by Ryan Macdonald

I decided to finish SIFF 2011 the same way I started it the first day: with a double feature on the last day. So Sunday, June 12, I milked the clock at work before rolling out to the Neptune Theatre for a relaxed screening of Ching-Po Wong’s Fuk sau che chi sei (Revenge: A Love Story).

I must admit I made a rookie mistake coming into this one: I had expectations. From everything I heard, read, and saw in the trailer, I was expecting something along the lines of a Chinese True Romance. This is not what I got. So I guess it’s a good thing the movie was awesome despite my cinematic faux pas.

In the first five minutes, three very important things are established. One: Ching-Po Wong is a master of the wide shot. Two: He likes to use this wide shot mastery to make you really uncomfortable. Three: This movie is gonna be really fucked up. You’ll have to forgive my language, but it’s true. First three thoughts of the film: “Wow, that’s cool.” “Wow, that’s cool.” “Holy shit, who does something like that???”

Kit (Juno Mak) is killing people. We’re not sure why, but it’s pretty clear he’s deranged and really, really pissed off. The short first act of the film establishes the good guys (the cops) versus the bad guys (Kit). As Wong Tarantino’s the story, however, good guys aren’t necessarily good, and bad guys, though violently psychotic, are not necessarily bad. As a young man, Kit fell in love with Wing (Sola Aoi), a mentally challenged girl who visited his dumpling stand with her grandmother. When her grandmother passes away, Wing is on her own with only Kit to take care of her. One horrible, horrible night, Wing is attacked by a violent drunk. One thing leads to another, and the film devolves into a back and forth of violent revenge, hatred, and punishment that doesn’t stop, even when it should.

Ching-Po Wong and cinematographer Jimmy Wong work the camera in this film like a Gus van Sant/Akira Kurosawa lovechild. Kurosawa’s wide shots are taken to the extreme, like the panning slow-motion wide shot of a foot chase at the beginning. Van Sant’s longer-than-is-comfortable fixed shots, like several violent, spoilery shots throughout. Asian cinema in general has been doing a great job in the camerawork department recently, and this one is still innovative.

The title of the film, Revenge: A Love Story, is an ironic misnomer. Yes, the story revolves around a blossoming love at first. But gradually (pacing, not violence; the film is steadily violent throughout), the love falls away and is replaced by the pursuit of revenge made even more ludicrous by over the top death scenes and special effects. Like so many films coming out of China and Japan recently, this is a cautionary tale. Revenge is cyclical, never-ending, and ultimately costs you more than you’re willing to pay. What I like about these morality plays is they don’t smack you upside the face with the message. Unlike mainstream American audiences, not everyone needs things spelled out in clumsy dialogue. Sometimes all it takes is a wide overhead shot of two guys bleeding a lot.

This film, and many others like it lately, still raises one major philosophical question for me: Do Asian people have bones? Seriously. Either they don’t have bones, or everyone in Asian punches like a five year old girl and their bullets are made of Gobstoppers. It’s impossible to kill anyone in these movies.

FInal Grade: B+

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