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One Last Dance (2005)
R2 - United Kingdom - Tartan Video UK Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (29th November 2007). |
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The Film
 One fundamental question that every film reviewer has to address usually arrives quite early in the writing process. How do you write something interesting about the characters and the main plot of the movie, without giving any spoilers or just over doing the whole section? With the Singapore-Hong Kong production “One Last Dance (2005)”, the basic plot is actually relatively easy to write. On paper, that is. “T” (Francis Ng - e.g. “Infernal Affairs II AKA Mou gaan dou II (2003)”) is a quiet, calm and ruthless hitman in Singapore, who gets his deadly assignments through the mail box. When the red envelope arrives, at that instant the person pictured inside is a “dead man walking”. Usually the walk doesn´t last very long, since T is a professional. T drinks only tea. On the verge of retiring, he´s hired to track down and kill the group of men who have now signed their own dead sentence; they´ve kidnapped the son of the local tycoon. With the help of his odd, “gangster” friend Ko (Joseph Quek), T starts his violent journey to the underground. The truth about the whole deal is still much more complicated than it first seems. Eventually T will find himself questioning his own beliefs of friendship and morality. In the end, his only real friend seems to be on the opposite side if the law - the police Captain (Lung Ti - “A Better Tomorrow AKA Ying hung boon sik (1986)”), and the real love comes quite unexpected, when T finds himself falling for the waitress Mae (Vivian Hsu) - the sister of Ko. Somewhere in the shadows, the mysterious Italian mobster Terrtano (Harvey Keitel - e.g. Oscar nomination for “Bugsy (1991)”) is also involved. How does it end? Well, not after plenty of people are dead, that´s for sure. While the basic story sounds quite straightforward, the narrative structure is actually far from it. The non-linear storyline is not very easy to follow, some of the acting is too over-the-top (well, mainly the character of Ko, who´s a bit like “Jar Jar” in “Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)” - annoying) and there are some creative decisions (comical CGI-blood and the editing montages) that are bound to divide the viewers. In short, the Brazilian born (now working in Hong Kong) director/writer/co-cinematographer Max Makowski (e.g. the upcoming remake “Kung Fu (2008)”) has taken an interesting story and made it quite complicated. Or perhaps he has taken the “typical hitman” story and made it interesting. You decide. “One Last Dance” is constantly stretching the genre-boundaries, since in some scenes it´s a clever crime-drama, then suddenly a “comic book-violence” hybrid, then dark comedy and then melodramatic story of a lonely man. It never quite fits into the one “genre”, for better and worse. The film premiered in the acclaimed “Sundance Film Festival” in 2006, where it was describes as a “cinematic riddle”. This is quite an accurate way to put it, since the structure is a challenging one for the viewer. If you lose the focus and concentration, you might lose the essential part of the film. If that happens, you´ll probably wish that the movie would just end soon. Don´t expect any John Woo-type of action. This is now Max Makowski´s world. There are still some strong qualities in the film and one of them is a Hong Kong cult actor Francis Ng. He´s quite perfect for the role - never over-acting, but usually being quite convincing. If a scene feels too comical, it´s usually due to the visual decisions (along with the “funny sound effects”) and his co-actors. Ng himself delivers. One of the strongest scenes is the one where T is questioning three cocky hoodlums in the dark basement - it´s the essence of the whole character. Confrontations with T and the Captain are also very good, moody and subtle. That´s the other side of T. A few editing montages (one with the Polaroid photos comes to mind) are inventive and the violence is actually portrayed quite effectively. It´s mostly off-screen (with CGI-blood spilled onto the screen), but it still can feel quite grim. These qualities can´t fully save the film, but you probably get more and more into the story when it progresses - you´ve just got to give the film a fair chance. “One Last Dance” is a flawed Asian film and most likely “too different” for many, but it has also something unique to offer for the curious ones.
Video
The film is presented in Anamorphic 2.35:1 and is leaning more to the mediocre side of the spectrum. The image is clean, with decent black levels and colours, but the edge enhancement is raising it´s ugly head with the transfer. There are strong halos around people and objects, some lines shimmering and the compression doesn´t look spot-on. The film probably isn´t very vivid or colourful in the first place, but I can´t say that the transfer does full justice for the film. The opening and end credits are in English, but the title isn´t (remember to check what is “hidden” after the end credits). The “dual layer” disc is “R2” encoded and has 16 chapters. The films runs 104:07 minutes (PAL).
Audio
Houston, we have a problem. Let´s start from the technical side: “Tartan Video” has included their usual audio options, in this case Mandarin Chinese DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (with Surrond-encoding). Optional English subtitles are included. Sadly, the DTS-option is a flawed one, since it just moves the dialogue to the rear-channels and generally just sounds hollow and unnatural. That being said, the Dolby Digital 5.1-track doesn´t fare any better (being very similar with the DTS one) and in the end all the tracks has some strange, “metallic echo” in the dialogue (especially evident with all the surround-tracks). Now I can´t obviously say how the film is originally mixed, but the audio sounds flawed to my ears (there were also a few “digital glitches” with the disc, one e.g. in the 63:33 mark - impossible to miss). Long story short, I personally ended up listening the 2.0 Stereo-track (really meaning “Stereo” from my receiver, not “Pro Logic”) from the disc, since it´s the most natural sounding of the all three. My advice is that you all do the same. The problems are still not over; all tracks are clearly dubbed, so at worst it feels like you´re watching an old Bruce Lee-movie. Director Makowski has said in the interviews that the film was shot mainly in Cantonese (many actors speaking with strong Singaporean accents, though), so I assume that the Mandarin-track was dubbed and for some reason used in this DVD. I personally can´t really distinguish the Cantonese and Mandarin-tracks from each other, but the back cover also states “Mandarin”. If new evidence arrives and also the Cantonese is dubbed, I´ll update my review. On the side note, Harvey Keitel speaks English in the film (annoyingly translated during his main scene, though). On the positive side, the music and especially the main theme “Broken Orange” from composer Pakk Hui is very good and atmospheric. I have to get the soundtrack CD...
Extras
Original theatrical trailer (1:02 minutes, with “forced” English subtitles) is the only real extra. Keep case also includes a 4-page booklet, with lines notes by Barry Forshaw.
Overall
Interesting and different, but also narratively quite challenging crime-film, which most likely will leave others cheering and others bored in their seats. The DVD presentation is mediocre A/V wise, and there are no real extras, but I believe this is still the best choice of the film so far. For more info, please visit the homepage of Tartan Video (UK).
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