Film Picks: The Childe, Joy Ride and One More Chance
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The Childe is a South Korean thriller starring Kang Tae-joo (left) as Marco, a boxer pursued by a psychopathic killer played by Kim Seon-ho.
PHOTO: GOLDEN VILLAGE
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The Childe (NC16)
118 minutes, now showing, 3 stars
In the Philippines, Marco (Kang Tae-joo) lives in poverty, caring for his desperately ill Filipina mother. He has never met his delinquent father, a South Korean.
When his father’s representatives appear one day, expressing his wish for a reunion and to care for both of them, Marco is elated. A dapper but psychopathic assassin (Kim Seon-ho) shows up, wishing Marco harm, proving there is more to this family gathering than meets the eye.
South Korean writer-director Park Hoon-jung co-wrote I Saw The Devil (2010), one of the best crime thrillers of the past few decades in any language.
This new work bears some similarities in its tone and structure. But the resemblance mostly lies in the comic-book style of the storytelling and action, which tends towards intimate violence rather than massive shoot-outs or elaborate car chases.
This stylish South Korean thriller is saddled with a weak protagonist in Marco, but makes up for it with an interesting villain.
Joy Ride (R21)
(From left) Sabrina Wu, Ashley Park, Sherry Cola and Stephanie Hsu in Joy Ride.
PHOTO: ENCORE FILMS
95 minutes, now showing, 4 stars
Four Asian-American friends (Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu) head to China on business. Almost immediately, their international adventure is waylaid by drug smuggling, lost passports and sex with the Chinese men’s basketball team.
Joy Ride is a directing debut by Malaysia-born screenwriter Adele Lim of Crazy Rich Asians (2018).
Not that this Hollywood comedy with its all-Asian creatives is a mere exercise in ethnic representation. Neither is it just about showing how Asian women can party like the most debauched of white chicks in Bridesmaids (2011) and frat boys in The Hangover (2009).
Hell, yeah, they can and they do, but the girls-gone-wild road trip is foremost a showcase for a riotous ensemble of actresses.
Their friendship will be tested and their individual identities re-examined. The odyssey slips in openly emotional introspection on the Asian diaspora experience – what it is like to be Asian in the United States and an American in Asia – without dampening the zaniness.
One More Chance (PG13)
Chow Yun Fat in One More Chance.
PHOTO: MM2 ENTERTAINMENT
115 minutes, now showing, 3 stars
Chow Yun Fat in his first film since the 2018 actioner Project Gutenberg is pathological gambler Water Ng, who learns to connect with the son (Will Or) with autism he never knew he had and become a better man.
What could be a greater nostalgic high than a movie starring Chow? One such as the Hong Kong dramedy One More Chance that also has the ageless Anita Yuen in the part of Water’s long-ago love.
She offers him HK$100,000 (S$17,300) to take in her teenage son for a month. Turns out the boy is his too. Anthony Pun directs, with Felix Chong of Project Gutenberg and the Infernal Affairs trilogy (2002 to 2003) scripting.
The father-son bonding is predictable, and the lengthy final act in Water’s redemption journey is tear-jerking.
But it is the 68-year-old cinema legend who sells the whole thing with his magnetism. The actor is a winning cutup, especially when clowning around with his salon sidekicks Alex Fong, Michael Ning and the late Liu Kai-chi in one of his final screen appearances.
