Ziyu fengbao (Purple Storm, 1999)

Teddy Chan

Hong Kong

112 min, color, Cantonese (English subtitles)

An intense action-packed drama about a group of renegade Khmer Rouge terrorists who want to implement their leader's idiotic and bloody "starting from scratch" dream. Unfortunately (for them), they pick Hong Kong as the unlikely place from which to unleash the purple scourge on the world. Fortunately (for us), their idiotic and bloody plans are foiled although not thanks to the idiotic and bloody attempts of the HK terrorist fighting unit. Whatever the film lacks in plausibility, it makes up in pretty decent dramatic sequences although even those cannot fill some rather gaping holes in the script.

Soong (Gan Kwok Leung) is a Khmer Rouge butcher (were there any other types?) who is sent, presumably to the decadent West, to learn "technology" because the "revolution needs it." Coming as it does from the leaders of a rural anti-technology and anti-education luddite revolution, the order makes as much sense as sending your kid to Britney Spears to learn singing. No matter. Soon goes boldly in the rain, a fact which will make several emphatic appearances throughout the film.

As any decent progressive revolutionary who goes to a decadent Western country, Soong drops from sight for two decades, presumably learning "technology" but in fact enjoying the good life. When Pol Pot finally kicks the bucket, Soong kicks into action by stealing some highly lethal biochem weapon from the North Koreans. In the ensuing confusion, his son Todd (Daniel Wu) plasters himself all over a container and passes out while his wife-terrorist (is there any other type?) Guan Ai (Josie Ho) debates whether to shoot him now or later when he comes home.

The HK terrorist-fighting team gets a hold of Todd and beats the crap out of him before realizing that the guy's got amnesia. Then the brilliant and unscrupulous shrink Shirley (Joan Chen) decides to test her theories of the human psyche by telling him he has a long-haired girlfriend. Naturally, Todd wants to meet her and the team has to procure one on short notice. Whether this confirms Shirley's theories or is simply normal male behavior is left mysteriously unexplained. However, when the tryst goes rather well, the big terrorist-fighting honcho Ma Li (Emil Chau) decides to use Todd by making him a Manchurian candidate. So they tell him he's really an undercover agent with a penchant for collecting butterflies. Since all this kicking in the head by the same team has left Todd rather dizzy, he happily accepts their new position although he does wonder about "his" questionable music taste when he sees "his" CD collection in "his" apartment.

Of course, he infiltrates his Dad's organization and once even succeeds in being useful by altering the HK unit to a planned purchase of a sailing boat. However, Todd's memories gradually come back and once he recalls his happy childhood --- his Dad riding a bicycle with him to an idyllic Cambodian village, a row of young monks kneeling in prayer, his Dad executing the monks and then handing the boy Todd the pistol --- he understandably becomes confused and drops by Shirley's office to ask her why she picked butterflies as his hobby instead of toy cars. As any decent shrink would have done, Shirley stares at him and asks him to confront his bed wetting problems, which Todd does not take well but runs off to ask "his" girlfriend (who he now knows is fake) to elope with him. When she elopes instead to the police station, Todd is crushed and returns to his terrorist-wife.

Then there's a lot of shouting and some shooting. The terrorists do recover the North Korean container with the lethal WMD and almost succeed in hijacking a plane to fly it somewhere. Todd has second thoughts (again!) because he begins to remember that his little kid blew up. Why the kid blew up is beyond the scope of this review (and the film). But it was very painful (not for the kid, for Todd). It turns out that it was also painful for his wife but that she hides it well. Anyway, when she finally kills herself (yes, everybody has a choice but mine usually involves going to the beach), Todd steals the deadly canisters --- I mean the canisters with the deadly WMD, the canisters themselves looked quite innocuous although they could be deadly if used to smash someone on the head with them --- and runs into a tunnel, his Dad in hot pursuit. Of course, it all ends up with the decontamination squads sealing the tunnel.

As a story, the terrorist plot was ridiculously unimaginative. However, the amnesiac Todd subplot was rather well done. In fact, the dramatic components of the film far outweighed the action sequences in importance and interest. My favorite in the entire film has to be Guan Ai, the ruthless wife of Todd. As it turns out, she cares little about the Party and the revolution but a whole lot about her idiot of a husband, whom she protects to the very last despite clearly blaming him for the death of their child. Josie Ho was easily the best performer in this film because she handled all her scenes extremely well, from the quiet moment with few words to the explosive boat sequence, she delivers the role with poise and conviction that deservedly won her the nominations for best supporting actress.

I rather enjoyed the "nobody is entirely good, and nobody is entirely bad" characters even if these have become a cliché. But let's not belabor this point because I risk overstating the case, just like the director does in the "Making Of" featurette. "Everybody is a terrorist," gushes the director but I beg to differ. My wife... sure, she is a terrorist or else I'd be doing stupid things all the time, not like now when I do them when she's not looking. Maybe I am a terrorist although I don't think that my fervent belief that there are people who deserve being blown up qualifies me. Maybe if I actually blew up these people?

The HKL DVD is excellent, with an entertaining audio commentary by Ben Logan and (the somewhat dull) Daniel Wu. There's also a "Making Of" featurette and an interview with Josie. There's also an English dub although I doubt anyone would bother watching it. The picture is anamorphic and very clear.

May 31, 2003