| This oft-lambasted kungfu sci-fi film is an early directorial offering from modern-day action director Kirk Wong, who has garnered both critical and fan acclaim for his stylish, tense thrillers like Organized Crime and Triad Bureau. Although cheap and a bit corny, this gem from his formative years is not nearly as bad as many people would have you believe. And like John Woo's Heroes Shed No Tears or Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, you can see all the creator's future signature styles in a very rudimentary, raw form.
In fact, I quite like this film, though I may be the only one in the world. Seems like everyone else hates it, or at least most people I've talked to. True, the kungfu isn't all that great, and the production is cheaper than a desperate crack whore (did I just write that?), but I admire the film's ambition, if not it's actual execution.
The plot is something special: in a dirty dystopic future, a kungfu student named Killer (Wang Lung-wei in an ultra-rare non-villainous role) seeks revenge for the destruction of his school against a cut throat gang of body-building neo-Nazi Chinese skinheads who sell drugs and conduct strange genetic experiments inside their decadent Studio 54 discotheque!!!
No, I swear! Really!
How can you not love a film as brazenly weird as that? Forget Skinheads: The Second Coming of Hate starring Chuck Conners. Forget Blade Runner. This films gives you best of both worlds. And to top it all off, you get freaky Tangerine Dreamish music that reminds me of A Clockwork Orange, some sexy drugged-out future women whose avant-garde stage show is stripping while killing fat people to the sounds of Velvet Underground, lots of cars with tubes and stuff taped to them (because it's the future), and a lot of other crazy future stuff. And lots of slightly below average martial arts.
What can we learn from these Blade Runner-inspired cautionary tales of the future? Well, the main thing we take away from them is that we will be hanging lots of wires and tubes in our cars and apartments. You know you are living int he future when you have big bundles or wire stuck to your wall. Also, it helps if you have several small computer or television monitors tuned to dead channels or that weird blue screen that just has the white line going up it over and over. Get some of those, scatter them around, and presto! Welcome to the future!
But the gestalt feel of this freakish little experiment is something I must admit I completely love. Today's art house film-makers and cyberpunk wannabes couldn't make a film this disjointed and messed up if they tried. And at it's heart is the basic kungfu plot of a student seeking revenge for the destruction of his school. There is a reason Wang Lung-wei usually played villains. He's really not that great a hero. I kept waiting for him to do something evil, and he never quite clicks as a good guy. Ko Hung as his teacher rules, though, but Ko Hung pretty much always rule. That guy is a definite underappreciated talent. And the ladies are not too bad, despite their Cyndi Lauper meets Devo wardrobe.
Amid all the mind-blowing silliness, you can actually see some moments of genuine talent and promise in Kirk Wong's direction, and recognize all the basic ingredients of a Kirk Wong film in extremely elementary and raw form. In a film that stars Ko Hung. Hmmm. And then you have Heroes Shed No Tears, an early action film by John Woo, in which you can see all his basic themes and stylistic tendencies in a very raw, undeveloped film. Who stars in that film as well? Ko Hung. And these two directors go on to become two of the biggest most influential men in action cinema. Coincidence? Or is Ko Hung the real power behind the Hong Kong New Wave?
On top of it all, be amazed at what the cast and crew pull off in a film that must have had a budget of $9.00. I love Flash Future Kungfu, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It's utterly absurd, mind-bendingly bizarre fare! |
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