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In the stories of my early childhood, treasure was buried under beach sand. Now, in my later childhood, I find that treasure is more often buried under peculiar voice acting choices and bad framing.

Release
Red Sun
Dubbed in English

Starring
Fu Sheng, Liu Chia Hui, Chang Chan Peng, Liu Chia Yung

In Brief
Fu Sheng as a con man, and Liu Chia Hui as a Buddhist monk. Who’d have thought? Everyone is looking for Chang Po Chu’s treasure. A monk is warning people away from seeking the treasure. Lord Mo is killing off everyone who meets with the monk, and framing him for their murders.

Treasure Hunters is broadly-played Cantonese comedy. As much as the story thrashes, it never manages to turn from a very simple course: The treasure is in a temple. Go get it. The script has the kind of frantic pace that always makes me think it was improvised. That energy is what saves Treasure Hunters from mediocrity. The formulaic treatment would have been to spend most of the film playing Dueling Con Men, with Fu and Chang trying to get one up on each other. Instead, they carve out roles (ignoring some overlapping functionality, and plenty of black hole where synergy might fit), and function as a team. The energy saved on convoluting the plot is spent pounding home the delivery moment by moment. Example:

“One of those monks is as full of himself as you are. The one wearing white. He must be a big shot.”
“Why do you say that? Just because he’s well-dressed? I dress well; you ignore me!”
“Well, you’re an idiot.”

Treasure Hunters features a five-monk array. I cannot begin to tell you, dear reader, how much a five-monk array adds to a film. Shaolin monks are tough in any Shaw Brothers film, but when they start busting out the dry-land synchronized swimming techniques, they are unstopable.

Nice Shots
Fu and Chang raid Liu Chia Yung’s home for some of Chang Po’s letters. An under-cranked scene of Liu chasing the robbers around a room plays like a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

A fake bookcase takes out a dozen officers.

The aforementioned five-monk array.

Best Stunt(s)
When the con men are fighting their way out of a casino, a stuntman does a double somersault from the second floor down to the lobby.

Lui Chia Hui is attacked with a spear, and we are treated to a minute of Lui defending himself.

In a brawl, a stuntman is picked up sideways, and kicked away.

Need I say it? The five-monk array.

Multi-monk Arrays
A five-monk array when Lord Mo tries to ambush the priest.

Also a five-monk array with Chang pinch-monking for the injured priest in the final showdown.

Disappointments
Every time the story slows down, the cross-eyed police inspector comes in and gets fooled by the con men. It isn’t interesting enough to make the story feel like it’s going somewhere, and the comedy, for the most part, doesn’t travel well.

Liu Chia Yung is terrific, but he gets written out of the story after about five minutes. It would have been nice to see more of Liu, perhaps worked into some sort of five-monk array…

Final Analysis
Half a star for the original plot seed, plus an additional half-star bonus for each monk in the largest array, for a total of three stars.

If You Like This
Early works with Sammo Hung and Jacky Chan play the same kind of comedy. See Magnificent Butcher, Dragon Lord, Warriors Two, Drunken Master, etc.

Dirty Ho features Liu Chia Hui getting the best of a con man, and a title that has aged gracelessly.

For other takes on “don’t let the antiques hit the floor,” see Young Master, Shanghai Knights, and Rush Hour.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 1:01 am and is filed under Chop Socky, Movies, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.