Films about filmmaking are always a welcome feat for consumers and festival audiences, both narrative features and documentaries alike. Screwball comedies like Bowfinger and Tropic Thunder, Jarod Crooks’ martial arts romp, Indie Guys, and even Soushi Matsumoto’s It’s A Summer Film! are among those that come to mind. Leave it now to co-helmers Li Ho and actor Justin Cheung as they make headway for their own outing with Legendary In Action!, serving as a humble profile of wuxia and Hong Kong cinema following the city’s sociopolitical unrest from 2019 and onward. Joining Cheung on screen are actresses Wiyona Yeung, Harriet Yeung and Buber Mak, and actors Jiro Lee and Lam Yiu-sing who each play a role in the events that arise in this newest artful drama from the far East now making the festival rounds globally.
Tiger (Justin Cheung) is a filmmaker whose love for the craft is born from his childhood fandom for a beloved wuxia television show featuring his favorite star. He made waves on the festival scene in Korea, but fell from grace with one flop, which has since reduced his career down to hustling on smutty shortfilms. A chance moment, however, soon finds him crossing paths with his childhood hero who still goes by his old TV moniker, Master Dragon (Chen Kuan-tai), therein seizing an opportunity to cast the gesticulating wuxia star in a cinematic reboot that could help bring his favorite TV show character’s arc to the proper close it deserved. What ensues for Tiger is emotional journey about a filmmaker’s quest to fulfill his dreams. What remains, however, is whether or not he can do so, between mitigating industry politics and fluctuating set conditions, impending fatherhood, and the whims of an beloved, afflicted screen star long past his prime.
There are at least three major areas that culminate these moments, firstly including the visible and surmounting pressures Tiger has to deal with as things take a turn for the worse later on in the film between him and producer, Andy (Jiro Lee). We also get to see the noticably disturbing effect the production is having on Tiger’s relationship with wife (Harriet Yeung) who just wants him to spend more time with her as their new baby approaches, and is intially understanding of the place he’s in from the top of the film.
It’s with the role of Greta (Wiyona Yeung), a struggling waitress who usually knows her way around enough to get her money’s worth, that the film dives a little deeper into Master Dragon, bearing in mind how he even came across Tiger to begin with and the matter of where. The drama and hijinks unfold even further as the film follows Master Dragon’s efforts to follow Tiger’s direction, even to the point of going off script, and despite at times noticing the third-person chatter from crew members.
Hong Kong cinema – or more prominently action cinema in the region – may have taken a heavy ding in recent years, and you need only heed the words of the 43rd Hong Kong International Film Festival’s Filmmaker In Focus laureate, Sammo Hung, who spoke candidly about the yesteryear generations of martial arts stuntmen compared to today back in 2019. It’s a stark and vivid analysis, and it certainly reflects what other artists in areas around the world are enduring in their own regions and industries for one reason or another.
This, coupled with a watch of any Hong Kong stunt documentaries of late in addition to current political events, will certainly help foundate one’s understanding of the backdrop a film like this is set against. The nostalgia especially sets in, ultimately cosigning what we see in Legendary In Action! as a heartwarming, universal rallying cry for cinema lovers everywhere, with Cheung and Chen central to the story. If you enjoyed films like Ricky Ko’s darkly comedic aging hitman drama, Time, or even films like Masaharu Take’s In The Hero and Ken Ochiai’s Uzumasa Limelight, then Legendary In Action! will surely meet the demand.
The 20th New York Asian Film Festival runs from July 15 through July 31.
The 2022 edition of the New York Asian Film Festival is being held from July 15 through July 31.