Movie Review: Vulgaria/低俗喜劇

I had heard about this movie for a long time, and I was looking forward to seeing it for a lot of reasons:

1. Pang Ho Cheung is one of my favorite directors.

2. Category III movies are rare birds these days.

3. It promised to be a memorable film.

And it certainly is.

A movie about making movies can be a tough sell outside of geekdom. You have to be really interested in movies to watch a movie about a movie.

And the movie has to be very good.

But good is relative, and it is multi-layered.

Vulgaria/低俗喜劇 is the story of an embattled film producer who needs to make money so that his lawyer ex-wife will allow him to continue to see his daughter. He ends up working for a foul-mouthed gangster, played magnificently by Ronald Cheng.

“Why thank you.”

Ronald charges Chapman with trying to remake Confession of a Concubine/宮人我要, a trashy Shaw Brothers sexploitation film starring Susan Yum Yum Shaw.

Who is a walking PSA about why plastic surgery is a bad idea.

How trashy is Confession of a Concubine ? How about this?

Chapman To must find a way not only to finance the film, but to convince Yum Yum Shaw to reprise her role, including nudity.

That’s a tough row to hoe. No offense.

Vulgaria/低俗喜劇  also has a (requisite) romantic sub-plot featuring a woman so pretty that you know it’s a movie.

“Gazongas, party of two…”

Because in real life, women like her wouldn’t give Chapman To the time of day.

“Yes she would.”                                 “No I wouldn’t.”

Vulgaria/低俗喜劇 also features a ‘metric fxck ton’ of profane dialogue and comedy, courtesy of its very capable cast.

“Now he brown-noses you.”   “Well, f@#$ him!” 

Vulgaria/低俗喜劇 is also a very funny film. I am sure it’s even funnier if you understand Cantonese, which I don’t to the degree it is necessary here. 

But to be honest, it’s not really a great film on the cinematic level. It meanders, it dawdles, and it founders more than once. I found myself wondering when the story would advance, or even start. 

Vulgaria/低俗喜劇  is a  collection of vignettes that are well-played, but the story is often derailed by these narrative pauses. 

Still, those stretches of ‘down time’ are very entertaining in many ways. Imagine being stuck on an overnight layover with your favorite comedian, model, and author.

You’re stuck somewhere, but the conditions are still very bearable.

The reasons for this are a part of how and why Vulgaria/低俗喜劇 succeeds.

Pang Ho Cheung’s films often appeal to me on a conceptual level more than a literal one. I have said of more than one of his  films that even as I concede they are not great films, they are in other ways important and I am still very glad they were made.

Vulgaria/低俗喜劇 is an important film in social and cultural terms; where it perhaps fails narratively, it triumphs symbolically in the ongoing dialectic between local and ‘national’ Chinese-language cinema.

As a highly localized Category III production, it knowingly limits itself to domestic distribution. As such, it is a very unique entity. Most ‘local’ films these days play to the China market, foregoing the very things that made Hong Kong films both local and unique.

Like being interesting and entertaining and worth the time and money you spend to watch them.

How much of a local movie is  Vulgaria/低俗喜劇? It has Simon Lui for crying out loud.     

“No, f@#$ that, he was in Fantastic Water Babes!”

Vulgaria/低俗喜劇also keeps itself out of China because of the subject matter it addresses and the depictions involved:

What happens in Guangxi stays in Guangxi.

 It will also never be seen ‘up above’ except in pirated form because of the wildly graphic and profane language in the dialogue.

As an American with a PhD in communications and a ‘potty mouth’ I am still rather amused/amazed at HK’s puritanical approach to cinematic profanity; its not as though HKers aren’t profane as fuck. So why demonize films as Cat III when you can hear that language virtually everywhere else?

I’d like to think that I could see many of the cast members relishing the chance to say outlandishly vulgar and profane things, (especially Lam Suet).

“Wahhh, so much ass-kissing!”

They seemed quite gleeful as they say things they probably never thought could be said in a film.

Luckily, Vulgaria/低俗喜劇 has been getting very impressive box-office support from the Hong Kong audience, who are appreciating a film that is quite exclusively for, and in many ways about, them.  

How popular is it? I saw this film at the Dynasty, and it was shockingly well-attended, not just for the Dynasty but for opening night. The only time the Dynasty is ever more than 10% full is Chinese New Year, but the screening I attended was busy enough that we actually had to sit in our ticketed seats.

I hope the success of Vulgaria/低俗喜劇 sends a message to filmmakers that there is still an audience in Hong Kong who can and will support films that they feel speak to them if not exclusively then at least consciously. 

Standard Positive Review Disclaimer:

I haven’t told you much about this film because I want you to see it.