Shanghai Blues
Film Movement Classics
Original Release Date Oct. 11th, 1984 (Hong Kong)
Written by Koon-Chung Chan, Cheuk-Hon Szeto, Raymond To
Directed by Hark Tsui
Starring Sylvia Chang, Kenny Bee, Sally Yeh, Ching Tien, Man Huang
Language Cantonese (English subtitles available)
Purchase your copy HERE from Vinegar Syndrome
by "Doc" Hunter Bush
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast
Overview:
Shanghai Blues comes to 4K Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label Film Movement's Classics line. Directed by cinema legend Hark Tsui, who has made films in many genres, Shanghai Blues is a love letter to screwball comedies. Film Movement Classics' release of Shanghai Blues boasts a very impressive video transfer and audio package with an excellent audio commentary track to back up the bonus features.
The Movie Itself: 4 stars
Shanghai Blues is an impressive work from a filmmaker with a very diverse array of skills and interests. With nods to films like Bringing Up Baby (1938) and the works of Preston Sturges, Shanghai Blues is Hark Tsui exploring his screwball comedy interests. Inspired by the stories told on a vacation with friends, Tsui wasn't even sure if he wanted to return to directing (he considered becoming a novelist) but the studio strong-armed him: if he wanted to see Shanghai Blues get made, he'd have to be the one to make it.
As a film, and an example of this type of comedy, Shanghai Blues fires on all cylinders. There's slapstick physical comedy, mistaken identities, big characters, lavish locations, plenty of action, a lingering love story, and even some danger thrown in for good measure, but it still manages to maintain a light-on-its-feet feeling throughout.
Kenny Bee stars as Tung Kwok-Man (also called Do-Re-Mi), who quits being a clown to enlist in the war effort. When the city is bombed and the power goes out, he takes shelter under a nearby bridge along with a young woman named Shu-shu (Sylvia Chang). It's a real war-time meet-cute, as the two fall in love and promise to meet under the same bridge when the war is over. Ten years later, when Tung returns, life has set Shu-shu on a different path. She's now a dancer at a club where she meets Stool (Sally Yeh), a young, ditzier girl who swiftly moves in with Shu-shu. Little do they know that Tung, whom they refer to as Do-Re-Mi, is the handsome gentleman living in the apartment above them. The movie asks us to believe that it was too dark on that night, ten years ago, for either of them to have a clear recollection of what the other looked like.
As far as ridiculous set-ups go, this premise checks all the boxes, but there's also tuba-related physical comedy, a dance number where the dancer onstage doesn't realize her dress has a hold burned in the backside of it, and at one point, Stool wins a contest to become the Calendar Queen of a local department store. She attends a big, fancy mixer where she meets many other such Queens: a Toilet Paper Queen, a Biscuit Queen, a Toothpick Queen, an Insecticide Queen, and more. This leads to the one thing in Shanghai Blues that deserves a bit of a heads-up:
In a lot of screwball comedies, there is a mistaken identity component at some point, in some form and the mistaken romance is a reasonably common one; maybe the wealthy dowager accepts the romantic advances of our lovable loser lead because she thinks he's someone else, etc. Well, in Shanghai Blues, this trope is a little more objectionable. One of the wealthy sponsors of the various Queens intends to roofie Stool and sleep with her, only for her to inadvertently swap drinks with a hoity-toity socialite and fellow sponsor, Madame Yu (Man Huang). So the lecherous sponsor wakes up the next morning expecting to find Stool in bed with him, only to realize he'd "spent the night" with a different, older, lady. It's an uncomfortable moment in a film that's otherwise very sweet and light, but it's done with the tone that it's just another slapstick misunderstanding.
If that's a hard pass for you, I totally understand and I'm glad I took the time to bring it up. It really caught me off guard and cast an unpleasant pall on my first viewing. If you can acknowledge that it's messed up, and still try to approach it in the spirit that it was offered, i.e. with no ill will or ill intent, then Shanghai Blues has a lot of other, better qualities and moments to counter it.
The Packaging: 3.5 stars
This comes in your standard sturdy, black 4K case with a lovely painted cover illustration from Sean Longmore, showcasing a collage of characters and moments from the film. It really highlights how much of the film's settings and costumes are intricate and filled with details, from the clubs and the dancers' outfits to the less extravagant apartments and their neon-lit rooftop. There's also an included booklet with an essay from John Charles, author of The Hong Kong Filmography 1977-1997, that examines Hark Tsui's career at the time of making Shanghai Blues and the film's lasting place in HK cinema.
The Video: 4 stars
As mentioned above, the film is a smorgasbord of fine details, from the fabric patterns and embellishments on clothing to the colors and textures of the locations. The meticulously constructed world all around the characters is a visual treat and this transfer treats all of that detail very well. Film grain, when it’s appropriately calibrated, is almost unnoticeable; it becomes a facet of the film you're watching, a texture present in everything. I personally enjoy its presence (I do not know if this is even a remotely hot take). To that end, there are only a few, short moments where I noticed the grain at all, and they were each over quickly.
The world here is full of heightened colors and dramatic light, at times feeling akin to Burton's Batman (1989) or Beatty's Dick Tracy (1990), though not quite as heightened. There is frequently a slight peach tint that I've encountered in other Hong Kong films from time to time, that gives everything this very pleasant feeling, like an old photograph taken on a bright summer day. There are occasional shots where the focus is a little soft, but nothing beyond what you'd see in a Barbara Walters interview special back in the day. It's enough to notice, but wasn't enough to bother me.
The Audio: 4 stars
Music plays a large part in Shanghai Blues, both textually and subtextually, so the sound mix is very important here. I never noticed any real issues with my three-channel soundbar. The dialogue and sound effects of the main characters are a little loud in the mix from time to time, but it's really only noticeable in some of the more chaotic scenes; ones set in busy shopping districts, or at the fancy gala. In those cases, I noticed it, but it makes the important dialogue very easy to pick out, which is great.
My favorite aspect of the audio mix is that, when Kwok, and/or Shu-shu and Stool are in their apartments, you can always hear music playing softly. It comes across as though someone in a neighboring building is playing a radio at a reasonable volume, and adds to the immersion and reality of these locations, even as we're seeing zany physical comedy like a rat bouncing from person to person across apartments, with everyone freaking out about it.
The Supplements: 3.5 stars
This is a quality over quantity situation. There aren't a LOT of bonus materials, only two interviews adding up to about 45 minutes total, but they're actually very informative. What I look for in special features is anything that adds context for me, and the proverbial horse's mouth is a pretty great source. Hark Tsui talks extensively about his inspirations and impetus for creating Shanghai Blues, and assistant director O Sing-Pui offers even more information about the production itself. I also found the commentary track with Hong Kong cinema expert Frank Djeng incredibly useful as this was where the connections between the mistaken identity roofie scene and the larger history of screwball comedies were highlighted for me. It didn't make me like the scene, but now I understood where it was coming from, which helps.
This is all in addition to the aforementioned booklet and essay. That essay, and the two included interviews really helped me make the connection between Shanghai Blues and Tsui's later film Peking Opera Blues. Side note: yes, I know it was only released two years later AND it contains the "Blues" qualifier in the title, but my brain did not immediately connect those two dots. I'd only seen Peking Opera Blues for the first time a few years ago, but I absolutely l-o-v-e-d it! Once the correlation was pointed out to me, I realized how much connective tissue the two share, with Peking Opera Blues simply adding more operatic martial arts.
- Interview w/ Hark Tsui (26:01) (HD)
- Interview w/ O Sing-Pui (19:12) (HD)
- Restoration Trailer (1:45) (HD)
Final Thoughts: Recommended
While I overall really enjoyed Shanghai Blues, I will acknowledge that it's more of an acquired taste. The screwball comedy subgenre isn't as ubiquitous as it once was, and since that aspect, along with the love story, is the most central theme and tone of the film, it might not fully appeal to the widest audience. If, however, you are a fan of these comedies, or you're looking for a new bit of pure production eye-candy, I can't recommend Shanghai Blues strongly enough. It's just the right amount of silly and sweet (that one sequence aside, of course) that it's genuinely delightful to watch. And if you do watch, and enjoy it, I'll also recommend you check out Peking Opera Blues.
No comments:
Post a Comment