Monday, April 25, 2011

Gallants (2010)

Gallants / Da lui toi / 打擂台 / (2010)

Genre: Action / Comedy
Director: Derek Kwok, Clement Chang
Starring: Teddy Robin, Chen Kuan-tai, Leung Siu-lung, MC Jin
Duration: 100 min.
Rating: 7.8/10

Summary:
Two has-been martial arts masters are holed up in a village restaurant, tending to their master who is in a coma. Trouble arrives in the form of a gang of roughs; diplomats for the ruthless developers that are drooling over their property. The master wakes up with a start, and pushes the old boys into action for home and country.


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Gallants is a Hong Kong film co-directed by Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng (his first film) which recently won several awards at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Picture, and Best Supporting Actor for Teddy Robin's fantastic performance as a spunky old master who awakens from a 30 year coma.  It is a low budget action comedy in the vein of classic Kung Fu movies of the 1960s and 70s but taking place in the present times.   

This film was hilarious, and succeeds as a first rate homage to old school Hong Kong cinema.  The story is nothing new, but the dialog was clever and witty and the cast of characters were great, including Chinese rapper MC Jin playing one of the bad guys.  However it was legendary actor/singer Teddy Robin who stole the show with a truly great performance that was both comedic and moving. 

I highly recommend this to anyone who likes a good old fashioned Kung Fu flick.  Though I think those who have to rely on the subtitles might have some difficulty keeping up with the fast paced Cantonese dialogue. 









2 comments:

The Angry Vegetarian said...

I don't know why, but I LOVE martial arts film that involve the local restaurants. Seriously, think about all of them that have a scene like that! It's such a nice place to have a fight scene or an intense argument with someone else.

Hermann Rorschach said...

Argh! More movies than time to watch. And this seems like one I will have to watch twice to concentrate more on the dialog.

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