VENGEANCE

Hong Kong, 2009, 108 minutes, Colour.
Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Testud, Anthony Wong, Simon Yam.
Directed by Johnnie To.

Possibly the best Johnnie To crime drama. To is a prolific film-maker and, in recent years, most of his films have premiered at festivals in Cannes, Berlin or Venice. His international reputation is high and strong.

It was surprising the number of times that Shakespeare's name came to mind while watching vengeance. Of course, so many of Shakespeare's plays are revenge tragedies, a genre popular amongst the Elizabethan and, especially, Jacobean playwrights. But, it was not just the revenge. The audience had to ask questions about the reality and meaning of the bloodbaths, to look beneath the conventions of revenge tragedy for the human elements. Johnnie To's film is not one that glorifies the vengeance (which some other films from Hong Kong tend to do). The plot device of having a central character suffer memory loss with the hired killers asking what the meaning is of vengeance when the initiator does not know what is happening.

It was a very smart move to have a French connection for this story which takes place in Macau and Hong Kong. It offers greater access than usual to Western audiences. Sylvie Testud appears briefly as the widow of a man who is victim of hitmen. Her father is played by Johnny Halliday (in a role intended for Alain Delon who declined). Johnny Hallyday at the best of times can look alarmingly sinister. By coincidence, he witnesses three other hit men doing their deed in his fashionable Macau hotel and hires them to find his family's killers.

Johnnie To knows how to do action and intrigue and is never at a loss here. But the style, craft and polish of the film show an even greater flair than usual. The film looks very good. The opening killing has strong shock value. The recreation of the crime as Hallyday and his hired men examine the house works very well.

There are allusions to other films with a striking umbrella sequence, the hero losing his memory and taking photographs and labelling them in the same way as in Memento. It is Macbeth that comes to mind in a shootout as the hired men are surrounded by large bales of compressed garbage which hide the attackers, look as if they are moving by themselves and are moved like the trees of Burnham Wood advancing on Dunsinane. At the end of the revenge tragedy, there are very few left standing but the important thing is that order is seen to be restored. While it looks like a last man standing here, the film goes on to provide a pleasing hope for normality.

It is neatly written, well-acted and a very satisfying example of this kind of vengeance film.

1.The films of Johnnie To, Hong Kong and Macau crime dramas? This film – with its French connection?

2.The title, the revenge genre, more depth, more humanity, issue of revenge for its own sake? Its effect on the person wanting vengeance?

3.The Macau settings, the city, the outskirts, Hong Kong and its harbour, the buildings? Authentic atmosphere? Musical score?

4.The French characters, the link? Appeal for the West? For Hong Kong and Asia?

5.The introduction, the mother cooking, her family coming home, the shooting through the door, her husband and children being killed, her going to hospital? The later visualising of the crime as the four searched the house? Exploring what happened?

6.The introduction to Frank Costello, Johnny Hallyday and his reputation as singer, actor? His look? Tough and sinister? Arriving in Hong Kong, speaking French, changing to English? At the hospital, seeing his daughter, her indicating letters and words with her finger, three men as the killers, her wanting vengeance?

7.Going to the hotel, the set-up for the killing, his confronting the three hit men, his walking away and their letting him go? Making contact, meeting them, the proposal, giving them the money, the promise of the hotel? The competition and assembling the gun blindfold? The indication of his past crime career?

8.George Fung and the hired killers, his kissing his mistress, the language, his suspicions about her, the affair with the bodyguard? His hiring the team, sending them to kill the two? The name of Fung on the gun for Frank?

9.The killers going to see the cousin, getting information, who had the weapons, getting ammunition? The later confrontation of the cousin, his hanging, his death?

10.Discovering the truth, going to Hong Kong, the surveillance on the wharf, following the criminals, going to the forest, confrontation? The picnic, their wives and children? Being offered the food, not accepting?

11.The build-up to the shootout, the moon and the clouds? Their being wounded? Frank taken, healing, removing the bullet? The fat hit man and the removal of the bullet from his buttocks?

12.The three killers, their leader, always serious, the young man, follower, brash? The fat killer and his always being hungry? As characters?

13.Fung, his empire, his attitude towards his mistress, getting her killed? The phone call, the doctor and his treating the hit men? The attack on them, killing them? The company and its allegiance to Fung, changing to Frank? Because of the issues?

14.Frank, the issue of his loss of memories, writing the names on the photos, the reality of his loss of memory, amongst the umbrellas, lost in the street?

15.Fung, the attackers, in the room, the shootout on the fire escape, in the street?

16.The return to Macau, the cousin and his death? The confrontation with Fung’s men? The allusion to Macbeth – the compressed garbage piles and their moving and converging on the killers? Their deaths?

17.Frank and the children, their guardian, her pregnancy, having the meal? His loss of memory? The news, the men’s death? His prayer, his vigil, the ghosts appearing to him – in the Shakesperean vein?

18.The girl, dressed up and glamorous, seductive for Fung? Her pregnancy revealed? The children, the flags, the pasting on the jacket of the flags? Making Fung the target for Frank? The bullets and Frank making them fit, identifying Fung, killing him?

19.Order restored, Frank with the children, on the beach, with the mother, celebrating the meal?

20.The use of the revenge genre and its conventions? Hong Kong style? The polish and flair of the film? Its deeper allusions to other films, even Shakespeare?