Johnnie To's pickpocket comedy is unexpectedly entertaining – and has the strangest imaginable influence
Johnnie To is the multi-talented Hong Kong director with a reputation here for hard-hitting crime and action: his Election (2005), about a fratricidal war for gangland primacy has many admirers; I found it clotted and self-conscious. This movie is lighter, easier and more likeable: it's a sprightly comedy caper about a pickpocket gang that pays eccentric homage to French cinema. But it's not Bresson. The movie on which it's modelled is, of all things, Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Veteran tough guy Simon Yam plays Kei, the leader of a light-fingered gang roaming the Hong Kong streets, pinching purses and wallets and palming them quickly on to each other. Chung Chun Lei, played by Kelly Lin, is a beautiful, mysterious woman spying on Kei on behalf of ageing gang boss Mr Fu (Lo Hoi Pang...
Johnnie To is the multi-talented Hong Kong director with a reputation here for hard-hitting crime and action: his Election (2005), about a fratricidal war for gangland primacy has many admirers; I found it clotted and self-conscious. This movie is lighter, easier and more likeable: it's a sprightly comedy caper about a pickpocket gang that pays eccentric homage to French cinema. But it's not Bresson. The movie on which it's modelled is, of all things, Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Veteran tough guy Simon Yam plays Kei, the leader of a light-fingered gang roaming the Hong Kong streets, pinching purses and wallets and palming them quickly on to each other. Chung Chun Lei, played by Kelly Lin, is a beautiful, mysterious woman spying on Kei on behalf of ageing gang boss Mr Fu (Lo Hoi Pang...
- 4/14/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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