The Drummer (戰‧鼓)

I just got back from watching an afternoon showing of The Drummer ( 戰‧鼓) at the theater near my house. 

I was a bit suspicious of these types of melodramas... you know the ones, where some misfit or misfits come together around an activity and ultimately triumph over something, or straighten out their lives or whatever.   Whether its ' Stand and Deliver', ' Swing Girls'or ' Dodgeball',  its usually entertaining but ultimately a bit clichéd ... 

So when I saw the trailer for 'The Drummer' I was thinking 'oh no, drumming turns troubled kid Jaycee Chan into a good boy!?  this one may be just as bad as ' Hula Girls':  the Japanese girls who save their town with Hula dancing!'

But Drummer manages to rise above most of the clichés ...  Jaycee plays the son of a gangster who gets in trouble and is sent to hide out in the country in rural Taiwan.  While there he learns about a group of Zen drummers practicing in the mountains nearby.  (cue the standard training sequence type scenes,  personal conflict,  quitting the group, coming back to it, etc....)

Tony Leung Ka-fei (the otherTony) plays the gangster father, Josie Ho plays the older sister. Roy Cheung is the gang lieutenant.   Everyone does a really great job in their role. 

The film manages to fit a LOT into one movie... not just the drumming group and the drumming, but also the gang conflict stuff, the intra-family relationship stuff, etc.  Despite it feeling like a lot,  director Kenneth Bimanages to fit it all in without overwhelming too much...  although I guess I would have been happy if it was more just about the drumming...  but maybe for that I should watch a documentary instead. :-P

I'll give it a 8/10,  especially because of the performance of Tony Leung.

ps - I don't want to spoil the surprise, but look for a cameo from an AnD artist in the very beginning of the film!