Review | Film review: Full Strike, a badminton movie, tickles the funny bone
If you're sufficiently surprised by Derek Kwok Tsz-kin's decision to make an offbeat badminton movie, brace yourself for another shock: Full Strike is the writer-director's second film to feature a motley crew of underdogs who share one particular interest, undergo intense training and then enter a tournament together, all the while waiting for their sifu to snap out of his funk and save the day.
Starring: Josie Ho Chiu-yee, Ekin Cheng Yee-kin, Ronald Cheng Chung-kei
Directors: Derek Kwok Tsz-kin, Henri Wong Chi-hang
Category: IIB (Cantonese, Putonghua)
If you're sufficientlysurprised by Derek Kwok Tsz-kin's decision to make an offbeat badminton movie, brace yourself for another shock: is the writer-director's second film to feature a motley crew of underdogs who share one particular interest, undergo intense training and then enter a tournament together, all the while waiting for their sifu to snap out of his funk and save the day.
For his first movie with that exact synopsis, the retro kung fu comedy (2010), Kwok shared credits — and a best picture win at the Hong Kong Film Awards — with first-time director Clement Cheung Sze-kit. For , Kwok is again teaming up with a novice in the visual effects specialist Henri Wong Chi-hang, who in 2013 made his directing debut with a Kwok-produced segment in the omnibus .
The emphasis on legacy is obvious in Kwok's films, whose onscreen characters often yearn for a glorious, though largely irretrievable, past. In his zany new film, this downtrodden protagonist is Ng Gou-sau (Josie Ho Chiu-yee), an elite badminton player who threw away her career due to her violent temper.
See also: Giving badminton the big screen treatment
Ng's passion is reignited when she runs into a trio of former armed robbers (Ekin Cheng Yee-kin, Edmond Leung Hon-man and Wilfred Lau Ho-lung) who spend their post-prison lives practising badminton with an always drunken coach (Andrew Lam Man-chung). Meanwhile, a wacky adversary (Ronald Cheng Chung-kei) provides extra incentives.
On a basic level, proceeds like any regular sports movie, where Ng goes on to rediscover her dream, the ex-cons flirt with their criminal past but stay righteous, and a big final showdown provides a hyper-stylised visual feast for the audience. The film's incessant flow of awkward humour may also remind some viewers of the nonsensical genius of Stephen Chow Sing-chi.
Kwok probably wouldn't mind excelling at the brand of comedy conventionally associated with Chow, either. Incidentally, the two last worked together on 2013's , which was originally meant to be solely directed by Kwok — until Chow, a producer, stepped in midway to join the director's seat and somehow left Kwok, a co-director, off the film's opening credits.
Could Kwok's new co-directing gig be considered his statement of intent to match his more illustrious counterpart? There is here, after all, a side-splitting sight gag of projectile vomiting that plays in a similar way to the blood-splashing device in . Irrespective of its slapdash plotting, is still very much a showcase of Cantonese comedy at its irreverent best.
