Running on Karma

There’s an old screenwriting adage that goes, “You can break every rule except one:  Don’t be boring!” And no one takes that advice to heart more than the Hong Kong film industry.  Any random sampling of films produced since 1980 will turn up bizarre genre mash-ups, wildly eccentric action franchises and melodramatic love stories that take big swings with absolutely no fear of striking out.  And 2003’s Running on Karma, a Johnnie To / Wai Ka-fai joint, wastes no time throwing ideas into the cinematic blender to serve up another offbeat dish.

Biggie (Andy Lau) is a Buddhist monk turned go-go dancing body-builder (give that a minute to sink in) who is also gifted with the ability to see karmic visions of a person’s past life.  This all comes into play when he helps Lee Fung Yee (Cecilia Cheung), an ambitious cop, solve a murder involving two men with no previous relationship with each other. Biggie’s sixth sense and martial arts skill help crack the case, but the impending doom surrounding Lee Fung Yee herself might be beyond even his power to prevent.

For anyone unfamiliar with the drastic changes in tone and narrative whiplash involved in HK cinema, Running on Karma might seem like a something out of a fever dream.  Within the first five minutes star Andy Lau is grinding on stage buck-naked in a muscle-suit (which he wears the entire film) while the cops next door attempt to apprehend a suspect who can physically bend himself into the size of a hat box.  And just when the movie settles into a light-hearted martial arts rhythm, thinks take a hard left-turn into horror film territory for the finale.

While this stream-of-consciousness plotting often comes off as maddeningly random, it’s also endlessly surprising…that’s if you can get past the Eddie Murphy-style muscle suit.  The script also pulls a bit of inspiration from David Fincher’s Seven on a couple occasions, but you’d be hard pressed to find any Hollywood production that crams a fraction of what director Johnnie To packs into Running on Karma.  

Eureka’s 2000-copy limited edition comes with two commentary tracks, a 20-minute archival Making Of, and new interview with Gary Bettinson who does a great job breaking down the filmmaker’s creative process.  Also included but not available for review is an O-card slipcase featuring new artwork and a collector’s booklet.

   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there...
Read more

Hand of Death

Image
Even hardcore martial arts fans will admit that not  every  film is worth watching.  With the sheer amount of product pushed out from Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest at the height of the kung-fu craze, quite a few lesser efforts slipped through the cracks, many serving as a training ground for new talent on the way up.  So even if the final product – like 1976’s  Hand of Death  - is aggressively average, there’s bound to be some novelty when it comes to the talent involved.  Names like John Woo, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung are sure to attract interest.  But put them all in the same film and you’ve got yourself some must-see viewing!   Yet another showcase for the mythical shaolin brotherhood, here a monk, Yun Fei, is sent to exact vengeance on a ruthless warlord, Shih Shao-Feng, who’s made a long list of enemies throughout the province.   Yun Fei assembles a team of talented fighters to defeat Shao-Feng and ...
Read more

Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Late Silents 1927

Image
As a niche within a niche, silent films are certainly a hard sell for modern audiences.  Even Turner Classic Movies can only spare a couple hours a week in their schedule on late Sunday nights.  Perhaps because silents are positioned as something to be appreciated rather than enjoyed, dry history lessons held back by their crude technical limitations.  But the newly restored  Charley Chase   at Hal Roach: The Late Silents 1927  proves silent  comedy  was anything but.  A “do-it-all” comedian, Chases’ on camera persona relied less on slapstick than farcical domestic situations.  Unlike Chaplin’s  tramp  character, Charley often played a put-upon everyman just trying to catch a break.  The first two shorts in the set are a prime example:  There Ain’t No Santa Claus  follows his character’s attempt to hide the purchase of a Christmas gift for his wife from his rent-hungry landlord…while...
Read more