House of Fury Review

Another review courtesy of Opus ...

Is Hong Kong cinema going through something of a renaissance? Derek Yee's last two features, Lost In Time and One Nite In Mongkok, were two of the best dramas to come from the country in ages, and his latest, 2 Young, has been garnering quite a bit of positive press as well. Jackie Chan came back home last year and made New Police Story, arguably his strongest film in years, and one that was obviously produced with the hometown crowd in mind. And now, Stephen Fung's House Of Fury comes out, an obviously throwback to the great high-kicking martial arts action/comedies that seemed to define HK cinema 10 years ago.

Granted, those are only 4 films, and Hong Kong produces many, many more travesties, as I'm sure the good people at LoveHKFilm will be glad to remind you. (For example, read their review of Where Is Mama's Boy, the star vehicle for American Idol legend William Hung.) But if Hong Kong cinema truly is a big, lumbering beast, then the aforementioned movies should be seen a signs that there are still some breaths of life in there... somewhere.

So, what about House Of Fury? Natalie (Gillian Chung, one half of the pop duo Twins) and Nickie (Stephen Fung, who also wrote and directed the piece) seem to have a pretty good life. Natalie goes to a good school and has just started dating a pretty nice guy named Jason (Daniel Wu). Nickie works at an aquarium as a dolphin trainer and speeds around town on his super-sweet motorcycle. So what's got them down?

Their father, Siu Bo, is a major embarassment to them. Much like the father in Big Fish, Siu Bo is always telling farfetched stories about his days as a secret agent when he's merely a simple bonesetter. And simply put, his children are fed up with it. That is, until they discover that Siu Bo has been telling the truth all along. However, he's not a secret agent himself. Rather, he works for an "agent protection program", watching over former agents as they return to normal life.

Obviously, should anyone want to get in touch with one of these retired agents, Siu Bo is the obvious "go to" guy. One such person is Rocco (Michael Wong), a former CIA agent who was paralyzed by a Hong Kong agent years ago, and is looking for a little revenge. (Ironically enough, the fact that Rocco is paralyzed from the neck down and can only move a few fingers suits Wong's wooden acting style perfectly.) Siu Bo puts up one heck of a fight, even channelling the spirit of Bruce Lee with the aid of some skeleton nunchaku, but Rocco's minions capture him, demanding that he tell them the location of the agent.

Which means it's up to Natalie and Nickie to rush in to the rescue. At such a set-up, the movie becomes pretty much a "by the numbers" affair. Is House Of Fury big, commercial, and glossy? Oh my yes. However, it never takes itself too seriously, and as a result, it does become quite a bit of fun. Mindless, sugarcoated fun, but fun nevertheless.

The action is what really saves the film, but with Yuen Woo-Ping (Iron Monkey, The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) handling the choreography, how could it not? There are several clever action pieces throughout the movie. In one, Natalie and Nickie fight over the TV remote, their sibling squabble turning into a complex set of grappling moves. And Anthony Wong goes through his paces quite well, whether he's taking on some supposed ninjas or Rocco's thugs? And best of all is Rocco's son, a little spiky-haired rugrat who turns out to be quite a whirling dervish with a staff in his hand.

It feels like a lot of people have been looking up to House Of Fury as a HK cinema's savior, for some reason. I'm not really sure why. It's as commercial and glossy an HK film as you can get. But in this case, that's not a bad thing at all. And think about it this way. It could've been much, much worse... it could've been The Twins Effect.

Reviewed By Jason Morehead