RATING: 2.5/5
RARELY there is a Hong Kong film spinoff that pays grand tribute to a certain character of a TV series but LAUGHING GOR: TURNING POINT did just that -- a big-screen version based on the enormously popular character of Michael Tse's Laughing Gor from TVB's extremely successful E.U. series which premiered back on February 2009. That E.U. series proved to be such a phenomenon that when the wisecracking triad boss/undercover cop Laughing Gor died, the "Laughing Gor" group on Facebook immediately mushroomed to 150,000-plus members and instantly turning him into one of the most popular charactrers in Hong Kong TV ever seen in years. Seizing that particular golden opportunity, TVB quickly merged their first film deal with Shaw Brothers to come up with a prequel to E.U. that's completely dedicated to the origin of Laughing Gor. The result that LAUGHING GOR: TURNING POINT has, is fairly admirable. It's not a masterpiece by any means but surprisingly above-average crime picture, especially given its relatively low-budget production to shoot on the quick.
Set before the event of E.U., the story begins with Laughing (Michael Tse) was already working as an undercover cop under Inspector Xian (Yuen Biao), the only man in the police force who knows his true identity. Laughing has been long deep undercover to get close with glam-rocking triad boss Brother One (Anthony Wong), who was himself once an undercover cop who forced to become a triad after finding himself unable to return to police life. During a possible bust, Xian suffers from a car accident and falls into a coma, leaving Laughing with no backup at all. Soon he finds himself on the run from both the police, lead by Poon (Felix Wong) and other triad bosses, Zatoi (Francis Ng) and Big Brother Fook (Eric Tsang). As the film progresses, we are treated to a series of flashback where Laughing was first a lowly convenience store clerk being mentored by Brother One. He was then later enrolled into police force by Brother One so he will become a mole there. On the other side, we also learned that Laughing is dating Zatoi's sister Karen (TVB starlet Fala Chen).
If the premise sounds awfully familiar, that is because director Herman Yau and screenwriters Poon Man-Hung, Wong Yeung-Tat and Yip Tin-Shing ape the same old INFERNAL AFFAIRS cliches. In fact, there are shades of Yau's own ON THE EDGE-vibe as well, and basically the story here fares nothing new we haven't seen before. But since this film is actually dedicated to tell an origin story of Laughing Gor, it's rather surprising that Michael Tse's character is much of an afterthought other than paving way for actors like Anthony Wong and Francis Ng dominating the screen instead. With so many characters pinned here and there, and given the limited constraint of the budget, the film loses a lot of primary focus to concentrate more on Laughing Gor. It doesn't help either as Michael Tse spends most of the time looking nothing but nervy and glum without giving an extra spark to make his supposedly legendary character all the more interesting reason to watch for. Instead, it was the supporting actors that manage to live up most of the sparks, if not entirely. Anthony Wong and Francis Ng are no strangers to flamboyant roles especially tackling triad role with relative ease. But there's something about Anthony Wong kind of hard to digest -- let's just say his constant silly wardrobe changes like some glam rockstar is such a turn-off for a guy who has been aged a lot.
While the overall story is rather mediocre, Herman Yau manages to make amend by filling up the screen with lots of action scenarios. Thanks to Yau's effective and often economical direction, the film does succeeds to deliver some worthy exciting moments here -- especially those involving foot and car chases. Fans of Yau's work will be slightly rejoiced with his trademark of violence here, though not as excessive as the one he has previously helmed in the past.
Do stay tuned for the ending, in which there are a winking nod related to E.U. series.