Fantasia XXIX Review: In GOOD GAME, Dickson Leung’s Well-Played E-Sports Action Comedy Drama
When it comes to E-Sports, Solo (Will Or) hates losing. Sadly, he and his last team have suffered a crushing defeat that resulted in the dissolution of their team, and his closest partner, Sing (Ng Siu-Hin) has moved onto a new gig in life.
One day, Solo heads to an internet café to let off some steam and is approached by its struggling owner, the middle-aged Tai (Andrew Lam), and his daughter Fei (Yanny Chan), to partake in the Hong Kong One Shot Esports; The prize money alone could help keep Tai’s café afloat, especially since his landlord isn’t so lenient.
Skeptic and reluctant at first, Solo joins the team on the condition that he be its sole shot-caller. Joined by a fourth member named Octo (Lo Meng), a former film star who plays the games as part of an effort to help his wife, Lan, as a preventive measure against Alzheimers, the team thrusts into a regimen of grueling training and explosive preliminary battles in the virtual world. With everything riding on the tournament, what remains to be seen, however, is whether or not Solo, as the team’s captain, can reclaim his sense of sportsmanship in time for the finals.
Dickson Leung’s new action comedy drama, Good Game, places its narrative focus prominently on themes like teamwork and trusting your co-players, and being able to endure life’s wins and losses no matter what. Tai, Fei, and Octo are the most eager and good-natured of their “Happy Hour” quartet for most of the duration, while Solo is left contending with a dismissive attitude that doesn’t see much growth until well into the second half.
Tai, who Solo tends to nickname “Windbag” for talking too much, is heart and soul of the team as its most-spirited member next to Fei, who loves gaming more than her mother prefers, and perhaps even likes Solo more than the film lets on. It’s a tease at a romantic angle that the film gladly doesn’t spend too much time tinkering with before bringing itself back into focus.
Keeping the audience in mind, Leung weaves together the competitive fervor and coinciding genre-bend that tells Good Game from Solo’s perspective; Gaming moments take you to exciting battlezones littered with explosive gun-fu, sniper battles and hand-to-hand thrills featuring the players’ uber-cool alteregos – soldiers and mercenaries, femme fatales, and gun-toting badasses like one Solo personifies, played by co-star Ansonbeam.
One of the only real moment the film hits its most serious cadence is when a supporting character falls ill, nearly leaving the team without a member before the climactic showdown between Happy Hour and its rival team. The finale is also the product of a close call decision in the film after an earlier match, which lends to some of the film’s excitement.
Leading man Or finds his footing as the film’s stoic lead, with Leung’s vision bending reality in a way that lends Good Game its veracity as brain-relaxant popcorn fun, as a palpable family comedy drama on one hand, and a fantasy sci-fi actioner sprinkled with action to scratch the itch.
Good Game enjoyed its World Premiere for the 29th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival.
