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Herman Yau: Rebellion (2009)

Posted By: mal11lam
Herman Yau: Rebellion (2009)

: Rebellion – Herman Yau (2009)
Mandarin | Subtitle: none | 1:26:05 | 640 x 368 NTSC | DivX | MP3 – 115 kbps | 700 MB
Genre: Action/Drama

Cast: Shawn Yue, Elanne Kwong, Chapman To, Ada Choi, Paul Wong
REBELLION is set over a single night, as five gang bosses - Jimmy, Sand, Jupiter, Coffee and Man Ching - break their uneasy alliance and a vicious turf war threatens to engulf the city. Over the past few years, these five big brothers have remained peaceful and amicable with each other, agreeing to separate territories and keeping violence to a minimum.
Po (Shaun Yue) is Jimmy's number one bodyguard and after being given the night off to celebrate his birthday, Jimmy is gunned down in the street and lies in critical condition in a backstreet surgery. Everybody is in agreement the assassination attempt was an inside job and the prime suspect is the hotheaded Blackie (Chapman To), Jimmy's No.2 whose thirst for power is well known.
Jimmy's wife, Cheung Wah (Ada Choi), commands a great deal of respect but is in Taiwan on the night of the attack. Blackie should automatically become the new head, but because of his volatile personality, Cheung Wah elects Po to oversee things until she can get the first flight back in the morning.
Unfortunately, Po has just polished off a bottle of Johnnie Walker and is blind drunk. Not only is he struggling to function properly, he is constantly heaving his guts up. Suffice to say he is not in the best condition to play peacekeeper. It is up to Po to track down the assassin and find out who is responsible before Blackie or any of the other bosses turns Kowloon into a war zone.
Blackie spends the night ensuring that Sand, Coffee and the others are on his side, while berating Po at any given opportunity for hiding behind Cheung Wah and stealing the leadership that is rightfully his. Meanwhile, Sand is going toe to toe with the police, who have shut down one of his most profitable streets to look for the assassin and Coffee, when he's not humping his girlfriend in his car or on a fire escape, is quietly making deals of his own.
All these elements combine to make a very tense first half, before the situation escalates into a full-on street war with brawling gangs of chopper-brandishing hooligans chasing each other round the streets of Mongkok.
The film works very well for the first 45 minutes or so, Yau sets the scene well, presenting a lot of characters and relationships quickly and efficiently with little fuss or superfluous style. However, once the story blows up into this epic conflict in the second half, the film struggles to present it effectively. Considering the dozens of blade wielding extras on screen, there aren't any particularly well-staged skirmishes. Rucks do take place, but there is no attempt to really choreograph something exceptional and the pay off the audience was hoping for never quite materializes.
The characters also are very one-note and as such limit the performances to some degree. Shaun Yue is fine, if a little bit dull, as the quiet, sensitive bodyguard who simply does what he's told. Blackie is well within Chapman To's range of abilities as he is asked to do little more than shout and swear or occasionally put the boot in. Elanne Kwong is fine as the restaurant hostess who witnesses the shooting and tags along with Po. The others are simply triad staples who require little exploration or effort.
REBELLION is solid, if unexceptional work. With a bigger budget and more back-story for its major characters, it could have been an excellent film, instead of just an adequate one. It examines the relationship between the police and the triads and their struggle for power, as well as the constant jostling for position within the ranks of the gangs, but never really lives up to the potential of its first half. It also had the opportunity to stage some epic battles of street violence, but never exploited them either. That said, REBELLION was made before the success of TURNING POINT earlier in the summer and it will be interesting to see what opportunities are offered Herman Yau now, after delivering Hong Kong it's most successful domestic hit of the summer.

Herman Yau: Rebellion (2009)

Herman Yau: Rebellion (2009)

Herman Yau: Rebellion (2009)



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