Movie Review: Life Without Principle/奪命金

This was the second half of a bromantic double-header (!) with Desmond So. We returned to the Cine Art at Amoy Gardens to catch Johnnie To’s latest.

Life Without Principle/奪命金 is a trio of stories that revolve around money and how people think about it. It was shot over a three year period and includes veteran To-film actor Lau Ching Wan as well as Richie Ren and Denise Ho.

Lau plays a gangster who is, frankly, dumb as a rock. But he is loyal, and that should count for something. Or not. He spends the film helping out his ‘brothers,’ who often don’t seem very appreciative. Most of his behavīor involves getting money for others, and I enjoyed watching Lau Ching Wan (over)act the part.

I also enjoyed seeing To lampooning gangsters’ so-called code of ethics, the disposable nature of which makes gangsters look like the unprincipled scum they truly are.

Denise Ho plays a young woman working in a bank under extreme pressure to meet sales quotas while trying to maintain her sanity and integrity. If she wants to keep her job, she has to start making more money. In order to do this, she must decide whether or not to take advantage of her customers.

Richie Ren is a cop whose wife is pressuring him to buy a flat. His usual response to this (and to all else) is that they should talk about it first. And he’s a cop. So he seems to get called away to work almost every time his wife want to talk about something.

All three of these characters end up crossing paths in one way or another, in a film that is well-told, well-shot, and well-acted. I found **Life Without Principle/奪命金 a bit slow to start, but it had enough moments of interest and excitement to keep my attention.**

Terence Yin was surprisingly good as a mysterious and cold-blooded Mainland figure, and did a good job not only speaking Mandarin but embodying a character very much unlike his real self.

JJ Jia was luminous in a small but important role. I don’t remember her ever being so nice to look at, and her major speaking scene was something to watch.

It was refreshing to see Johnnie To return to making a resoundingly local film. The story, the characters, and the background are all suffused with a deep sense of place, which is, like all things, both good and bad.

Hong Kongers’ lust for money is certainly no secret. Yet perhaps not as well-known is their rather baffling expectation that someone should always bail them out of the problems they themselves have often made.

After the 2008 economic crisis, some HKers claimed that they were ‘forced’ into unsafe investments and that the goverment should have protected them and they are therefore entitled to recompense.

For something they chose to do because of their greed.

Recently, there was a series of minor knife incidents (i.e. flesh wounds, not stabbings) in a local neighborhood. After the third incident a suspect was arrested. People immediately began to indignantly demand to know why the police hadn’t covered the neighborhood with notices and officers, and therefore ‘allowed’ two more people than ‘necessary’ to be attacked.

So when all three stories end up with nice, neat, financially rewarding endings, I felt it was local, apropos, and frankly annoying.

My favorite character in **Life Without Principle/奪命金 was a loan shark; his honesty and openness about his (and others’) greed, as well as his blatant refusal to trust in others, was refreshing, because everyone else in the film was the same way and just didn’t have the courage to own their actions, beliefs, and attitudes.**

***Life Without Principle/奪命金* is a good film. I just didn’t like the people in it.**