Stuntman is a heartfelt tribute to Hong Kong action cinema and to its unsung forgotten Hong Kong stuntmen who elevated it to its heights from the 70s to the 90s.
Sam Lee, a washed-up retired action choreographer who has since worked as a Chinese chiropractor, is recruited by director Cho to film a 1980s-style Hong Kong action film as the action director.
Sibling directors Albert Leung and Herbert Leung dissect the harsh life of an 80's Hong Kong stuntman in the present day. We are shown the danger of risking injury for art, the time taken away from family, and the consequences when a fellow stuntman gets injured.
Stuntman opens with its own 80's HK action movie-within-a-movie, featuring cops and robbers fighting in a mall in a Jackie Chan Police Story aesthetic.
The action sequences, each involving shooting a dangerous stunt, are well executed with an interesting dynamic shift at play. The audience is watching a dangerous movie stunt, except this time, the script has you caring about the stuntman who's about to get hurt for your pleasure. It puts the audience into a nerve-wracking and guilty place, as we never consider what stuntmen go through for our entertainment.
I wish this film had a higher budget for its action sequences, as it seemed like it was pinching pennies. Also, the film uses faux action movie titles to refer to actual Hong Kong action films it probably doesn't have the rights to.
Best recognized as Bruce Lee's Shaolin pupil who's smacked in the head from Enter the Dragon, Hong Kong action choreographer Stephen Tung gives an understated lead performance as Sam. With Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In this year, Terrence Lau is on the rise, establishing himself as a lead who can do action and drama.
Kung Fu Stuntman, a documentary detailing Hong Kong stuntmen through Hong Kong movie history, is a great companion piece to Stuntman. You can see all the real-life ingredients used in Stephen Tung's character.
The Leung brothers end the film on an open note, a visual metaphor that asks where Hong Kong stuntmen will go in the future.
That's where I drew a line with Stuntman...
As the credits rolled, I took away a different theme than perhaps what the directors intended. I prefer to view the film as a story about how people lose things as they age. Everything has its time. Something starts, gets trendy, and hits a high point until its importance is eventually forgotten.
Hong Kong action films had their time. Those death-defying stunts grew out of that particular time and place when Peking Opera students were transitioning into filmmaking and attacked the job with a fighting spirit, the Hong Kong spirit.
Stuntman captures that melancholy beautifully. I don't feel it's something to be mourned.
HK film professionals love saying, "Hong Kong cinema is dead..." It's usually said with a wistful sigh in behind-the-scenes interviews, live Q+As, and film articles, and now I'm hearing it in an actual Hong Kong movie, sitting inside a Hong Kong movie theater with fire exits.
This quote is said 4-5 times in Stuntman. And frankly, it's exhausting... and hypocritical. This film was made through the First Feature Film Initiative, a Hong Kong government scheme aiming to nurture new talent in the film industry.
Hong Kong Cinema has passed its prime, sure. Significantly fewer films are produced now than in the 80s and 90s, fine. Imagine my voice going up an octave for the next sentence-I can understand it as a "woe is me" comment...
I just have the feeling that one day, the people who say "Hong Kong cinema is dead" will be dead.
Hong Kong cinema will be fine.
