View Full Version : Running On Karma (Cecilia Cheung/Andy Lau)
RUNNING ON KARMA (HK R3) - Good Anamorphic 2.35:1, DTS, DD5.1, good subtitles.
Directed by Johnnie To
Starring Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs) and Cecilia Cheung(Failan)
Now this is a strange film! Strange, yet oddly appealing. AL in pretty convincing (mostly) latex body suit plays Biggie, a stripper come bodybuilder with the ability to see into past lives. Through this he can tell if something is going to happen to an individual or, indeed, animal. It stems from the buddhist notion of Karma where what happens to you now is determined by what you did in past lives. It is no surprise to learn that Biggie is a former buddhist monk who left the monestary after a close girl friend was brutally murdered in the woods around his former haven.
During a strip perfomance Biggie meets rookie cop Yee played by CC. They take a mutual liking to each other but Biggie sees Yee's karma showing that she will die soon. He, of course, wants to change this and sticks around being her guardian angel with some heroic acts to save her from potentially meeting her maker.
What we end up with here is a film which changes its genre more times than some people have hot dinners.
It goes from comedy to violent cop thriller to superhero movie to romance to, at the end, a horror! :eek:
There are some really bizarre characters in this film - particularly the Indian rubber man and the slippery cat burglar.
The ending is a bit of a shocker for me though. The rest of the film just does not prepare you for the brutality of it all and did leave me a bit shellshocked. It is also a confusing ending and maybe does require more than one viewing to fully understand what and why things happened like they did.
Andy Lau and Cecilia Cheung both put in terrific performances. I haven't watched CC in a film since the brilliant Failan and it's nice to see her on screen again.
http://www.iam.ono.btinternet.co.uk//dvdforums/runningonkarma01.jpg
Cecilia - looks nice as long as she doesn't open her trap
http://www.iam.ono.btinternet.co.uk//dvdforums/runningonkarma02.jpg
Andy Lau looking pretty convincing in that suit!
http://www.iam.ono.btinternet.co.uk//dvdforums/runningonkarma03.jpg
Another Cecilia, looking nice again.
I'd definitely recommend this film to all. It does get itself mixed up and had it stuck to its guns as a cop thriller cum horror in a similar vein to Fincher's Se7en this could have been top notch.
Ono gives this 6.5 out of 10
I watched this with a bunch of people from the chinese society and at the end everyone was confused :cuckoo:
That muscle suit was hilarious...Gotta give andy lau some credit for wearing that in public..
Cecilia was gorgeous as usual :clap:
Full Tense
10-01-2004, 02:49
Fantastic film... a horrible image sends chills down my spine, and it wasn't Andy Lau in the muscle suit ;) But it was a weird film.. some scenes were so funny, and then others were disturbing and haunting esp towards the end! I guess in that respect the Indian extortionist sums it up the best! :D
And of course Cecilia :luv:
bruce-leroy
10-01-2004, 09:34
Cecilia lost weight after her accident.
Originally posted by bruce-leroy
Cecilia lost weight after her accident.
Elaborate please. :suspect:
Full Tense
10-01-2004, 09:47
She did a stunt for charity at the start of 2002 (to be shown on tvb) where she went in a car and had to jump over some boxes, but it went wrong. There are some horrific pics you can find on the net... she injured her back, and could have been paralysed.
bruce-leroy
10-01-2004, 09:54
She looks a little better these days. There was nothing at all of her in Mighty Baby.
Poor lass. I'll edit my review. :(
new forms
10-01-2004, 10:47
looking forward to getting my mitts on this. good transfer, good sound, good subbs...........lovely
Originally posted by new forms
looking forward to getting my mitts on this. good transfer, good sound, good subbs...........lovely
Yep. Mei Ah seem to be one HK company takaing a lot of care with their DVDs.
Also comes with a slipcase and some nice postcards inside. :D
Full Tense
10-01-2004, 11:23
Yeah Cecilia was really thin in "Mighty Baby", and may possibly have even got thinner in "The Lion Roars" which came out in the same year. But it's encouraging to see her looking slightly less fragile nowadays.
The postcards were a nice touch! :)
Jimmyboy
10-01-2004, 23:09
Gonna be placing another order for Far East entertainment soon but I've already got a fairly large shopping cart list.
How high should this one be placed on the shopping list ?.
Jimmy. It's certainly one of the more intruiging films to have come out of HK in the last year and is certainly wirth ordering.
How high you have it depends on what else you are thinking of ordering but at about £7.50 you can't really go wrong.
Jimmyboy
11-01-2004, 17:32
Thanks Ono I'll put it on the to buy list.
After doing a little reading on the triads last night you can't help but wonder if Cecilia's accident was err... an accident. It probably was but you can't help but wonder...
wong fei hong
12-01-2004, 00:52
When is a comedy not a comedy? When it's a gore-and-action filled meditation on violence and karmic retribution. Andy Lau, clad in a ridiculous but periodically convincing muscle suit, is Biggie, an ex-Buddhist monk who has the ability to 'see' your karma - the sins of a past life that will determine your fate in this one. When the male strip joint he works in gets busted, he becomes entangled with police officer Cecilia Cheung and a particularly nasty murder case - he can see an imminent death for her, but will he intervene in the heavenly determination of fate? I guarantee that this film won't play out the way you expect it to.
Milky Way are the most consistently brilliant studio in Hong Kong cinema. Jonnie To and Wai Ka Fai, regular collaborators (The Mission, Expect The Unexpected, The Longest Nite, Running Out Of Time: all brilliant) turn out a huge surprise with this film. It's set out like an offbeat Hong Kong rom-com (goofy, unreal visuals, mad wire-fu, big stars) but quickly goes deeply, deeply crazy. One special effect about five minutes into the movie signals this clearly: by the end of the film you get not only action and romance, but also a tiny yet significant cameo by Official God of Acting Lau Ching-Wan and - best of all, and without overstatement - something transcendental to think about. Lau is convincing even in extreme prosthetics: goofy enthusiasm on top and all-too-believable grief underneath. Cecilia Cheung, gorgeous despite being much thinner than she was a few years ago, is a perfect foil, bringing a bravery and humanity to what might have been a mere cypher.
It's refreshing to see Hong Kong studios taking a few chances with their beloved genres. Recently we've had wonderful and genuinely different films from the Jade Screen (Men Suddenly in Black is a great example). Perhaps the future of the ailing industry might be in new ideas instead of tired retreads - it certainly feels safe enough with the hands of Jonnie To and his studio at the vanguard.
bruce-leroy
13-01-2004, 02:06
Nice write-up master wong. :thumbs: ;)
Just watched this. Definitely worth a watch if you're looking for something a bit different. Good performance from Andy. I probably need to watch it a few more times, but I sort of understand it (well, in my interpretation at least!). I don't agree that it should have been a cop thriller-cum-horror as that has already been done, and for me, had it ended in such a way I would have been a bit disappointed.
new forms
21-01-2004, 09:59
got and watched this last night,
an entertaining film that crosses genres constantly but does it with some skill,
andy but in a fine performance in what most have been difficult circumstances (the suit),
as everyones said worth a watch and something that i think would stand up to a repeated viewing,
would like to see a sequal made that kind of goes done the superhero route,
was quite surprised that there was not hardly the usual amount of milkyway regulars in this, i thought it was the law that chapman to has to appear in every single film ever made
bruce-leroy
21-01-2004, 13:00
No Lam Suet either! :eek:
Jimmyboy
03-03-2004, 01:40
I found it enjoyable in a bizarre messy kind of way.
Am I right in thinking Biggie let's Yee's murder go by unavenged to stop the circle of violent deaths?
No postcards with my dvd though - was the first release an LE or something?:suspect:
bruce-leroy
03-03-2004, 01:58
Originally posted by Jimmyboy
I found it enjoyable in a bizarre messy kind of way.
Am I right in thinking Biggie let's Yee's murder go by unavenged to stop the circle of violent deaths?
Yeah, he realises he has to put a stop to the bad karma, and restores balance by not avenging Yee and bringing the killer back into the real world.
Jimmyboy
03-03-2004, 02:41
Originally posted by bruce-leroy
Yeah, he realises he has to put a stop to the bad karma, and restores balance by not avenging Yee and bringing the killer back into the real world.
That's what I thought.
I'm not sure I fully accept the ending because it requires a belief that one of the most brutal crimes should be left without justice for the victim. Not only that, but the killer recieves a heros welcome upon his return so I find the ending morally questionable.
new forms
03-03-2004, 10:40
i didnt have any postacars in mine either and it came fully sealed
and bringing in the killer for judging/sentencing and some serious jail time would be the retribution for the crime or so i thought
Jimmyboy
03-03-2004, 16:42
Originally posted by new forms
i didnt have any postacars in mine either and it came fully sealed
and bringing in the killer for judging/sentencing and some serious jail time would be the retribution for the crime or so i thought
The postcards must have been a early release thing, doh!
Yeah but the killer just wonders off by himself though don't he. He doesn't get jumped on by police or cuffed.
Cecilia - looks nice as long as she doesn't open her trap
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