Vengeance

Johnnie To walks into a production meeting.

“Guys, here’s the idea: our heroes, triad assassins with hearts of gold, are in a field, hiding behind big bales of scrap paper and surrounded by bad guys hiding behind big bales of scrap paper.  The bad guys roll their bales in front of them, as a moving shield.  The heroes roll their barrels at the bad guys, guns blazing.  Colorful scraps of paper blow in the breeze.  Music plays.  Blood everywhere.  It’s magnificent.”

Kai-fai Wai, To’s collaborator and business partner, is the only man in the room with the courage to question the great Hong Kong director and producer.  He says, “Sounds great, Johnnie.  What’s the story?”

“Story?”  says Johnnie.  “Who cares?  Listen to this: the good guys track the bad guys down to their meeting place in the woods.  They close in for their shootout, O.K. Corral style, when suddenly the bad guys’ families show up.  It’s a picnic!  The good guys keep walking, taking position on a nearby hill and waiting for the picnic to end and the families to go home.  The bad guys enjoy their evening, even sending some food over to the good guys.  When the picnic’s over and the families leave, though, it’s no-kidding, Wild West shootout.  They all have honor, see?”

“I like it,” says Wai.  Is there any kind of narrative through-line you’d like to explore?”

“Pfft.  I’m producing four movies this year and directing one.  I don’t have time to write scripts.”

“Right,” replies Wai.  “Well, those sequences sound great, and I’m sure you have more up your sleeve.  I’ll gin up a revenge thriller around them and whaddaya say we start second unit filming on Monday?”

“Works for me.  Let’s use Vengeance as a working title.  I’m going to go storyboard my shootouts.  Have a good weekend, everybody.”

And so, I like to imagine, Vengeance was born.  The box says it’s about a very serious Frenchman who comes to Macau to wreak, well vengeance.  It’s really about the great Johnnie To creating cool action sequences.  Even better, it’s about the great Johnnie To (Election, The Heroic Trio) creating cool action sequences in Macau and Hong Kong, the Vegas and Manhattan of China.  Simon Yam (Ip Man & Ip Man 2) plays the villain and has great fun with the role.  Anthony Wong Chau-Sang (Infernal Affairs, Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), Ka Tung Lam (Election, IP Man, Infernal Affairs), and Suet Lam (Shinjuku Incident, Kung Fu Hustle, Election) play the three assassins with hearts of gold and, if you follow Hong Kong cinema, those names are enough to put this movie on your queue right there.  Johnny Hallyday, whom Roger Ebert describes as a French combination of Elvis Presley and Charles Bronson, plays the Frenchman as a dour guy in a black suit, and his plastic surgery gives him an odd enough look to make him an interesting hero.

So what do have, here?  You have a good-enough story, reliable actors and stuntmen, and a string of very cool, very creative shootouts, chases, and action sequences.  In short, you have a terrific Hong Kong action thriller.  Vengeance is a winner.