Byron Pang in Amphetamine is Addictive

Amphetamine

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ To cut or not to cut?

This film has stirred up a lot of questions with the censors before its release. The particular questionable scene (from the version I watched) is blacked out--Thank GOD!--and I think the controversial action (don't ask!) involved is better removed from the entire narrative. I am sure the other NINE people who watched this with me in the theatre would also agree with me.

Amphetamine lets you know what you’re in from early on, with a tedious opening-credits sequence set over a nude Kafka (Byron Pang) standing on the edge of a tower, and his penis visible, covered with silver paints and a pair of wings—a ploddingly literal figure of a bird. Wait a minute, maybe not. It is more apt to be a figure of an angel.

Kafka is a swimming instructor who is also a master in martial arts and cooking. Daniel (Thomas Price) is a successful banker. They run into each other again and again, and the classic “boy-meets-boy” story begins but is made difficult by Kafka’s heartbreaking past. Amidst the explicit nudity, drugs, and violent scenes, the way Director Scud portrays the relationship between the two men remains innocent, simple and cute. And the disconnected bridge continues to be an enigmatic metaphor that dictates their love.

Scud manages to craft one of the best tragic heroes in the history of cinema—Kafka. The original Czechian meaning of the name is a bird, which is symbolically and thematically represented through Kafka who longs to fly away and keeps himself from drowning in his pains and sorrows.

Too ambitious to flaunt his style the way his characters flaunt their bodies, and too obsessed with presenting homoerotic images, Scud chops his scenes into abstract fricass ées, and even subjects us to acid-flashback fantasy sequences. Although the tragic ending is inevitable, it becomes a deliberate meaningless act. Never engaging or shocking as the film could be, Scud fails to realize the excellence in his screenplay—but that is okay, because there is one significant exception, which propels the narration and makes moments of the film worth savoring.

The significant exception (and surprise!) is Byron Pang, who, in spite of Scud’s best efforts to turn him into another piece of movable flesh, succeeds to convey a real human soul stirring beneath Kafka’s tough and strong façade—a vulnerable boy, uncomfortable and confused about his sexuality, who tries his best to overcome his demons to love. His monologues, his back-stories and his ever-changing hair colours make him the most compelling, interesting and believable character onscreen. His captivating performance is an island of honesty and simplicity, yet swallowed up by a sea of excess (yes, with penis and butt!), and he could be the angel who almost saves the film. Almost.

(Hong Kong, 2010)

What is After Hennessy?

Crossing Hennessy

When Loy (Jacky Cheung) and Irene (Tang Wei) stand on different sides of the Hennessy Road, and do not fall in love “at first sight” accordingly to the match-making plan of their overbearing guardians, you would think it's a gonna be one funny comedy—Wrong! The two of them are less Adam and Eve than any other couple, as the film never truly invests in this pair of odd couple “falling in love”. Rather, images of the titular backdrop—Wan Chai keep on coming as if a touristic propaganda.

Instead of focusing on their romance, Director Ivy Ho tries to make her movie to fit in all quadrants—slapstick comedy, relationship comedy, and sanctimonious ode to family values. A jumble of genres, tones, and styles, Crossing Hennessy ultimately strains to be a film about a serious love story. In a great romantic comedy, sex is the subtext of all conversation. In Crossing Hennessy, the conversation is bland, the sex is left for their respective former lovers, and the subtext? That’s apparently not right to ask of two innocent people who just enjoy walking on Hennessy, reading detective novels, and sitting at a Cha Chaan Teng.

The daily and ordinary life creeps into the foreground and upstages the love story. The elements of Hong Kong-ness seen in the neighbourhood become far more interesting. This could be a problem for audience who is hoping to see a love story. But Ho’s films have always been characterized by a lack of one. Loy's character, a middle-aged, middle-class single man with a lot of Daddy issues, and his wacky family, including a Danny Lee who plays an accountant with a very small dog, is far more intriguing but given the least attention to.

Cheung’s performance is as superb as he is associated with dramady that is fast-paced, cerebral, and laden with cultural references. Tang is adorable however hurt by the transition from Lust,Caution to HK-style comedy. The real discomfort comes from watching Tang being forced to laugh out “Ha Ha Ha”. Or when her Cantonese becomes more intriguing than her acting skill. Ivy Ho’s latest effort, though not as stylized and unique as her earlier work Claustrophobia, is as simple and cute for the people who grew up crossing Hennessy. What is after Hennessy would be all the other interesting things that Ho is unable to pick up about Wan Chai.

(Hong Kong, 2010)