor Stephen Fung and one half of HK pop duo Twins Gillian Chung (only 2 guests, Princess D had 4 - director Sylvia Chang, and the leads Daniel Wu, Edison Chen and Angelica Lee). Security concerns probably prevented that, as you never know what groupies can be capable of doing. Instead, the cinema hall was open and we were all ushered inside. Too bad the collectible ticket had to be surrendered - which was the same situation as in the Princess D premiere, and the Kill Bill special invite marathon which I attended - thought I could keep the stub to get it autographed or something.

There are 4 kinds of people, as observed with my limited experience with Asian premieres. The first are those who scramble to sit near the rows of reserved seats (where the stars will take their place during the show). The second are those who at the first row (where the stars will be when they enter). There's a stage set up which looked like a ping pong table - saw it in place couple of weeks back when I watched Hostage. The third are those who stakeout the side entrance - where the stars will enter from. And lastly, those who don't give a damn. The first two types probably accounted for the kiasu queue before the doors are opened.

The long wait begins, as the stars arrived 15 minutes past the stipulated time. Can't blame them cos they were at another meet-the-fans session at Junction 8. Those bored started to play around with their digital cameras, and flashlights go off every now and then.

A Yes933 deejay (sorry, don't know who) opened the premiere, with an unsuccessful attempt to rouse the crowd into action. Even when the 2 guests appeared, they were greeted by than less then enthusiastic applause and cheers - my take was quite a number of people were tired from the waiting in a darkened environment, could see many people dozing at their seats.

Similarities with the Princess D premiere were abound:

The groupies congregating near the side entrance were brushed aside - the stars did not stop for any autograph signing (I may be wrong) as it seemed that they were rushed by their minders and bouncers to the stage area.

On stage, they played Q&A to giveaway prizes, no doubt groupies at the front are having a field day with this, being asked questions ranging from who stars as who, or who's the action director, etc, and being up close and personal to the stars.

And to wrap up, both of them were asked to make some closing comments. I can't remember what Gillian Chung said (hey she's eye candy), but as I remembered I better start paying serious attention in order to review the movie, I caught Stephen sidestepping his question of commenting on the message that the movie is bringing across - his answer was to ask the audience to watch and decide for themselves. Not a very good sign.

No longer than 10 minutes, they were whisked off the stage to their seats (groupies trying to follow), the light goes off and the movie plays. But somewhere in between, they snuck out and when the lights come on again, the entire entourage was nowhere to be seen.

Ah well, at least I got to watch the movie Smile