  1994 / Director. Albert Pyun. Movie # 19 In 1997 the English handed the city of Hong Kong back to the People's Republic of China. A few years earlier Albert Pyun made HONG KONG 97 which told the story of an assassin trying to flee the country before the hand-over at midnight. Robert Patrick lead the film as the American contract killer with a $10M bounty on his head. Having just assassinated several high ranking Chinese officials he finds himself on the run, along with two colleagues and his former lover and her grandfather. This movie is amongst Albert's most polished and mainstream efforts. It plays out very fluently and is really well executed. The set design is wonderful with all sorts of vibrant colours saturating the night-scape, giving it a nice oriental ambience and it conjures memories of Ridley Scott's BLACK RAIN. The cast is solid too with Patrick in the lead, supported by Brion James, Tim Thomerson and Andrew Divoff. None of them play into stereotypes and each lend modest and understated performances... although James does have a strange British accent, which coming from him... still works. According to Wiki-whatwouldtheyknow, the film has never been released on DVD. Ha. I guess they don't look hard enough. I managed to source and excellent copy from the Czech Republic of all places. It's been remastered wonderfully and the image is as polished as it is ever likely to get. In terms of Albert Pyun's filmography, HONG KONG 97 is probably most comparable to POSTMORTEM. Clearly different types of films, but both working within a more traditional and classic style of filmmaking. This is more restrained, less experimental and definitely more conformed. When it comes to Pyun films, us fans do prefer the crazy, fucked up and ballsy stuff... but every now and then these solid and conventional outings are necessary to remind us that Mr Pyun is not to be underestimated.
2 Comments
cynthia curnan
7/3/2014 05:49:16 pm
As usual, Albert had a minimalist budget to shoot Hong Kong 97. He was at the height of his guerilla filmmaking skills and Robert Patrick was as adventurous as Albert. The crowded street shot with Robert Patrick's head above the others was improvised on a day off because that shot was too pricey. The Chinese Triad (crime syndicate) demanded too much for Albert to shoot on the famous JUMBO floating restaurant in the harbor. Instead, Albert hired a sampan (small motor boat) to drop Patrick off on the deck of the restaurant and pick him up on the otherside. From another sampam, Albert stole the shot of Patrick walking thru the whole restaurant and jumping back on the boat. The Triads controlled some, if not all, of the police because on the return trip, the police boat intentionally crashed into Albert's sampan, nearly killing him. In the editing room, a scene of Robert Patrick shooting a man eating dinner supposedly on the JUMBO floating restaurant was inserted into the scene of Patrick walking thru the boat. That scene is one of my all time favorites. Instead of being slammed for his low-budget movies, Albert should be celebrated for his harrowing stolen shots;) 8/3/2014 06:15:31 pm
Fantastic anecdote Cynthia. Albert's films are full of great back stories. Please feel free to scroll through the reviews and share some more. You are absolutely spot on about Albert being celebrated. Of course he should. That's exactly what I am featuring this retrospective and screening his films to coincide. You and I both know that he's one of the most underrated and undervalued filmmakers of a generation. Leave a Reply. |
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