The last two films of the day were chosen by Shii. To be honest I was surprised that he chose “Mo Jing”, and in the end it turned out to be a very classic Hongkong film, a very good example of its genre. As a result, most people in the audience did not seem to like the film very much and they flocked out the movie theater after the film was over. Or maybe everybody was just hungry and needed to get food before the next film started, like us.
Mo Jing (That Demon Within)
Hongkong/China 2014, Dante Lam, 112’
Dave is a nice police officer who leads a simple life when decides to give blood to a wounded man who comes into emergency. It turns out that the guy is one of the most brutal gang leaders in Hongkong, having robbed and killed multiple policemen. While Dave tries to grapple with what he did, he sets out to destroy the gang by himself, but in the process, his dark past is slowly being revealed.
Death count: Many.
Like I said, everything in the story is pretty much standard Hongkong thriller fare, including the end which conveniently explains everything. In the credits at the beginning, there is a “choreography” and a “car choreography” entry. That made me expect big car crashes in the film until at the very end, it finally delivered. Boy, that car crashing into the gas station scene was quite impressive. Drawing upon a long tradition of Hongkong action movies, that scene’s visual splendor is far superior than your average Hollywood action flick’s. Story-wise, I thought “Mo Jing” was rather intricate, the revelations in the film happen slowly and as confusing as it may have seemed at first, everything in the film contributes to its dramatic ending, with a final flashback explaining what actually happened in Dave’s past. I even loved that last scene of the film, in which we see Dave helping out an old woman… it may all be a genre cliché, but within the genre it’s very well done.
“Mo Jing” is definitely a film that cannot be explained, only seen. There is so much going on, but none of it is particularly meaningful. It’s just a feast for the eyes and a suspenseful story, really. Much more than your average Asian film, “Mo Jing” necessitates a certain familiarity with Hongkong films to make sense, and you would only like it if you liked the genre in the first place. It’s like watching a film noir or a Western – when you are dealing with a genre, you have to be into the genre’s rules, even if you don’t take them seriously.
Originally, I was interested in the film because of Daniel Wu. I had seen him in “Europa Report” before, in which I thought he was terrible. But he is a big name actor and so I wanted to see something else to verify. Or maybe I am just into his pretty face. Well, in this main role as Dave, I thought he was absolutely brilliant and totally believable. Perhaps there’s just something wrong with “Europa Report” – every actor in the film seemed terrible, which is surprising because Anamaria Marinca was amazing in “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”, Sharlto Copley was great in “District 9” and Christian Camargo was quite good as the Ice-Truck Killer in “Dexter”. So yes, I would definitely want to see movies with Daniel Wu again. At least “Mo Jing” was very satisfying.