Sacred Chow
(originally published in City on
a Hill Press on February 5, 1998)
Jimmy Aquino
Arts Desk Editor
The big $64,000 Question in Hollywood
this week is whether or not beloved Hong Kong film star Chow Yun-Fat
will cross over into mainstream American success with this weekend's
release of his first U.S.-made action picture, Columbia's The
Replacement Killers (it opens Friday at the Del Mar in Santa
Cruz). One thing's for certain though: the immature Middle American
crowd still can't snicker without hearing his name, as seen last
week on The Tonight Show, when the goddamn honkeys in the
audience jeered and laughed after Jay Leno announced he'll be
a guest.
But for me, the major question about
Chow's latest gung-ho gunplay pic is this: will The Replacement
Killers utilize his talents well or reduce him to a monosyllabic,
one-dimensional action star a la Stallone and Van Damme
(Chow says little in the film's TV ads)? Will the film's director,
music-video maker Antoine Fuqua (Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise"
clip), allow Chow to display the same charisma and matinee-idol-style
mystique that made him a cult icon in his landmark films with
auteur John Woo? (One writer once said Chow has a casual magnetism
that recalls the glory days of Robert Mitchum, Steve McQueen and
Takakura Ken.)
The main reason Chow is such an original
is his range and depth; unlike most American action stars (like
Stallone, Van Damme and Schwarzenegger), Chow has a personality
and can act. He can convincingly play debonair, badass and tortured
all at once. Actually, Chow is not solely an action star, but
a man of all genres, although he's most famous for his crime films
with Woo and Ringo Lam (their 1987 collaboration City on Fire
was the inspiration for Reservoir Dogs). Some of Chow's
other memorable turns have been in romances (1987's An Autumn's
Tale and 1992's Now You See Love, Now You Don't) and
slapstick farces (1988's Eighth Happiness, where he played
a womanizer pretending to be gay); unfortunately, outside of San
Francisco's Chinatown, these other films are hard to find on video.
In the meantime, as I count down the hours before I
finally see The Replacement Killers (regardless of whether the film is
inspired or shoddy, it's still f---in' terrific to see an Asian man starring
in a Hollywood picture), here are my three favorite Chow performances, widely
available on video:
A Better Tomorrow (1986) — The film that started it all: Chow's lovable-hitman
persona, his signature use of the Beretta, the distinctive, much-imitated way
in which he totes two guns. Woo's first collaboration with Chow ended up becoming
the biggest-grossing film in HK box-office history, spawning two sequels and
a slew of slapdash ripoffs. In this gritty melodrama about two brothers on opposite
sides of the law (hitman Ti Lung and cop Leslie Cheung), Chow steals the film
as Mark, Ti's supercool, toothpick-chewing sidekick. HK filmgoers dug Mark so
much that the character's Ray-Bans, toothpicks and heavy duster coat became
popular fashion trends during A Better Tomorrow's release.
The
Killer (1989) — Chow shows
texture in the title role of a remorseful assassin who develops
a soft spot for a singer (Sally Yeh) accidentally blinded during
a hit and then finds an unlikely ally in a maverick cop (Danny
Lee). Hollywood studios have wanted to remake Woo's best-known
HK film in America for years (with stars like Stallone and Richard
Gere), but no matter how hard they may try, they'll never match
the brilliance of this lyrical, witty "blood opera"
classic. The film's religious imagery recalls Scorsese's earlier
works (in fact, Scorsese was one of The Killer's earliest
admirers).
Hard Boiled (1992)
— Chow plays a hotheaded detective (nicknamed Tequila) who forges an uneasy
alliance with an ostracized undercover cop (Tony Leung). This is the flick where
Chow slides down a bannister while — uh-huh, you guessed it — firing
two guns. The taut climax, staged at a hospital under siege, finds Chow fleeing
from explosions while cradling an infant — an inspired bit that was stolen
by director Tsui Hark in last year's campy Van Damme/Dennis Rodman actioner
Double Team. Hard Boiled's paranoid, downbeat mood reflected the
uncertainty about HK's future felt by citizens like Woo during the film's release.
© 1999 Jim Aquino