The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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Masterofoneinchpunch
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The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

Post by Masterofoneinchpunch »

“Yes, this is Mr. Li, the brother of Mr. Li” – the most hilarious statement in the film.

I have only seen one other non-martial art Chor Yuen films and have not been impressed with either of them. My biggest concern going into this was that it was going to be similar to his worst faults in his wuxia films and there will be an overabundance of plot twists and characters. While there is a decent amount of characters and the plot is understandable, there are other issues that hurt the quality and credibility of this film. For fans of martial arts (there is less than a minute of total fight time) or crime action films, this is first and foremost a modern-day social melodrama. Do not let the beginning fool you. This movie would take in less a third the box office intake (421,644 HK$) than next year’s Killer Clans (1,596,557 HK$).

The heist starts at the French bank Banque de Indochine (a real bank for the exterior) and the holdup is accomplished when 5 million HK dollars is being transferred and en route. For some reason gun shots are fired in the soundtrack, but not in the movie making me initially think that a few people were shot. This is foreboding of the realism and attention to detail that is to come with the rest of the film. It goes off without a hitch and they get away. The initial plan to split up and go to different countries is a smart one. However, if the masterminds of the robbery are not on your side you are in trouble. All five names of the culprits are leaked to the police before they can get away. Maiguang (Tin Ching) soon after he leaks the information gets rid of his companion Lucy right after she tells him that the boss might betray him. This scene is brazenly inept and the person who falls for it was so incredibly gullible that you want to strangle the screen. The boss does end up betraying him in another scene of masochism (for you the viewer not for them.) The main boss is actually the son of an inspector. In the most psychologically effective scene in the film, he actually takes the money into his dad’s office as if to rub his nose in it. I just wish more of the film was like this.

While the five Li Guochao (Yueh Hua: Come Drink with Me), Li Guocheng (Wong Chung: All Men are Brothers), Huang Philip the race car driver (Ling Yung: Death Duel), Chen Jiuzai (Danny Lee: The Killer), and Ma Rulong the former martial art star (Chen Kuan-tai: Challenge of the Masters) are hiding out, what better time than to wax poetically about the past injustices of your life by incorporating melodramatic flashbacks. They all have reasons for wanting a large sum of cash. The Li brothers are in trouble with the triads because of the drug addicted Guocheng. Huang is out of work and his girlfriend the singer Fangting (Lau Ng-kei) is dying and has six months to live (the film seems to forget that if she has six months to live, she will be very sick a big chuck of that time) and he would like to take a worldwide trip with her before she discovers the undiscovered country. Chen has horrible parents and needs the money to take care of his siblings as well as wants to help his friend Ma. Ma was screwed over by his movie producers and wants his old life and house-set back. Will they escape to a better life? Will Chen be happy with the morally loose rich kid driving a sports car with a good heart Jenny (Lam Jan-kei) whom he recently kidnapped and now is his girlfriend?

I love that so much of this was filmed outside. I enjoy seeing Hong Kong in film especially with the Shaw Brothers which I am used to seeing more set design than city life. The cinematography is good from Wong Chit (he has done a lot of Chor Yuen’s films.) I liked the use of the flashback structure though it often went into pathos to explain each individual’s reason for getting into the reasons for their predicament. It is an ambitious undertaking with a fatalist theme, but fails in its intent as either a social critique or a didactic message. I do not mind tonal shifts in film, but I do want them to be done competently.

The ending is atrocious with one of the most horrific and idiotic shootings of a suspect I have ever seen. But there are more than a few other face-in-palm moments in this movie. There is a blowing up of a car that rivals Hans Moleman’s touch explosion in an episode of The Simpsons. This is not a comedy so you wonder, why did that car explode? Or the car jumping over two cars yet there was no ramp for that to happen. There is the quickest case of Stockholm Syndrome that I have ever seen. And I have not even complained yet about the very annoying drug addicted character whose behavior that led to his demise was one of the most frustratingly idiotic choices that made me want to go Elvis on the TV screen. He is a more annoying relative than Eric Robert’s character in The Pope of Greenwich Village. This movie is only for die-hard fans of Shaw Brothers or Chen Kuan-tai whose characterization is the best since he is a real martial artist playing a martial artist with an added intermittent limp.

This was seen in the R3 IVL with mono Mandarin language track and English, Traditional Chinese, Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesian subtitles. The English subtitles are quite good. There is a misleading new trailer for this film along with others for Danger Has Two Faces, The Condemned, Police Force and Kidnap. In the Movie Information section there is: Movie Stills, Original Poster, Production Notes (with a very misleading synopsis of the movie) and Biography and Selected Filmography.

Sources:
Mark Pollard Review: Good review. This is one of the few reviews out there on this movie. Mark is always fun to read. I agree with that New Police Story reference in the last paragraph. I wish I had thought of that originally.
Heroes of the East Review Cal used to be on HKMDB, he is now doing standup somewhere in England. His mention of the swinging lights is pretty funny as this is noticeable in a few scenes. It gives it a small film noir film, even though they probably should not be swinging.
French Banks in Hong Kong (for the very bored)
Box Office figures from HKFA

Questions:
Where is this music lifted from?
What were the older films of Chen Kuan-tai on here?
On the back of the cover do you see misspellings on the English description? Does this signify it is a bootleg or is it misspelling on the DVD release?
What car is Jenny driving? It seems familiar I just cannot place it (no make or model name on the body of the vehicle.)
Last edited by Masterofoneinchpunch on 19 Feb 2014, 21:42, edited 1 time in total.
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RetroRobot
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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I have this somewhere on dvd-r though, so can't speak on the cover snafu. I don't remember much about it. Though I do remember falling asleep twice while watching it. But that's not always a reflection of the films quality, but more about me being tired at the time. As far as Shaw contempo action flicks go, im more into the 80's stuff, like Mercenaries From Hong Hong, Men From the Gutter, Hong Kong Godfather etc. I think some of those 70's efforts were a bit sluggish and meandering. Though I do remember liking the Coffy remake Sexy Killer a lot. Pure exploitation sleaze, that I actually liked more than Coffy.
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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RetroRobot wrote:I have this somewhere on dvd-r though, so can't speak on the cover snafu. I don't remember much about it. Though I do remember falling asleep twice while watching it. But that's not always a reflection of the films quality, but more about me being tired at the time. As far as Shaw contempo action flicks go, im more into the 80's stuff, like Mercenaries From Hong Hong, Men From the Gutter, Hong Kong Godfather etc. I think some of those 70's efforts were a bit sluggish and meandering. Though I do remember liking the Coffy remake Sexy Killer a lot. Pure exploitation sleaze, that I actually liked more than Coffy.
Oh yeah I'll take Hong Kong Godfather anyday and/or everyday over this. Though this really isn't an action film, more of an aftermath film that was poorly done.

What bugs me about the film is that some of the mistakes are so hilariously inept. The jumping car right out of The Love Bug, some bizarre scene changes I did not even mention (though spoilers would be involved so I did not put it in the review). This is another film that gives me mixed feelings on Chor Yuen. He has some of my favorites like The Magic Blade. But with these movies I start to think him more of a studio director than an auteur (though his wuxia films seem to point him more to auteur; I'm still thinking on this, will have to watch more of his modern day movies.)

This is the type of film where i don't expect many comments though (anywhere). I just wanted to go over it twice, and write something on it so I do not have to watch it again in it's whole anytime soon. For my personal sake, I just need to write more so whenever I get motivated to do something I better take advantage of it -- though this occasionally gets me to write on some bad films like Laughing Times (note to self should have done Johnnie To's Lucky Encounter, I don't think I ever want to see that again.)

I liked Coffy so I'll have to give Sexy Killer an eventual watch Retro.
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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I felt Sexy Killer was kinda tame compared to Japanese 70's exploitation films. I saw it around the time when I was watching tons of Toei pinky violence stuff. Not a bad film, though, and the final 10 min is fantastic! It works for stress and depression like no medicine, too. Every time friend breaks up, I show him the last 10 minutes of Sexy Killer! :lol:

Sonny Chiba's The Executioner films also work for broken hearts :cool:

I'm not even kidding here :lol:
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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@Masterofoneinchpunch

Yeah, most def check it out. It's AKA is The Drug Connection btw.

Funny, i've had the exact same ponderings on Chor Yuen as you. You watch a film of his and go "damn, this man is a genius", then you watch another which might be weak sauce, then another stone cold classic, then a fine but boring one and so on. He's a hard one to pin down. Haven't seen that many of his modern day flicks and popular canto comedies, but strictly speaking on his Wuxia stuff, I think he had a lot of help. Deep material from the Gu Long novels, a Shaw crew working with German-like efficiency (have you ever seen a bad looking SB film?) and off course the beautiful sets. Now to be fair, these things were available to all Shaw directors. And he certainly got the most out of those Shaw sets, his choice of shots were often more accomplished and the visual style a bit tighter than most. But had he worked on the indie scene like Ng See Yuen or someone, would we be praising his work to the same degree? Im leaning more towards studio director than auteur. Whereas someone like Sun Chung, who I feel is vastly underrated, is perhaps closer to auteur status than Yuen. Though after he left Shaws, he didn't much of note, so what do I know?
Last edited by RetroRobot on 19 Feb 2014, 17:26, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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Oh, no doubt, Hung. The Japsploitation is second to none.
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

Post by Masterofoneinchpunch »

RetroRobot wrote:@Masterofoneinchpunch
...but strictly speaking on his Wuxia stuff, I think he had a lot of help. Deep material from the Gu Long novels, a Shaw crew working with German-like efficiency (have you ever seen a bad looking SB film?) and off course the beautiful sets. Now to be fair, these things were available to all Shaw directors. And he certainly got the most out of those Shaw sets, his choice of shots were often more accomplished and the visual style a bit tighter than most. ...
I am thinking the visual style is more from Wong Chit. Seriously look at the list of films he is the cinematographer for. Take for example this film. There are some serious structural errors (plot, character), but when I was revisiting scenes yesterday I am noticing these beautiful complicated shots with great use of location and depth. Some of the composition could have been better, but I am thinking they are doing this on the fly. I would suspect that the outside work was hurried (understandable in HK and understandable for Shaw Brothers) leading to some errors here and there. But there is some ingenious camerawork. However, the film is not particularly fun to watch (or well made.)

Well some of the last years of the major Shaw-era have some weak looking movies like Journey of the Doomed (still my least favorite Shaw film), but overall it is usually professional looking and I generally love the sets (like I love the Hammer sets from the 60s).

Some directors also do better in the studio system. What better way to learn filmmaking though? You apprentice for several years, have access to many facets and if you make a bad film well you have another one coming. No need to dwell and no time to dwell. But overall for me Chor Yuen is more sporadic in quality versus Chang Cheh (whose use of the studio system reminds me of John Ford though Chang is even more typecase with MA than Ford is with westerns -- note to readers I have seen about 45 of John Ford's films).
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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The credit for visual style director vs DP is always a tough one. With some directors you know, and some DP's you know. But for most, I have no idea, unless I build a time machine and spend time on the set, or do extensive research into both director and DP's output. In most cases it's obviously a collaborative effort, and the credit should probably be 50/50.
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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RetroRobot wrote:The credit for visual style director vs DP is always a tough one. With some directors you know, and some DP's you know. But for most, I have no idea, unless I build a time machine and spend time on the set, or do extensive research into both director and DP's output. In most cases it's obviously a collaborative effort, and the credit should probably be 50/50.
Since the auteur theory does not always work :D, it it sometimes figuring out if it is truly a group effort, does one producer (like Val Lewton) get credit, is it the director, is it the actor (who can also be a producer when you see this with like Adam Sandler, even if you do not like him it is hard not to think of him as the auteur) etc... Sometimes like with Johnnie To it is later on in his career (especially when it is his co-company) where became an auteur.

It will be fun going over the non-MA Chor Yuen (well fun is relative) and seeing what similarities I can find with them. You know kind of like going over John Woo's comedies ...
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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In pre ABT John Woo you can see traces of what he would become, and from ABT and on, traces of what he was before. Not sure what you're gonna find with Chor Yuen... let us know.
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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RetroRobot wrote:In pre ABT John Woo you can see traces of what he would become, and from ABT and on, traces of what he was before. Not sure what you're gonna find with Chor Yuen... let us know.
Regarding John Woo: with the action/martial arts films that is definitely true. However, have you seen either Laughing Times or Plain Jane to the Rescue (I like this film I do not like Laughing Times)? These are a little harder to find Woo-isms. The second because Siao dominates the film with an already established TVB character and the first well Dean Shek dominates with him trying to be Charlie Chaplin and the overabundence of past Chaplin gags in the film. Though when I just reread my review of it though I forgot about the slow motion cake fight which is completely Peckinpah/Chang Cheh/John Woo in its style.
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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I've seen a few of Woo's early comedies and puzzled at how that talentless hack could become John Woo?
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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Those comedies were paycheck movies.... and yes, pretty damn awful. But then again, im not a Cantonese movie-goer from the late 70's so it's kinda hard to judge.
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Re: The Big Holdup (1975: Chor Yuen: Hong Kong)

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I don't speak Cantonese either... but many of them are still awful.

Awful transcends language.
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