Shamo Review
Sadly, it's lots of style with very little substance in director Soi Cheang's follow up to last year's Dog Bite Dog. Soi's latest, Shamo, continues to explore the very dark themes of its predecessor while also further establishing Sameway Productions' unique, gritty visual aesthetic but it simply stops developing its characters whatsoever beyond the first act.
A Hong Kong adaptation of a Japanese manga, financed largely with Japanese money, Shamo functions as a sort of hybrid of 70's Japanese exploitation film with 80's Hong Kong Cat III vibe, all filtered through a thoroughly current filter. HK teen heartthrob Shawn Yue -- doing his best to shatter his public image -- stars as Ryo, a Japanese teen imprisoned for killing both of his parents in particularly viscious fashion. Ryo seems strangely timid for a multiple murderer on entering prison, however, and is immediately targetted by more established inmates for extreme humiliation, ranging from beatings to a graphic gang rape, all of it tacitly approved by the prison warden who would much rather see Ryo dead than reformed. Possible salvation for Ryo comes in the form of the prison's karate instructor -- played by an almost unrecognizable Francis Ng -- who helps him to stand up for himself and weather the storm until he finally is freed from prison having acquired an impressive set of fighting skills and a burning desire to never be victimized or looked down upon again.
Jump forward three years. Ryo is working as a gigolo and dreaming of a life as a professional fighter while looking for his sister, missing since she visited him in prison and whom he believes is now working as a whore. A chance encounter with a girl who shares his sister's name leads to a second chance encounter with the primary promoter of the leading fight league who seizes upon Ryo as a publicity opportunity for his league, setting the angry young man off on a path of further, potential fatal violence.
There's plenty of potential in the core set up of Shamo and the opening act is very strong, the visuals and the story complementing each other perfectly while Yue and Ng both turn in very strong performances as the leads. What then is the problem? Simple. As soon as Ryo leaves prison the film essentially stops developing any of the characters in any significant way. Ryo stalls out in his life completely, his motivations simply stop making sense, and the films spends the next hour doing little but repeat itself. First major fight scene within the prison aside, even the fight choreography becomes extremely repetitive. The film simply seems to have nothing to say about Ryo and his life, he certainly has no interest in growing or developing. And while it attempts to redeem itself with some interplay between Ryo and his sister in the final act the climactic reveal was tipped long before and it is simply a case of too little, too late.
Sameway Productions are, without a doubt, one of the most interesting and compelling outfits working in Hong Kong today. Their visual aesthetic is compelling and unique and they show an admirable willingness to lay it all on the line telling extreme stories. The company is pushing Hong Kong cinema in a powerful, energetic direction and they deserve full praise for that. In this case, however, the script simply was not quite ready.
