Asian Film Review: 'Gallants' (打擂台)

I wanted to see this for the last few months after seeing some artist's post up stills from the set. Luckily I was able to catch a screening in CWB this week before it left the HK Island theaters.

'Gallants' (打擂台) is a bit hard to describe properly...  Its a martial arts themed comedy that is an homage to HK Kungfu flicks of the 60s and 70s.   The story is about a kungfu school who's master has been in a coma for the past 30 years.  One day he wakes up to find only two of his students have stayed with him he doesn't recognize them as they're now well into their 'silver years'.   

Its a very low budget movie, but does a decent job with what they have.  The action is pretty entertaining and I have to admit, having spent a lot of time of my youth in a wushu gym,  it made me a bit nostalgic myself. 

I'm no expert on old old HK movies (I am definitely a mid-80s and later HK film fan), so this retro aspect may appeal to some more than it did to me.  Also the details of the plot twists and supporting characters are a bit cliched and unimportant, but all  the performances are good and there are enough laughs to make you feel like you got your money's worth.

You can read an in d9epth interview with writer and codirector Clement Cheng here on Frederic Ambroisine's blog:

http://www.alivenotdead.com/fredambroisine/CLEMENT-CHENG-THE-GALLANTS-INTERVIEW-PART-1--profile-1000092.html

I give the movie a 6/10,  which is a +1 for having JJ (賈曉晨) in it! ;-)