The Raid - The Continuing Adventures of Dr. Choy

Dec

11

The Raid - The Continuing Adventures of Dr. Choy

≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Hong Kong, Worth A Look |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Action/ Comedy
Director: Tony Ching Siu-Tung/ Tsui Hark
Year: 1991

Rating:

WORTH A LOOK

In the 30s, the Manchurians were cooperating with the Japanese in the testing of poison gas. A group of commandos is intent on blowing up the poison gas factory. The elderly Dr. Choy (Dean Shek) offers to help, but the leader of the commandos blows him off because he’s too “old.” Can Dr. Choy prove his worth, with the help of his preteen daughter and a street urchin who has a crush on his daughter?

Sounds like a fun premise, doesn’t it?

The Raid is based on the Dr. Choy comic books, popular in China, and is done in the style of a breathless Perils of Pauline type serial adventure.

The action is often wildly imaginative. I’ll give two examples. At one point, Dr. Choy is trapped on the wall of a dam, being shot at by a warplane. His solution to the dilemma involves dynamite. In another scene, soldiers jump off the wings of a moving biplane onto the ground. Neither scene is convincing in the slightest, but that’s not really a problem in a comic book style movie like this.

The cinematography by Tom Lau and Arthur Wong is often quite beautiful and successfully mimics the dutch angles and bold compositions of comic panels.

Most of the acting is broad but suitable for a film like this. The standouts are Dean Shek as Dr. Choy and especially Tony Leung as Commander Masa. Leung is brilliant, bringing a military bearing and alacrity to the character, which masks a giggling maniac underneath.

All the elements are in place for a highly entertaining adventure, but directors Tony Ching Siu-Tung and Tsui Hark fall short in a couple of key areas.

Joyce Godenzi, who plays a famous actress in cahoots with Commander Masa, is absolutely horrible in the first half of the film. This puzzled me because she was terrific in She Shoots Straight. Then her performance miraculously recovers in the second half of the film. That leads me to blame the directors for not spotting how flat Godenzi’s line readings were in the first half of the film.

Just as damaging, the directors allow the pace to slacken many times. This is a huge flaw in a film which seeks to duplicate the breathless pace of a Republic serial.

Overall, the cartoon derring do of The Raid will put a smile on your face, but it’s not the breathlessly entertaining romp it should have been.