Star Runner
Ah, the joys of pop stars infiltrating the Hong Kong film industry. For every Andy Lau there's an Aaron Kwok, every Anita Mui has a Twin. As one would expect, the film debut of another pop star is received with a mix of excitement and dread from the young fans of the latest idol to make the jump, and from more experienced film fans respectively. Star Runner is a curious beast which met a more distinct and varied reaction to its release than normal. On the one hand, this was the debut of Taiwanese pop star Vanness Wu who is a member of the pop group F4 (which funnily enough serves an 'undo' function in Microsoft Word, how symbolic) and of young Korean pop starlet Kim Hyun-Joo. The trepidation caused by debut of these two non-actors was tempered by this being the return of director Daniel Lee, who had not made a film since the Andy Lau vehicle A Fighter's Blues, and directed the Jet Li favourite Black Mask amongst others. Also of interest to martial arts cinema fans were some of the other names connected to the project, Chin Kar Lok stars and choreographs the action, Shaw Brothers legends Gordon Liu and Ti Lung were named as cast members, as was long-time player David Chiang, and other names rang bells with fans like British stuntman Jude Poyer. Just what sort of film was this going to be? A work that conjures up memories of martial arts movies past, a symbolic passing of the torch from old pros to the new generation of screen actor, or would it just be another glossy, poorly written and acted disappointment the likes of which many have come to expect from Hong Kong these days?
Bond Cheng (Vanness Wu) seems to be the typical dopey student, falling asleep in his first Korean language class with the lovely new Korean Chinese teacher Kim Mei Chiu (Kim Hyun-Joo). Not a good first impression with the new member of staff, but when he later fights off a gang of young hoodlums attempting to mug her, they warm to each other. After an incident with some forgotten boxing gloves Kim discovers why Bond is sleeping in her class, he's training extremely hard at a Thai Boxing gym under Master Lau (Gordon Liu!!!). A connection develops between them as they go through things together, Kim agrees to pose with Bond for his gym's boxercise advertisement pictures, and then when he realises one of the other teachers at his school is going to make a play for Kim's affections he 'rescues' her from his amorous advances. However later that night he gets into a fight with some westerners and a distraught Kim reveals to him why she left Korea to come teach in Hong Kong. She had been in a relationship with a married man and he'd always promised to her that one day he'd leave his wife for her, telling her to trust him. Kim had told herself that if she ever saw him and his wife together in public, that she would leave him and have nothing more to do with him (don't look at me, I didn't write it) and one day that very thing happened, and she left for Hong Kong as soon as she could. Bond and Kim grow closer, but the young man has other things to worry about, the upcoming Star Runner martial arts tournament. Each martial arts school can only enter two fighters each and when Bond is turned down in favour of his senior Hoi (Chin Kar Lok) and fellow student Chris he leaves the group. However, a disgraced former martial arts champion called Bill (Max Mok) offers him a second chance, offering him the chance to fight for his Fusion Tao gym and to combine his Thai boxing with kung fu. Bond must strive to master these techniques so that he can prove something to his former sifu and to take on the ultimate challenge, the powerful and feared Tank (Andy On). Things could be complicated further when someone else comes from Korea, looking for Kim...
Is this film a bad teen romance movie with martial arts elements fighting to get out, or a martial arts movie lumbered with bad teen romance bits? It all depends on how you look at it, but considerable patience is required if dull teen romance stories aren't your bag. There is just too much plot for this film to work properly, and in the end Star Runner is left with a serious crisis of identity. Involved here are themes of loss and rejection, loneliness and the need for love and companionship, the difficulties and social problems caused by romance between teacher and student, falls from grace and the search for redemption, the loss of belief in traditional Chinese martial arts, and the realising of ones dreams. However even with a 105 minute running time the film couldn't possibly hope to give the time needed to all these ideas, and the results feel incredibly truncated. While it has been said that there are scenes missing from the Hong Kong DVD version such as a love scene between the two main characters, it is highly doubtful that the deleted footage would have plugged all the gaps. Sadly, there are moments where things become engaging and this occurs when the martial arts portions on the film kick in. When Bond starts training with Fusion Tao, all of a sudden the film goes up a notch and everything picks up - the filming, soundtrack, and cast look a little more enthusiastic all of a sudden. However the love story dominates the picture up until around the 45 minute mark and even then, it keeps intruding on our precious fight action! This wouldn't be so bad if the romance story wasn't so terribly dire. The core of the story is this: a pretty girl sees a pretty boy, and because they're both very pretty they fall for each other. We're lucky to even get a line of dialogue between them even expressing their attraction to each other, its all done with attempted meaningful looks that the cast sadly is not up to pulling off.
As if the weak plot wasn't bad enough, the cast is lead by a pair of pop stars that couldn't act dead if you shot them in the face. As far as Vanness Wu's acting goes he fits in well with other pop actors of recent years, running the gamut of emotions from 'moody' to 'very moody', he has the personality of a zip code in Kansas and will sadly probably go on to big things in Hong Kong cinema if the success of some of his predecessors are anything to go by. Kim Hyun-Joo is successful Korean pop singer also and her performance makes the Twins look like Gong Li and Maggie Cheung, she's like Shu Qi without the personality. Kim does all the usual things expected of an Asian actress in a film like this: she looks absolutely adorable, she pouts, she looks like she's on the verge of crying for half of the movie, but her performance is as shallow and pitiful as I've seen in recent Hong Kong movies and makes it difficult to believe that this same island produced so many films in the 80s and early 90s with women is strong action-oriented roles. The simpering Kim and stone-faced Wu have no chemistry whatsoever and any further development of their shallow relationship wouldn't have stood a chance in the hands of two such inexperienced performers. What might have been a charming love story loses momentum after five minutes as we grow tired of Kim's doe eyes and Wu's blank stare, and this is what carries the first half of the film and a good portion of the second! This will infuriate many who had hoped to see the supporting cast mix it up in the fight scenes which are in sadly short supply.
You're going to have to put up with it though, because the martial arts sequences here an absolute must-see! Chin Kar Lok's choreography is tremendous here, giving the fights a solid and realistic style with the exception of one very silly-looking spinning slam thing that Tank has in his arsenal. The film comes alive when its time to show some scrappin', the camera work becomes more animated, the soundtrack crashes with guitar riffs and driving beats and nifty visual effects are used. It's a completely different film, perhaps the film that Daniel Lee and crew actually wanted to make, and while much is still conveyed with gestures and facial expressions the drama is there and the whole thing just works, damnit! It must be conceded that despite his massive failings as an actor, Vaness Wu actually acquits himself well in the fight scenes. Aided by the excellent choreography and some frenetic camera work, he looks quite plausible as a martial artist, possibly some training in dance from his pop career helps him look athletic and limber. His training scenes also looked good including him training with a portly old Ti Lung in Wing Chun, one cannot deny that he did well for a first timer. More impressive still is Andy On who has made a good recovery after starring in the ghastly Black Mask 2. Here he is in amazing shape and looks every bit the cocky and extremely dangerous martial arts champion, his fight with Chin Kar Lok being a particular highlight and the final fight is excellent in its thrilling display of athleticism and heart from both characters. Sadly there are still shortcomings, the most glaring being there simply isn't enough of these scenes. Only three fights felt in any way complete and the others are edited highlight reels, the cast of fighters for the film is severely under-used. The fights are so compelling that it's a massive comedown when it goes back to the insipid romantic plot, that these technically excellent fights should be a subplot to such bad drama is infuriating. There are dramatic elements to the fights too including a whole subplot of the relationship between Tank and his brother that is only just hinted at and could have been much more interesting. It is also bizarre seeing so many martial arts stars that don't do anything. Ti Lung does a few Wing Chun forms, Gordon Liu just shouts a lot (though does get a great dramatic acting scene near the end) and Ken Lo, bodyguard to Jackie Chan and amazing superkicker in his own right, doesn't get to show any of his skills as Tank's brother and trainer. Another old-schooler, David Chiang, stars as Bond's grandfather but unfortunately he spends most of the film in a coma! Old-school fans are going to be thoroughly pissed off, which is a shame because when the fighting gets on screen it truly is some of the best committed to film for a good while.
Ultimately, this film is a grave disappointment and a terrible waste. One can only dream of some sort of special cut that sheds much of the painfully dull and poorly written romance and replaces it with the Star Runner tournament itself which was not only infinitely more entertaining, but seemed to feature far more effort on the part of the makers. Perhaps if the main cast members weren't attractive young pop stars, far more emphasis could have been put on the martial arts, though looking at Hong Kong's cinematic climate this film might not have been made at all without them. What we are left with is a film with some priceless golden moments, but they are buried under 50 tons of crap. Combat fans simply must see the fights , but its difficult to recommend the film as a whole. Get ready with the fast forward button.
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