Review for Gallants

Introduction

I feel like I've been here before. Ye olde style kung fu given the 21st Century makeover, paying homage to the great movies of the past, and even casting some of those much-loved figures from the old Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest movies that turned so many of us on to the revolution in action cinema. It's a love letter to the kung-fu classics of yesteryear. The last time I got such a love letter, it was in the form of Kung Fu Hustle. Kung Fu Hustle and I didn't get along. I found it trite, cheesy and overly referential, although most of that was down to its lead actor, Stephen Chow. Stephen Chow isn't in Gallants. Maybe this film and I will get along instead.


Cheung used to be a kung fu Jedi… when he was eight. He regularly used to practise his skills on his friend Mang, who was always on the receiving end of a good-natured battering. That was then. Cheung subsequently grew up to be a weedy, asthmatic office worker, routinely belittled and bullied by his employers. His latest assignment to the end of nowhere is a result of his clumsiness at work. He now has to visit an isolated village to settle a property dispute, where a greedy landlord is pressing his tenants for an extortionate rent, as he wants their land to redevelop.


Their prime target is Master Law's teahouse, and you'd think that a teahouse would be easy to deal with, especially as its two employees, Dragon and Tiger are getting on in years. But the teahouse used to be a kung fu school, and Dragon and Tiger are Master Law's prime pupils. They've been looking after the school ever since their master fell into a coma thirty years ago. Cheung's arrival coincides with Master Law's recovery, only he mistakes Cheung for both his students, and seeing that the school is in danger, he decides to put his students through some rigorous training, so that the matter can be decided in the time honoured fashion, at an upcoming kung fu tournament. It's good for Cheung, as the evil landlord turns out to be none other than Mang, who since being battered all those years ago, left for America, where he's been training in martial arts ever since.

The Disc

MVM dish up another bare bones release for one of their live action titles. Fortunately they get the essentials right with Gallants, offering a very pleasing native Film to PAL transfer for the movie, with a clear, sharp and colourful image, presenting no real issues during playback. Similarly, the audio is a nice, beefy DD 5.1 Cantonese surround track, that works well in bringing across the film's action sequences, and keeping the dialogue clear throughout. The only niggle is the perennial annoyance of player forced English subtitles, which may as well be burnt in, and not all onscreen captions are translated, as dialogue takes precedence. The only extra is the trailer for the film.

Conclusion

Gallants was fun, certainly more fun than Kung Fu Hustle. It's a nice bit of action absurdity that serves to pass the time well. It's no modern kung fu classic though, and while it does pay homage to those kung fu movies of old, it doesn't hold up too well in comparison, even though some of the action sequences are as good as anything from back then. Where Gallants falls down is in an uncertain identity, unevenness of script, and a sudden and unwelcome reminder of reality.


It starts off promisingly enough, with a weedy office worker winding up in the most unexpected of situations, in a village where everyone looks and sounds as if they've escaped from a kung fu movie, and he's caught up right in the middle of it. The unreality increases when Master Law wakes up, and mistakes Cheung for his students, both of them, and egregious training sequences ensue. It looks as if the film will build to a classic battle of kung fu schools, just as in the movies of old, and you expect the action set pieces to get ever larger, and ever more serious. They never do, and the action keeps pulling back, the fight sequences seem like minor disagreements than they do battles for honour.


I also expected more of a cohesive script, given the number of characters and how the story initially develops. But as the film progresses, the importance of the supporting cast diminishes, or never really crystallises. One female character that looked like she could deliver a serious ass-kicking was never used in that respect, and she also looked like a potential love interest for Cheung, and that wasn't explored either. In the end it really comes down to one man's story, and it's the character that you would least expect to carry the film.


The worst thing is that some two thirds of the way through the film, the real world intrudes on the story, with an event that totally changes the tone of the movie, from mindless fun to something more melancholic, and I don't feel it works all that well. All of a sudden the fight sequences, the characters, and the story have to be seen in a real world context, the characters instead of being over the top and ridiculous, take on a more reflective air, and the film ends on a subdued, introspective note. For all the kung fu action in Gallants, and there is plenty, the film just lacks energy. Gallants is interesting and entertaining, but not quite the modern kung fu classic that I was led to expect.