Movies: Face Off

I’m not posting about the 1997 sci-fi-ish action thriller John Woo movie with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage (which was titled Face/Off). As much as I like John Woo films, parts of that movie really bother me, so I have mixed feelings.

No, today’s post is about an obscure Vietnamese comedy-action series of movies (up to six now, as far as I can tell). It’s so obscure that Wikipedia has never heard of the films or the director. Even IMDb doesn’t have much detail on these.

Which is a shame, because they’re delightful fun, and of the three I’ve seen so far, they’ve gotten better each time. The third one was really touching and memorable.

I’ll mention right now that five of these (#1, #2, #3, #5, & #6) are available on Netflix and that I highly recommend checking them out. These are the first Vietnamese films I’m aware of, but clearly there is a (growing?) film industry there. There have been some very worthwhile films from Southeast Asia, especially from Thailand and more recently Malaysia. Not to mention the long-established film industries in China and Japan.

American visual storytelling has become moribund and unremarkable (with some wonderful but all too rare exceptions), while stories from Asia still have the life, vibrancy, and originality that Hollywood once had. They are well worth exploring if you love movies.

[Disney, that once top-notch storyteller, hasn’t produced anything worth seeing in years, and even Pixar movies are no longer the events they used to be. (Probably because they’re owned by Disney.)]

All these Face Off movies (Vietnamese title Lật Mặt) are directed and written by Ly Hai, who also appears in them along with other repeating characters. They are action comedies, and while there is a tiny bit of martial arts fighting in them, they are not martial arts movies. And as often seems the case with Asian film series, there is no connection between the films other then who makes them. The same actors play different characters each time.

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In the first one, Face Off (2015), Khai (Ly Hai), who works in a pit mine for diamonds finds several large ones. The mine is under the control of outlaws, but Khai manages to smuggle some out. And is promptly chased by the outlaws who want their gems back. Khai encounters a stranger (Thang, played by Tiet Cuong?) who helps him evade the villains. The credits were in Vietnamese, so it’s hard to be sure who is who. In the picture up top, Khai is riding pillion and Thang is driving (as they try to escape the baddies).

The setup could easily be an action-drama-thriller, but this is an action-comedy, so a fair bit of hilarity ensues. I had no idea what the film was going in, and it turned out to be a delightful surprise. I give it an easy Ah! rating. So, I immediately added the next two to my queue.

This is currently available on Netflix.

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In the second one, Face Off 2 (Lật Mặt 2: Phim Trường, 2016), Trung (Ly Hai) is one of two brothers who work in films as stunt men. Unfortunately, the film production they’re currently on has run out of money, and the crew is now jobless. The producer ropes the brothers into smuggling drugs to pay for the movie, but Trung discovers the producer intends to kill them after they make the delivery.

Once again, the basic plot involves the good guys being chased by bad guys. It’s a venerable plot, so the value is in the execution, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps it has to do with Vietnamese movies being so new to me, but there seems a freshness to what is a pretty well-worn story.

There is some confusion here. IMDb lists two versions of this movie, one from 2016 with the Vietnamese title, and what appears to be the same movie, but just called Face Off 2, supposedly released in 2020. I suppose the latter could be a release to Western markets.

Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, too, and give it another Ah! rating. And because these are action comedies, none of the action is gory or horrific, if that sort of thing matters to you (it kinda sometimes does to me — I’m not generally a fan of particularly dark storytelling).

This is currently available on Netflix.

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The third one, Face Off: Imperfect Trio (Lật Mặt: Ba Chàng Khuyêt, 2018), involves three childhood best friends, each of which has a disability. One is blind, one deaf/mute, and one has withered useless legs due to a childhood disease. The three met in a small rural school for children with disabilities, and it’s made clear that these children were largely abandoned by their parents.

So, of course, their greatest dream is to find their parents. Together they have a small business selling fried bananas, and they also gain some popularity through a YouTube music video they made about people with disabilities.

Their popularity gains the attention of a well-off TV producer at a local TV station. His girlfriend Christine (Thai Chinese singer-actress Pornnappan Pornpenpipat, the only one with a Wikipedia entry) works as an intern at the station, and he gets her to start making a documentary about the three best friends and their business. As far as I can tell, Ly Hai does not appear in this one, although he wrote and directed it.

[SPOILERS!] The producer fakes the discovery of one of the men’s mothers along with the information that she is dying and wants to see the child she abandoned. Christine is supposed to accompany them on their road trip, documenting for a TV production the journey to find the mother. This is eventually discovered, leading to considerable third act interpersonal conflict. For one, it breaks up the growing love interest between Christine (who is reflecting on the poor quality of her relationship with the boyfriend producer) and the deaf/mute (whose mother they seek).

As is usually the case in road trip movies, things don’t work out as planned, and the disabled trio, with Christine tagging along video camera in hand, have to rely on each other’s help to survive the perils of the journey through the jungle. The interplay between the three best friends, and their growth, is the core of the movie. I thought it a very well written story, one with laughter, tears, and joy.

And, as usual, through a mix-up, they’re also being chased by bad guys. Also, as usual, rather inept bad guys, because these are comedies. But even the inept are dangerous when they’re armed. (The inept are especially dangerous when armed.)

To top it all off, the story has a twist ending I won’t spoil but which I think will warm the coldest heart. I give a Wow! rating. This is currently available on Netflix.

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What isn’t available on Netflix is the fourth film in the series, Lật Mặt 4: Nhà Có Khách (2019). IMDb’s brief description is: “When a woman and her friends visit her home village to find a location for a client’s wedding photoshoot, terror shifts their focus.” It tags the film as Comedy and Horror, so maybe this one contains a supernatural element. It also lists Ly Hai as appearing in the film.

If anyone is chasing the heroes in this one, it must be ghosts. Given how good the third film was, I’d expect this one to be pretty good, too. No idea why Netflix doesn’t have this one.

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I haven’t watched the other two, yet, but at this point have high hopes they will be as good as the third one. Even if they’re only as good as the first two, they’ll still be more than worth watching.

The fifth film is Face Off 5: 48H (Lật Mặt: 48H, 2021). It apparently can also be called Face Off: 48H, and isn’t the 48 there confusing? Would have been better in the fourth film, but whatever. Too many numbers in the title regardless.

IMDb doesn’t have a description of the movie, but Netflix does: “On the run from the mob after a deal goes wrong, an ex-fighter has two days to settle the score with the boss — or risk losing his wife and child” IMDb tags the movie only as Action, so this one may not be a comedy. A user comment suggests the same (the guy was disappointed it wasn’t a comedy).

Obviously, this is currently available on Netflix.

The sixth film is Face Off 6: The Ticket of Destiny (Lật Mặt 6: Tấm Vé Định Mệnh, 2023). The IMDb description is slightly puzzling: “A friend group bought a lottery ticket and won the jackpot but the ticket holder of the ticket accidentally died. Some of the surviving friends intended to unravel their friend and retrieve the winning ticket, some don’t.” Not sure what “unravel their friend” means. IMDb tags this one as Action and Drama, but the poster for the film suggests some comedy to me.

The Netflix description is a bit clearer: “Six friends strike it big as their shared lottery ticket wins them billions, but a death in the group starts a chain of greed that could ruin it all.” Netflix tags it as Offbeat and Exciting. (It tagged all five as Exciting, and I’d generally agree.)

This one sounds like more fun to me than the fifth film, so I might watch this one before I watch the other. And once again, this is currently available on Netflix. (I’m providing the Netflix links so you can easily add these to your WatchList.)

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While I’m on the topic of Asian films, I’ll briefly mention three others. Or two others, depending on whether you count a two-part movie as one film or two. The second picks up immediately after the first and continues the same story. Wikipedia considers them one two-part movie.

The two-parter is A Chinese Odyssey (1995), and it’s loosely based on Journey to the West, a classic and much adapted-to-film Chinese novel from the 16th century (during the Ming dynasty).

The first part is A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora’s Box, and the second part is A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella. I highly recommend watching them as a double feature. Both are currently available on Netflix. Just follow those two links.

These were (or this was) a huge hit in Asia. It’s earned millions at the box office, won five film awards, and was nominated for four others. Rightfully so. It’s more fun than a pound of puppies. It’s fantasy-action-drama-comedy. Grand slam!

Watching the first film, I realized the main character (Joker/the Monkey King) was played by none other than Stephen Chow, whose comedy action films I’ve much enjoyed — Shaolin Soccer (2001), Kung Fu Hustle (2004), and others. But Chow’s acting career considerably predates his directing/writing career. The first film he wrote and directed, From Beijing with Love, was in 1994, but his acting career goes back to 1983.

These films were (sigh: or this film was) directed, not by Stephen Chow, but by the prolific Jeffery Lau, who also wrote the screenplay. From what I can tell Lau and Chow have done a lot of films together.

[I very much appreciate that Asian films often follow the auteur model, which I’ve long thought makes for better films. Or at least more distinctive films. Had I gotten into filmmaking, I would definitely have followed that model.]

I said I’d be brief, so I will just say these are (or this is) great. I give them (it) a good Wow! rating and highly recommend checking them out. There’s apparently a part three that was released in China in 2016. Maybe Netflix will carry it eventually (hint, hint, Netflix).

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Lastly, The Great Magician (2011) is a Hong Kong action fantasy comedy based on a 2009 novel. (I’ve long thought movies based on novels, if well adapted, have a better foundation than movies from original screenplays. There are notable exceptions, of course.)

The film is directed and co-written by award-winning Derek Yee and stars the Hong Kong superstar Tony Leung Chiu-wai (usually referred to just as Tony Leung).

[One of my favorite YouTube channels, Accented Cinema, has a nice video about the acting skill of Tony Leung. I highly recommend the channel for anyone interested in Asian film.]

It’s about an illusionist, Chang Hsien (Leung) trying to free his fiancée, Liu Yin (Zhou Xun), who was kidnapped by a local warlord, Lei Bully (Sean Lau), in hopes of making her his seventh wife. It’s a period piece set in the 1920s.

The triangular interactions between Chang, Lei Bully, and Liu Yin are the core of the film. The illusions Chang spins, both practical and apparently genuinely magical, make a delightful wrapper. That it’s an action comedy makes it lighthearted fun. I give it a strong Ah! rating and recommend it for just about any viewer.

Following today’s theme, this is currently available on Netflix.

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And that’s plenty for today. Go forth and watch!

Stay facing off, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.

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