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THE
CONMAN
AKA:
The Conman 1999
Year:
1999 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
King
(Lau) is a master conman who has little respect for the
business he is in and even less respect for his wife.
When a card game goes seriously wrong King kills a man and is
left colour blind in the process. He is imprisoned for
five years without knowing what has become of his family.
When he is released he is met by Skinny Dragon (Nick Cheung)
who is sent by an old friend to look after him. King's
only thoughts are of finding his wife but he decides to help
Dragon by teaching him some tricks while he pursues his
search. Dragon's sister Ching (Athena Chu) takes the two
friends in and begins to fall for King without even realising
it but he seems intent on rekindling his previous
relationship. When they run into Macau Mon, one of the
greatest conmen of all time, they are drawn into a plot to
kill him and King must place his life on the line to play one
last game that could be his last ever.
For
'The Conman', director Wong Jing attempts to emulate the
success of his 'God Of Gamblers' films with something of a
modernised retelling of the story. This time Andy Lau is
the master gambler whilst Nick Cheung takes the role of the
foolish sidekick. However, unlike Jing's timeless
classic, problems start to arise here when certain plot lines
struggle with continuity elements. For a start lets take
King's colour blindness; this serves no real purpose in the
telling of the story and is only used to show some of the
shots in black and white for no apparent reason. Then
there is the ending which turns the story into more of a farce
than a gripping climax with Wong Jing himself making a cameo
as a film expert who can help get them out of a sticky
situation. Finally, the most annoying thing of all
was the use of the musical score in the film which is a
totally misleading comedy soundtrack that is particularly
noticeable during the serious scenes, making it almost
impossible for the viewer to become involved in the emotional
moments.
As
for Jing's directorial talents, well they come across as more
of a mixed bag than usual here. He has tried to climb
the ladder somewhat by using an excess of adventurous shots
and camera trickery (like sweeping blurred shots and fast,
quick takes) which can occasionally work but, especially
during the action scenes, tend to restrict the viewer's focal
point. Another noticeable trait was the use of the shock
factor in which Jing likes to throw in a graphically violent
twist to force his hero into taking the road needed for the
tale to progress. This is not always the most pleasant
way of proceeding and never really seems to sit properly in
this supposed comedy/adventure film.
So,
those are the bad points but what are the good? The
acting is of a decent standard with Lau playing the strong
silent type well and Athena Chu, although lacking real
substance in her role, is definitely one for us guys to watch.
Nick Cheung also succeeds in showing that he has a talent for
comedy and is one to look out for in the future whilst Waise
Lee gets what is really a cameo role as the sadistic bald bad
guy but plays it more for laughs. As for summing up the
film as a whole, it's watchable but just tries to pull itself
in too many directions and doesn't lay down a solid structure
for the audience to follow. If you separated the comedy
and the seriousness you could probably have two half decent
films but mixed together this way they never really seem to
gel.
Having
analysed and over-analysed, I still end up going in a complete
circle with my feelings on this film and just concluding that
this really is nothing more than a second rate attempt at
remaking 'God of Gamblers'. When will film makers learn
that it's always best to come up with something new rather
than try to build on blocks that have already been laid?
Sadly, this unoriginal offering is just way too average.
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