The Incredible Hulk fails to smash box office records

Marvel’s 2008 re-launch of their Hulk franchise was supposed to be more “mainstream” than Ang Lee’s previous take. By mainstream, Marvel was probably thinking of improving box office receipts. Ironic, then, that the film’s US opening weekend box office actually fared worse than Lee’s Hulk.

The Incredible Hulk basically follows the same updated storyline – scientist Bruce Banner is bombarded with gamma rays and turns into the Hulk when he becomes angry or when his pulse rate spikes.

Plot: It is immediately evident that Marvel wanted this new film to contain as little exposition as possible as one action scene follows another. The script and directing pays tribute to the 1970s TV series with Banner as a loner on the run. The visuals of Banner changing into the Hulk – the dark shot of Banner’s face with his eyes glowing green – is a direct reference to Bill Bixby.

Action: The studios hired Louis Leterrier (Jet Li’s Danny The Dog, The Transporter) to helm this project hoping it would turn out to be an action extravaganza – but I found the action unexciting with a been-there-seen-that feel. The opening chase thru the slums of Brazil is far inferior to the one in Casino Royale. The special effects are serviceable but not exceptional. On the positive side, the film is closer to the comic than Ang Lee’s version, and features crowd pleasers like Hulk’s thunder-clap and the big green monster shouting “Hulk smash!”.

Cast: I was surprised when Marvel cast Ed Norton in the role of Bruce Banner. The end result, however, is disappointing. I actually like Eric Bana more as Banner and also preferred Jennifer Connelly to Liv Tyler. The rest of the cast was unexceptional – no standouts.

Interesting note – Brazilian jujitsu master Rickson Gracie makes a brief appearance as Bruce Banner’s instructor, teaching him breathing exercises. The roller credits, however, bill him as an aikido instructor!

Fan pleasers: Marvel’s recent productions have all included minor scenes foreshadowing the imminent Avengers movie. In The Incredible Hulk, we get specific mentions of the super soldier formula / serum that was used on Captain America and a brief scene with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr). Nice for fans, I suppose.

In short, The Incredible Hulk is a brainless and unexceptional action blockbuster. Not a hit but not a total miss either (miles better than Daredevil!)

Amazing Dutch robotic chair

Wow. This is an amazingly freaky product – chairs take follow you around the library! It is a Dutch product.

Fukasaku’s Battles Without Honor & Humanity

And talking about convoluted plots, I really doubt anything matches Kinji Fukasaku’s (深作欣二) legendary Battles Without Honor And Humanity a.k.a. The Yakuza Papers (Jingi naki Tatakai). Fukasaku made a total of 5 films in the series and the double dealings and change in alliances between the yakuza oyabuns, captains and their families are horrendously difficult to follow. The amazing and amusing thing about this is it does not detract from the enjoyment of the films at all. (Home Vision Entertainment’s DVDs include a nice diagram to highlight the allegiances).

During its time, Fukasaku’s Battles Without Honor And Humanity was supposed to reveal the yakuza for the scum and thugs that they really were; the more traditional Japanese yakuza films normally portray the underworld as a place where honor and loyalty meant everything. Fukasaku turns this notion upside down with his Battles Without Honor and Humanity films, and the often weak looking bosses turn out to be nastiest schemers who control the more physically commanding captains of the underworld families. Of course, today, the films come across as nothing more than entertainment – but very riveting gangster films these are!

The star of the series is of course the iconic Bunta Sugawara. But I particularly liked Hiroki Matsukata’s Sakai from the first film – he wears the cool Japanese gangster look (with shades and trenchcoat) that surely must have fueled the imaginations of many a Japanese youngster.

So far I have seen the first 3 films in the series. The first film traces the forming of the modern yakuza families after Japan’s defeat in WWII and how they used the black market to build their families. The second film (subtitled Deadly Fight in Hiroshima) is a minor detour that features a young Sonny Chiba. The third film (subtitled The Proxy Wars) gets back on track with Sugawara’s Shozo Hirono once again taking center stage.

All 3 films are excellent. Highly recommended.

Bunta Sugaware as Shozo Hirono

Hiroki Matsukata as Tetsuya Sakai

Tsui Hark’s 深海尋人: convoluted and simply boring

Tsui Hark used to be one of Hong Kong’s most innovative film-makers during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, but his recent projects have failed to capture the creativity and vitality of his earlier works. In the last few months, The Missing 深海尋人 – Tsui’s latest film – received decent press exposure, not because of overwhelming interest in the production, but because of Isabella Leong’s alleged refusal to participate in promotional activities. I went to see the film today, the first day of its screening in Hong Kong, and I was rather disappointed; it turned out that the film is aptly titled as it in fact is very missing in plot and direction.

The plot of The Missing is overly convoluted and offers too many twists in the final act, so much so that it becomes annoying. Personally, I though Hark could have wrapped up the film without the final act, which renders all the previous plot turns irrelevant. At nearly 2 hours in duration, the film is needlessly long too. Basically what happens is a couple who are about to get married go scuba diving but the male dies. Details of how the boyfriend dies is withheld – the girlfriend cannot recall how tragedy struck and believes she is seeing ghosts. But is she losing her mind or do spirits really exist? You get the drift . . .

I don’t require films to be technically outstanding, boast brilliant acting or riveting plots in order to like them. In fact, I very much enjoy B-grade films with confusing plots as they often offer more entertainment and creativity (within and outside genre conventions). For me, the problem with The Missing is it is an unimaginative B-grader masquerading as a big budget project. While it has more than its share of genre cliches, the film has none of the vibrancy of a good B-grade film (like Tsui’s early creations). The film is directionless and there is no real emotional core, so viewers will not care about any of the characters. Hark also cannot decide whether the film ought to be a straight thriller, a horror or a romance; the tone shifts back and forth, and the films end up not being satisfactory for fans of any of those genres. Technically, the much touted underwater photography is under-whelming and the sound effects are too loud (as if the sound editor wanted to test the low frequency output of his cinema system – this will no doubt be a selling point for the imminent DVD release). The performances by the 2 core actresses Angelica Lee and Isabella Leong are serviceable but hardly outstanding. Lee is a likable actress and was much better in The Eye.

Also, an awful theme song gets played ad infinitum during the film. In short, the film is a letdown. Not recommended. Go see Tsui’s The Butterfly Murders (vintage HK New Wave) or his last great film The Blade instead.

Frog – off road racer miniaturized by Tomy

When I was around 14 years old, my father bought me a Tamiya remote control car model kit, code named Frog. I was thoroughly fascinated with the toy. Now, more than 20 years later, Tomy has developed a mini version of the very same remote control off road racer! The mini toy looks real nice although I really loathe the pink color scheme for the Frog.

The original Frog (click to see more) (Scale 1/10) :

The Frog mini :