LA COMEDIE HUMAINE Review
The latest collaboration between writer-directors Chan Hing Ka and Janet Chun is an uneven buddy comedy
that isn't half as funny as it thinks it is, yet gets by thanks to
charismatic turns from its lead actors.
Brother Spring (Chapman To) is a Mainland assassin, hiding out in Hong Kong. Separated from his partner, Setting Sun (Hui Siu Hung), Spring camps out at their agreed-upon rooftop rendezvous, only to collapse with a fever thanks to a freak cold snap. He is discovered by one of the building's tenants, a young, rather effeminate screenwriter named Soya (Wong Cho Lam), who takes him in and nurses him back to health. Spring commits himself to killing Soya the minute he recovers, but by the time he gets his strength back, the two have formed a grudging friendship. It transpires that Soya is nursing a broken heart, after his relationship to the beautiful, yet freakishly violent Sky Love (Fiona Sit) ended badly. Spring decides to help Soya regain his confidence and get her back, while also getting unwittingly involved with a pregnant teenager out for revenge.
While at first glance the premise of LA COMEDIE HUMAINE, in which a hitman teams up with a budding young filmmaker, may sound somewhat similar to Pang Ho Cheung's debut YOU SHOOT, I SHOOT, Chan's film lacks both the smarts and the social commentary of that film. While intermittently funny, LA COMEDIE HUMAINE meanders and rambles without really going anywhere or saying anything particularly smart. The second half in particular becomes overburdened by numerous subplots, such as Soya's film project and schoolgirl Maggie's (Kama Lo) decision to kill herself, none of which are very important to the main story or develop into anything cathartic or influential for those involved.
What saves the film, however, are the affable performances by Chapman To, Wong Cho Lam and Fiona Sit. Unsurprisingly To portrays Spring as a bit of a bumbling fool, not to mention a hopelessly incompetent assassin. He clowns around in the buff and reels off impersonations of Hong Kong A-listers such as Andy Lau and Donnie Yen with amusing proficiency and is an easy hero to get behind. Wong's Soya grates at first, but his timid attempts to woo Fiona Sit help the audience warm to him. Sit is so disarmingly attractive and wholesome it's almost impossible not to instantly like her character, even if it's never remotely plausible that she would be attracted to someone like Soya. It therefore makes perfect sense when Sky Love is revealed to be completely mental, prone to biting, slapping and volatile displays of emotional histrionics so unnerving that even a desperate lad like Soya can't bear to put up with her.
The film is
littered with film references and other post-modern quirks, as both Spring and
Soya are avid cineastes prone to quoting movies and name checking actors in
even the most mundane conversations, but considering Chan's back catalogue
includes such fantastic examples of crime-oriented satire as BEAST COPS and
JIANG HU: THE TRIAD ZONE, it is disappointing how timid and unwilling LA COMEDIE HUMAINE is to plunder the plight of the hired gunman archetype for any
decent laughs or observations. In the end we are left with a film that is
neither as smart as it should have been, nor as funny as it believes itself to
be. It is unfocused and in desperate need of an engaging plot, but does
introduce us to a handful of quirky characters who are quietly unhinged yet
somehow rather likable.
Cross published in bc Magazine (Hong Kong)
