ZHAN GU (THE DRUMMER)
Hong Kong, 2007, 118 minutes, Colour.
Jaycee Chan, Tony Leung, Ka Fai, Angelica Li, Kenneth Tsang.
Directed by Kenneth Bi.
With visual suggestions of symbols, mystic movement and dance, as well as drumbeats, The Drummer suggests a film exercise in Zen meditation. Then, it suddenly shifts to dance in a night club, flirting and drinking, sex and a world of gangsters and revenge familiar from so many Hong Kong films. Just when we were wondering what happened to the symbolism and whether we were just in for betrayals and shootings, the core meaning and drama of the film reveal themselves. The symbols and the drums return.
The son of a gang chief (Jaycee Chan), who enjoys playing drums in the club, has to take refuge in the mountains because a rival chief whom he has caused to lose face wants to cut off his hands. But, he hears drumbeats, a great variety of rhythms and beats and goes exploring. It is a troupe of drummers (who are also skilled acrobats) rehearsing before a world tour. This is a conversion experience and he dedicates himself to becoming a Zen drummer.
There are more complications with gangsters, double-crosses and the young man having to ask himself where the true course of his life is taking him.
The drumming is quite mesmerising as are the performances (one of which is a fantasy where the young man duets with his father). Whether the two genres combine well is still a matter of conjecture and taste. But, the ideas are very interesting and the drumming absorbing.
1.The Hong Kong atmosphere? For Chinese audiences? Western audiences?
2.Hong Kong, the city, the contrast with the countryside? The contrast between the gangsters’ world and the life and world of the drummers? Their intercutting?
3.The prologue, the drummers, the mystic sense, symbolism, Zen?
4.The quick transition to the nightclub, the contemporary drumming, flirting, sexual encounter, the girl and her relationship with Stephen Ma? The attack on Sid, Sid and his shaming Stephen Ma? His defying of his father? The confrontation, Stephen Ma demanding his hands? Sid’s arrogant response?
5.Stephen Ma as respectable businessman, gangster, well dressed, his henchmen? Sid’s father by contrast, rough gangster? Stephen Ma saving his life? The lieutenant, his care for Sid? The symbol of the cut hand?
6.The lieutenant and Sid, hiding in the countryside, going to the adult education class, stating their goals? In hiding? Sid and his arrogance with the girls in the street?
7.Sid hearing the drums, drawn towards them, listening attentively, the range of rhythms, the drums, the beat, the artists, their performance, acrobatics?
8.The woman in charge, accepting Sid, his collecting the stones, shaving his hair, training?
9.Sid and a conversion experience, the effect for him, for life, his skill in playing?
10.Sid’s father, gangster activity, going to prison, betrayed by the lieutenant? Sid being in charge or not? The murder of the father in prison? Sid and his shrewdness in assessing the lieutenant’s guilt, the accusation?
11.Sid getting the gun, vengeance, going into the woods, the shooting?
12.The performance with the drums, Sid playing with his father, his commitment to life with the drummers?
13.The girl, Stephen Ma’s mistress, relationship with Sid, lies, loving him or not, excusing herself, as a model, at the concert? Stephen Ma at the concert?
14.The transformation of Sid? The gangster world and the mystical world? Ethical issues?
