Vengeance (Johnnie To - 2009)

A new Johnnie To film is always a cause for celebration in my eyes - here's an assured and skilled director who slowly and surely builds on the themes he has been exploring for the past decade , gifted with an unflinching eye as well as a deep and unbreakable bond with the city in which he operates.

To operates in the same realm as Jean Pierre Melville - his films are deconstructions of the old Hollywood noir and gangster films. When you sit down the watch a Johnnie To film, you do not only enjoy a story but a wholly rounded universe with its' idiosyncrasies and habits - with characters who have fully formed bonds and attitudes towards the world around them.

It's always joyful for To to playfully explore the boundaries of his films - playing with codes of honour, of male bonding but most of all with beautiful gunplay elevated to almost art form.

And 'Vengeance' is a true winner from this angle: the set pieces are things of immense beauty: slow, carefully choreographed dances of death which keep the viewer hooked.

But for my money Vengeance falls short of being one of Mr. To's greatest: a corny third act trick moves the film into a realm that is different than what the director is capable of handling and suddenly this error glares out very obtrusively in the middle of the film, distorting the rest of action along with it.

Let's track back for a second. 'Vengeance' star Johnny Hallyday as Francois Costello - a one-time assassin who is now a chef and lives a comfortable life in Paris. However his peace is shattered when his daughter and her husband are brutally murdered in what looks like a gang attack in their own home. Costello travels to Macau and swears to his daughter that she will have her vengeance on the men who took everything away.
As a foreign man in a strange land , Costello is not able to go very far with his investigation. However a chance encounter leads him to meet a trio of assassins for hire played by Anthony Wong, Lam Suet and Lam Ka Tung. He hires the trio to help him find the killers and complete his revenge.

With such a classic storyline, To and his screenwriter Wa Ka-Fai lose no time in piling up impressive set pieces: the opening attack on Costello's daughter is both brutal and shocking - shown in slow-motion to increase the effect. Hallyday makes an effective character- his eyes almost animal as they fill the screen up in regular close-ups.

One of To's advantages is that he makes use of a cast of actors in pretty much every movie he directs: this allows him to work with the actors who are comfortable with their roles and can bring out the feeling of the piece without looking silly. So the presence of Lam Suet and Anthony Wong and Simon Yam come as no surprise to regular followers. The trio of assassins are classic To creations: they are silent, efficient and bound by a code of honour that goes a lot deeper than anyone can imagine. The scene where they escape the apartment block with Hallyday in tow is one of the impressive in the film: the way they work shows to the audience how at ease with each other these men are and how their roles are well-defined within their group.

But that third act set-up: it feels as if the script has to take such a wild turn because it has written itself into a corner: Hallyday's dementia - introduced quite late in the film - is already a hard to swallow issue - however with the further addition of this scene, the film comes unstuck and it's not until later when Costello starts to extract his revenge can it recover.

However these are minor quibbles for a film which is so effective in its' execution: Although largely silent, To's frames contain all the elements needed to tell a story. From the sordid lights of Hong Kong's downtrodden districts to the lines of Costello's face, every little detail required is there to enrich the story. Add to this some distinctly beautiful moments which update noir traditions and you have an almost unmissable film.

Here's hoping that Mr. To's next film can avoid the pitfalls of this one.

Vengeance does not have a Uk release date yet.