Once Upon a Time in the Philippines At first I didn’t want to watch this movie. First, the very fact of its production in the Philippines was frightening – the department of the unconscious, responsible for judging the book on the cover, immediately turned on the alarm “Caution!” There may be a Phillip Co.-style lowbrow. Secondly, the only existing Russian-language review promised a rusty-eyed spectacle. Thirdly, the combination “Hong Kong + 1995” has a very bad reputation.
Hong Kong’s Golden Action Decade ran from 1983 to 1993. Almost everything that happened in the next ten years, to put it mildly, does not deserve attention. Take at least a year of "Cool Beauty" release - what did it give Hong Kong? "Secret Agent", "Thunderbolt", "Degree of Risk" - I want to say, they say, memories are completely negative, but alas - they do not exist as such, so these films are indefinite. Oh, yeah, I forgot about "Fucking Mother" - the film, because of which for a long time I could not believe in the viability of "Cool Beauty". Also 1995, also a gold cast, but on the way out we got illiquid. But there directing and staging action engaged Sammo Hung – that’s what the observed action movie can not boast.
Do you know how they say a civilian becomes a soldier? On the first day they give him rations, and he turns his nose - it's not good, you see, I'd rather starve until tomorrow. And on the second day, exhausted and aware of his deplorable situation, he is ready to kill for the same mixture of potatoes and cabbage, and his thoughts are not occupied with how to taste a burger with nuggets, but how to eat at least something edible. It is in this situation that your obedient reviewer got: after watching all the real good action films, this is not the first month he frantically scrapes through the clutches of world cinema in the hope of swallowing at least a small pulp of action bread.
"Cool beauty" is not your pulp. This is a full-fledged piece of bread with the long-forgotten aroma of Good Old Hong Kong. A seed lying on the floor, small, not able to saturate to the dump, but delighting the person who found a unique taste. You watch this movie and you think – well, couldn’t you continue to make such a movie forever, year after year, without stopping and without lowering the bar? It was in the early 90s, so what went wrong?
Indeed, sometimes the action is not alone. The number of fights and shootings here is very modest. As for the quality of these elements, I will evaluate them on the Troyban, except for the final fight, staged and shot in the best traditions of the Hong Kong fighters of category B. But the film is undeniably good in other aspects. Thanks to a good script, the viewer gets the opportunity to enjoy watching the cheerful womanizer Yuan Biao and the charming bitch Cynthia Khan. The director not only threw two cult actors into one jar, but forged a wonderful duet from them. This is the main trump card of the film: the relationship of pleasant characters, which as the plot develops, limit the sympathy between them. The dialogues here are not like the written text, they seem to be drawn from the casual conversations of holidaymakers on the beach, because of this realism, the effect of presence is created. The narrative does not sag, each episode either serves development, reveals characters, or entertains with violence. And everything that happens is flavored with a lamp atmosphere of eternal summer.
“Cool Beauty” is a strong action movie that I recommend to watch for connoisseurs of Hong Kong cinema. Those who like excessively high kicks, infantile kicks and ridiculous gestures.
7 out of 10