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Sunday, December 11, 2022

NANFANG CHEZHAN DE JUHUI / THE WILD GOOSE LAKE (2019)

Well-received Neo-Noir from Chinese writer/director Yi'nan Diao is less the gang warfare film it seems at first, more in line with fatalistic 1930s French Poetic Realism; think Jean Gabin before John Garfield & James Mason took up these doomed romantic anti-heroes.*  Guys who knew their time was up, but stayed in the game just long enough to square accounts.  Shot with ultra-saturated edge (an award-winner for cinematographer Jingsong Dong), and a kinetically charged vibe even between fluidly executed action.  The melieu’s underground, literally so (Hotel Floor B2), with gangs of motorbike thieves taking productivity seminars!  But divvying up sections of the city for control prove more contentious: Internecine Riots; Asian Arts style fights; Gun Shots; undercover cop killed.  It leaves gang leader Zenong Zhou injured & on the lam.  With multiple nets closing in (cops and rivals), he needs a few trustworthy (or bribable) souls to make sure the reward for his capture goes to his estranged wife & child.  Most of it coming from an unlikely helpmate: a ‘bathing beauty’ prostitute who gains his trust.  (She’s getting a cut of the reward.)  The various chases and escapes in and around the Goose Lake district well-accomplished/remarkably easy to follow.  (Speedy traffic, fights & violence done with little visible CGI tweaking.)  And before the inevitable, a bit of sex (blow job) and even a last meal (also noodle); each well earned.  So too the film’s high rep.  Ge Hu and Gwei Lun-Mei  perfect as the lead pair while remaining perfectly dry-eyed right to the finish.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *John Garfield on the edge in HE RAN ALL THE WAY/’51.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/08/he-ran-all-way-1951.html

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