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★★½☆☆
12 May 2017
A movie review of MR. LONG. |
“You wanna be a dancer?” Kenji (Sho Aoyagi)
What was director Sabu thinking? After LÉON and THE MAN FROM NOWHERE, we have already had the hitman-seeking-redemption-bonding-with-kid story. MR LONG just feels derivative, offering little new to the subgenre. Though, like the filmmaker’s previous feature, CHASUKE’S JOURNEY, the craft on display is evident. (The score and the atmosphere do hook.) These two movies do share the overall feeling of not being sated by what is on offer.
The protagonist assassin here is of course taciturn. The strong silent killer has been around for decades. Time to shake things up surely?
What was director Sabu thinking? After LÉON and THE MAN FROM NOWHERE, we have already had the hitman-seeking-redemption-bonding-with-kid story. MR LONG just feels derivative, offering little new to the subgenre. Though, like the filmmaker’s previous feature, CHASUKE’S JOURNEY, the craft on display is evident. (The score and the atmosphere do hook.) These two movies do share the overall feeling of not being sated by what is on offer.
The protagonist assassin here is of course taciturn. The strong silent killer has been around for decades. Time to shake things up surely?
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Kaohsiung, Taiwan, some low-level gangsters are shooting the breeze in a stockroom, then a knife emerges from a chest like something out of ALIEN. The soundless kill should showcase the lethality of the blade’s holder. The scene instead comes across as unrealistic, as the titular Long (Chen Chang – CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) dispatches the rest. While the movie does have an ominous vibe, it also does not particularly raise the pulse with its (few) action sequences.
The hit gone wrong, in a nightclub, is almost laughable. An audience member should not be thinking anyone could have done better (though they probably couldn’t). A travelling assassin, Japan, was the location. Now Long is alone in a foreign country and a target. Yawn.
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Beaten and shot, and hiding out in a slum on the edge of Ashikaga, Long befriends a young boy, Jun (Runyin Bai), whose mother, Lily (Yiti Yao), is a sex worker and drug addict. A large swathe of the narrative is then used to go back in time to see how she arrived at her tragic circumstances (useful for those who have no compassion). Long helps dry out Lily and a pseudo-nuclear family emerges. Before you reach for the sentimental sick bag, hold on. The surprise hits you in the gut, but it is almost counter-productive as it highlights what a dearth there is in the rest of the film.
The climactic showdown is expected, but underwhelms, especially compared to the bravura choreography in a similar set-piece in Park Chan-wook’s OLDBOY. The coda however is unforeseen.
The community surrounding the leads is cute. One wonders whether a reformed murderer will get a shot at happiness.
Both sad and sweet, MR LONG is a hackneyed crime flick, elevated by expert heartstring pulling.
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