Ah ma yau nan (2004) User Reviews

Unoriginality and not traditional Pang brilliance

[leekandham · 5/10 · 19 February 2005]

* LEAVE ME ALONE * Ekin Cheng, Charlene Choi, Ekin Cheng (sic) Dir: Danny Pang - 2004 - Hong Kong / Thailand

With recent hits from the Pang Brothers such as The Eye, I had pretty high hopes for this movie. Danny Pang, one of the brothers goes solo as director in this cheesy, seen-before plot, and despite some good innovation, this flick falls somewhat short of expectations.

Man and Kit are twin brothers (both played by Ekin Cheng). Kit, who lives in Thailand, visits his younger brother in Hong Kong and on seeing his brother's car decides to take it for a spin, switching identities with their driving licences. However, Kit has an accident and is left in a coma, when Kit's girlfriend, Jane (Charlene Choi), calls needing him back to take out a loan from the bank to pay off some sharks. Man steps in and flies to Thailand, only to find that Kit and Jane may be in deeper trouble than they thought.

The film's plot is too familiar to many people, particularly when it's been used by so many others such as Jackie Chan (Twin Dragons), Jean-Claude van Damme (Double Impact) and Jet Li (The One). However, I do admire the attempt to give the characters more depth. Cheng's portrayal of Man and Kit are clearly different, and not only because of Man being a gay character in the film. Cheng almost pulls off the act of being two different characters, but there were certain parts of the script that made it too unconvincing. I found it amusing that Cheng had a hairstyle that is commonly reminiscent of his girlfriend's, Gigi Leung. Charlene Choi is gradually improving in her roles, but she doesn't have the maturity on screen yet.

As for the story, well, it's somewhat disappointing. There are some incoherences in the film, the action scenes were rather ordinary and unoriginal and frankly, I felt little excitement in watching them. But as a Pang film, the movie does have one saving grace and that is in the cinematography. Interesting camera angles, some good direction, and some quite clever editing did at least provide me something to keep me interested. But overall, it just didn't hit the mark.

In terms of action films, there are plenty of other, better films to see. As a Pang film, it's definitely a disappointment, particularly as the bar for the Pangs was set high with The Eye. But if you want something the pass the time, this film is at least watchable. One for a night in.

Watch it or skip it. Won't make a difference

[the_diceman · 5/10 · 18 March 2007]

Not too bad Action-Comedy by Danny Pang, starring Ekin Cheng, Ekin Cheng and the always charming Charlene Choi. A homosexual fashion-designer from Hong-Kong (Ekin Cheng) has to close a deal with a Triads-Boss in Thailand, otherwise his twin brother (Ekin Cheng, who after a fatal car-crash lies in a hospital) will lose all his property plus a finger. Yeah, it's shallow comedy and the CGI during a "Bad Boys 2"-style car chase sucks, but characters come along rather likable and there are a couple of really good jokes (Homo-Cheng giving styling tips to the sulky father-in-law of his brother), so if you're equipped with a big forgetting heart and don't mind Not thinking a lot, you're in for some pretty amusing 90 minutes. Some (tame) shootouts have the camera concentrating on slow-motion posing, rather than actual bullets flying, and if you look closely, you'll notice a terrific cross-over-reference to Pang Brothers' "Ab-normal Beauty".

Action and comedy blend badly in this lame effort by renowned directors....

[joebloggscity · 2/10 · 28 March 2006]

The Pang brothers have been worthily credited for some of their movies. "The Eye" and "Bangkok Dangerous" were both excellent films. "Leave Me Alone" though is a complete U-turn to those other efforts. Film centres round a pair of twins, with one substituting for the other to help sort out his debt problems to loan sharks. The twist is though that one is gay and the other is straight. Cue the flogged to death jokes and you get the idea.

Action is poorly handled (and quite unexciting), acting is nothing special and the storyline never really grabs you. One film that is certainly best well left alone, and I just hope that the directors get back on track!

Gay.Straight

[tsasa198 · 7/10 · 6 July 2006]

"Leave Me Alone" is the most Americanized Asian film I have ever seen, and I am actually saying that in a positive way. This sharp, crisp, entertaining film from the Pang Brothers tells the story of two brothers who must switch identities after one is injured in a car crash and mistaken for his brother. They cannot admit that there has been a mistake, because to do that would be to admit to killing a pedestrian with a car driven by an unlicensed driver. They also cannot simply switch places because Kit, the joyriding brother, can't walk, for the time being (a huge contrivance, I know). This leads to the identity switch which is further sensationalized because the other brother, Man, is a homosexual.

The Pang Brothers use this opportunity to shun and dabble in homophobia to mostly positive returns. The question they seem to be asking is how different, really, are gay people from straight people. We all know the Christian right finds them to be sinners simply because of their sexual preference (meanwhile believing that their burning of Iraq will simply go unnoticed by God), but is it so simple? While I believe that people are born gay, I also believe that there are gay people out there who have conceived children. This becomes less contradictory if you figure that sex grows out of love and love can grow out of anywhere (see: Anna Nicole Smith). Perhaps in the end we're all just bi. Beyond the homosexual angle I enjoyed watching Man try to inhabit Kit's world. Many of Kit's relationships and surroundings have been destroyed by his habit of being a sociopath, and in walks man naively thinking that politeness is the way to go. He is, of course, loved for his style and cooking. But that politeness does eventually win the girlfriend's father over to his side. Even the girlfriend eventually admits that she likes Man better than Kit.

The film soon turns into a typical Hollywood blockbuster complete with a script that includes fish out water comedy and shoot 'em up action. This is the films major downfall, as although it is wildly entertaining at times (the car chase is the best action sequence I've ever seen from the Far East), you know you've seen it all before. But just when you start hating on it for this behavior the film goes and openly acknowledges it's roots with a delightful homage to "24." And what would any Asian film be without a heavy dose of the weird? There is a scene in which a herd of naked men rise out of hot tubs filled with green water to chase a man down the street that is perfectly beautifully surreal. We have seen all these tricks before: the man who is thrust into the public spotlight as a man that he knows nothing about ("Clean Slate"), the ridiculously awkward man playing action hero ("Alias"), etc. But at the end of the film you don't mind, you're just happy you didn't watch "The River" again.