PopHorror Let's Get Scared
It’s no secret that films that come out of Asia are usually great, for the most part. Whether it is horror or action (although comedy doesn’t get at much love at it rightfully should), we eat it up. Movies from Japan and South Korea usually get all of the attention, but I am more partial to Hong Kong cinema. So, when I saw The Brink (Kuang Shou) on the Fantasia Fest 2018 docket, I knew I had to see it.
The Brink hails from the island of Hong Kong, off the coast of mainland China. It was directed by Jonathon Li and written by Paco Wong. It stars Zhang Jin as gangster-haired cop Sai Gau (AKA the Asian Johnny Depp), Shawn Yue as evil Shing, and Janice Man as the stunning Suet and also features Cecilia So, Yasuaki Kurata, Gordon Lam, Wu Yue, and Tai Bo. The spoken language is Cantonese with subtitles.
The Brink has two stories going on. The first one follows cop Sai Gau, who is hell bent on catching the gold smuggling and willing to risk his life and others to do it. The other follows Shing, an important cog in the smuggling machine who is fighting for his own life during a mutiny among his own family, and who cares for only himself even though his girlfriend(?), Suet, would risk everything for him.
Like most Chinese movies, there is a ton of hand-to-hand combat; it is an action film, after all. While some of the movie is slower than I’d like, the fight scenes are big and elaborate. It would seem actor Zhang Jin is learning a lot from Donnie Yen, who is easily one of the best Cantonese actors out there. Because much of this movie focuses on the water (and water superstitions and goddesses), many fight scenes either involve water or are IN the water.
The final fight scene in The Brink has to be one of my favorite in any action movie I have seen. It was tense, and the environment was tight but believable. While some of the movie could be pretty sad, most of it was just action scene, talking, action scene, fish, betrayal, more fish, gold, action scene and water. Is it the best movie out of Hong Kong I have seen? No, but The Brink isn’t a bad action flick if you have a couple of hours to kill and really like gold that smells like fish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnIRjpq9TMA
Need more Fantasia Fest 2018 reviews? Check out this one for The Witch in the Window.
