Michelle Yeoh in AH KAM: review
Shelly Kraicer
AH KAM
= A1 Jin1 de gu4 shi4
starring:
[???can anyone with a better knowledge of the cast correct the names
below, and help me match them up with the characters???]
Michelle Yeoh / Yeung Chi-King (Ah Kam), Samo Hung Kam-Bo (Tung),
Jimmy Wong Ka [Nuo4] (Ah Lung ?), Lo Wing Kang (Sam?), Mang Hoi,
Lam Wai-Leung, Crystal Kwok Kam-Yan (Ah Kam's roommate), Satoshi
Okada, Nick Cheung Ka-Fai, [Yi4] Tin Hung
cameos: Damian Lau Chung-Yun, Kent Cheng Juk-Si, Richard Ng
Yiu-Hon, Manfred Wong, Rain Lau Yuk-Tsui
director: Ann Hui On-Wah
action director: Ching Siu-Tung
screenplay: Chan Man-Keung ; Chan Kin-Chung
cinematography: Ardy Lam Kwok-Wah
editor: Wong Yee-Shun
music: Otomo Yoshihide
design: Yank Wong Yan-Kwai
producers: David Lau ; Catherine Hun ; Raymond Chow (exec.)
Golden Harvest Production
review:
I tried very hard to enjoy this film, from a number of possible
viewpoints, but none of them worked.
The plot of AH KAM is divided into three parts. The first and most
interesting promises to be a behind-the-scenes look at a stunt company.
We follow Michelle's rise from stunt extra to action director, under the
tutelage of, and then with growing independence from Samo Hung (who plays
essentially himself). This story could and should occupy an
entire film, but it moves too quickly to chapter two, wherein Michelle
falls for Ken-doll "Sam", a good-looking, rich yet shallow businessman.
We can see the impending disillusion coming for a half an hour. It's
painful to watch Michelle Yeoh, deflated, playing a fancy-coiffed club
hostess and male adornment, until she figures out the obvious.
What feeble narrative energy remaining is completely expended in Chapter
three. A wild, aimless kidnapping plot brings Yeoh and a tough but
adorable kid (Ah Long) together. Three parts of a woman's life:
professional, girlfriend, mother-figure. A trite idea that may have been
intended to serve Michelle Yeoh's career by reshaping her star persona.
But she is much larger than the feeble scaffold erected around her.
Since the story that failed to be interesting enough on its own, one could
see the film as a form of double autobiography:
-- first, a fictionalized account of Michelle Yeoh the action movie star
who married, left the business, and then returned when her marriage
ended.
-- second, the story of the making of the film (which most fans would
have been aware of), as embedded in the final product: Michelle Yeoh the
action actress is injured in filming her fall from the highway bridge.
That scene (with its undisguised central cut) and all subsequent ones
reflect her injury (she uses a stunt double, does little further
action). And the film ends with a long and film-stealing "outtake",
which records her injury and her pain (almost too closely to watch).
It is puzzling how badly Ann Hui and her talented crew (many of whom
worked on the fine and subtle Josephine Siao showcase SUMMER SNOW) serve
the star in this would-be star vehicle.
Yeoh's most interesting roles have been variously and creatively
gendered. In WING CHUN, her character plays with cross-dressing and
homoeroticism before she settles into marriage. THE HEROIC TRIO casts
her, parodistically, as one of a trio of hyper-feminized fighting
glam-queens. And she out-stunted and out-manned the manliest action star
of all, Jackie Chan, in SUPERCOP (POLICE STORY 3). But AH KAM denies
Yeoh’s breadth. It ignores her breathtaking capacity simultaneously to
span and inhabit such a wide range of gender-inflected personas. It
attempts to squish her into a redefined and conventionalized all-around
woman: professional/lover/nurturer. But this only manages to undermine
the basis of her charisma.
Still, it's no small compliment to acknowledge that Yeoh emerges from
this film with her dignity and star power (if not her body) pretty much
unscathed.
Shelly Kraicer
--
Shelly Kraicer
University of Toronto
s.kr...@utoronto.ca
mpk
I disagree. While Ah Kam could have easily been better I still got a
lot out of the movie as a HK fan. The insight into KH film-making alone
makes this worth seeing. I have to agree that the plot took a few
twists in the wrong direction but if the last plot thread had never
started then you probably would have like the movie a lot more (I know I
would have). It is rare that I leave a HK movie going "damn that seemed
long" especially when the movie is only 90 - 100 minutes like Ah Kam
was.
On the role Michelle played...I think you took it a little too
personally. It was a movie. She played a role. While this role might
have had autobiographical undertones you seemed to take the mistakes
made by the characters a bit too harshly. If you disliked the movie as
much as your post suggests I find it odd you cared so much.
To those interested in HK movies and some insight into how they are made
go see it but do not expect too much action, it's not that kind of
movie. I think that if you go to see Ah Kam expecting a Michelle & Samo
slug fest you will probably be disappointed. If you go to see a movie
about making movies (which it is) you will get a lot from the movie.
-Michael
