| | Last night, went with Deb to an SFIFF screening of a mockumentary called "The Heavenly Kings" (2006), directed by popular HK actor Daniel Wu.
Basically, Wu, with three of his model/actor friends, formed a boy band, released an album, put on concerts, gave press conferences... for the sole purpose of making this film, which satirizes the present-day HK music industry, and spotlights the intricate games of manipulation between musicians, record companies, and the media. You can already see the problem, can't you? An elaborate scheme, conceived and executed over something like three years, all to prove that the media is unreliable at best, and that modern day popstars are simply advanced sound editing technology wrapped up in shiny designer packaging. The point seems to go without saying... so did it really need to be said in an 86 min production?
The experience of watching this film is comparable to looking at one of those contraptions in which a marble ball drops down and sets off a mesmerizing series of chain reaction among gears, funnels, pulleys, and levers, but all it does in the end is flick on a lighter or some equally anticlimactic result--an original process with an unproportionally inconsequential finale. With all the recent buzz over this film, I can't help but wonder if all the yay-sayers are simply too caught up in the fancy mechanics to notice a lack of depth in the film's contemplation of various problems in the HK music industry. Important questions were raise--how to deal with the age of music download; how to reinstill faith and trust in the industry--and not answered nor seriously attempted. Ultimately, the movie did not reveal anything the general music-consuming public did not already know. It was a well conceived project, but the fragile element of surpise, the variable of viewers already knowing the gag seriously undermines the effectiveness of the whole blurring-the-boundary-between-the-real-and-the-unreal gimmick.
The cynical side of me wants to point out that many are behind the project because of its star, whose success in recent years is so undeniable that he can do no wrong at this point. And adding three more handsome ex-models to the mix is hardly a deal breaker in my book.... we won't talk about the irony of four good looking guys succeeding at a film project that satirizes four good looking guys becoming a popular boy band. But did I mention it works?
And along with this point, other merits should be duly noted: a slew of talking heads interview appearances by Hong Kong's biggests stars such as Jacky Cheung, Miriam Yeung, Karen Mok, Nicholas Tse are revealing and unsuperficial. There were a couple of smart and hilarious scenes involving choreographers and stylists. The lighthearted cheekiness compensates a great deal for the rough patching between scripted and unscripted scenes. And the mockumentary format, which allocates a destablized point of view to the audience, keeps us just unfocused enough NOT to examine the likelihoods (and unlikelihoods) of various actions and reactions, be they rehearsed or not. This last point, I'm happy to say, constitutes the cleverness of "The Heavenly Kings," and perhaps more importantly, the fun of it.
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| | Posted 4/30/2007 4:42 PM - 45 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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