Stuntman Review: Nostalgia-Rich Tribute To Hong Kong Action Filmmaking Of Yesteryear

Stuntman (PG13)

Starring Tung Wai, Terrance Lau, Philip Ng, Cecilia Choi

Directed by Albert Leung, Herbert Leung

Hong Kong movies about stuntmen often lament the passing of the golden era of their film industry. Circa our green-screen times, anybody hauled up by wires can do stunts, right?

Few flicks do death-of-HK-cinema in a more blatant, corny but cosy manner than Stuntman, a sympathetic homage to the old school.

People are put in harm’s way. But you feel its overall harmlessness because you know that despite playing squabblers in a film-within-a-film setup here, this is one big stunt family of cast and crew who are pals behind the scenes.

It’s like taking a trip down memory lane with a stubborn, irresponsible grandpa — actual action choreographer Tung Wai — whose thing is to jump off a building onto cardboard boxes in a crazy-daredevil way. We haven’t seen drama like this over a rooftop take-off scene since that bygone TV series, VR Man. (Pssst, when is it coming to mewatch?) Stay through the end credits to see how it turns out.

“I don’t want Hong Kong films to fail,” exclaims washed-out relic, Sam Lee (Tung), who infuriates everybody —  from fellow stunt workers to disciple to daughter —  with his bull-headed passion for classic action pics and the fading “Hong Kong spirit”. Exemplified by HK's famed Bruce Lee statue which he hangs around at. FYI: Tung, 70, appeared in 1973's Enter The Dragon.

The dinosaur clings rigidly onto risky body-on-the-line stunt methods as a diehard purist. Turning into a furious dictator when the new generation of safety-first softies ignores his my-way-or-the-highway action sequences to break for impromptu snacks while preferring MMA flashiness and editing-room shortcuts. “We’re just making a movie. We’re not risking our lives,” the young punks protest.

Funny thing is, those sacred moves which Sam insists on actually don't look that big-deal different. Maybe this show needs Tom Cruise.

Is this a microcosmic tale about a wider attitudinal change in HK society?

Nah. The story, directed by Albert Leong (himself a stuntman) and his brother Herbert, is relatable, predictable, but not that incisive. Unlike ang moh stuntmen goofing around in The Fall Guy, HK action old-timers really do seem to be quite simply an overly sentimental bunch. Heck, Jackie Chan, also playing a has-been stunt dude, even got mushy about his horse in Ride On.

Traumatised by a serious accident decades earlier — a mistimed leap from a bridge to a moving container truck — which left one makeshift stuntman paralysed, Sam is coaxed out of retirement from his TCM bone-setter job by a director-friend looking to make a swansong pic in the old-fashioned bone-cracking way.

The hard taskmaster just needs to work with the upstarts led by big star Wai (Twilight Of the Warriors: Walled In’s Philip Ng), an ex-crew member with major beef as the initial jumper who chickened out years ago due to safety concerns in the said accident.

Meanwhile, Long (Terrance Lau, another Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In alum), Sam's delivery man-turned-disciple leaves his pi**ed-off delivery partner-brother dangling to scoot off to basically garner disrespect from the stunt team he’s heading as the frontline co-ordinator. It’s a, er, kick to see this fella buy into his master's credo — Sam makes Long do take after take in being kicked to koyok-level — until even the latter explodes at Sam’s draconian method madness.

And Cherry (Beyond The Dream’s Cecilia Choi), Sam’s estranged daughter, fumes at her dad’s persistently unreliable habit of trying to be there for her wedding day and then always running off to a filming emergency.

Now, Tung, an unfamiliar face onscreen, is better known off it as the noted action choreographer of numerous flicks, including The Battle At Lake Changjin movies.

Here, in Stuntman, this unfamiliarity works in his favour in two great scenes. He’s blasted by his paralysed friend's pent-up angry wife who blames him for everything. And he ignores vital gun permits while shooting a too-realistic bank robbery sequence in which real cops think there’s an actual robbery in progress.

It’s a hoot to see Tung burst a blood vessel demanding such absolute purity.

You kinda agree with everyone here that this guy is basically glory-days loco.

But it’s fun to see him act so reckless as one big crazy stunt. (3/5 stars) out in cinemas

Photo: Shaw Organisation