Silver Hawk (2004)

Michelle Yeoh, 42 and still kicking butt… big time. She may have stumbled with her first self-produced action film, The Touch, but has saved considerable face with the follow up. I’m happy to report that Silver Hawk is a pure kung fu action film from start to finish, with a big nod towards young viewers and Japanese superhero fans. Cinematographer and director Jingle Ma presents a formulaic superhero story set in the hi-tech near future, but with considerable visual flair, a touch of humor, and what every sensible genre fan desires, Michelle knocking the stuffing out of the bad guys and looking good doing it.

The Silver Hawk character comes from a popular series of Hong Kong action films produced in the ’60s with the female superhero having been portrayed by a number of the era’s top actresses. For the 2004 remake, Michelle Yeoh steps in with a futuristic makeover complete with stylish duds, gadgets-a-plenty, and a sweet hog (AKA ‘motorcycle’ for you laymen). After opening spectacularly by literally jumping over the the Great Wall of China on motorcycle and busting panda bear smugglers, she next deals with a timeless threat worthy of any superhero, world domination through brainwashing. Blade II star Luke Goss plays Alexander Wolfe, a criminal with bionic arms who kidnaps a professor who has innocently developed the means to use artificial intelligence to help people make everyday decisions. After securing the means to put the device into millions of cell phones distributed by a major electronics firm, he intends to beam transmissions through a satellite and turn phone users into pliable vegetables. Silver Hawk is joined by Rich Man (Richie Jen), a newly-assigned chief inspector of police who turns out to be a long-lost friend she had once practiced kung fu with as a child. With the additional aid of the computer-savvy professor’s assistant (Brandon Chang), the duo take on Wolfe, rollerblading henchmen, and two powerful fighters (Li Bing-bing and Michael Jai White).

My biggest fear going into this film was a repeat of The Touch with mere traces of The Heroic Trio. For anyone who doesn’t know, Michelle played her first superhero role in this latter film back in 1993 alongside Anita Mui and Maggie Cheung. It was a fun and campy actioner during a highpoint in Hong Kong’s film industry. But with those days long gone and nothing but the terrible CGI effects, wire fu, and bad acting of The Touch lingering in my mind, let’s just say that expectations were not high. Surprisingly, Silver Hawk turns out to be a really entertaining action film that delivers where it counts. The story and direction is lean with good pacing. Excellent vehicle stunts and fights are generously sprinkled throughout while dialogue and character development is kept to a healthy minimum.

What really works well is what often spoils other films, flashbacks. In this case, we’re taken back several times to when Michelle and Richie, played by two excellent child actors, interact as children in a large kung fu school. These scenes effectively provide character development and a link between the two leads, and also give us the training sequences that help to visualize how Silver Hawk becomes the expert fighter that she is. An even better kung fu movie convention that appears is adaptation. We see Michelle’s initial defeat, her analysis of it, and the application of a countermeasure to exploit her enemy’s weakness. in kung fu, when your enemy plays hard, your best bet is to play soft. Michelle uses a custom weapon which is basically a rope dart to great effect to counter Luke’s arms of steel.

Michelle definitely reasserts herself as the reigning queen of martial arts movies by practically fighting her way through the entire film. She’s in phenomenal physical condition and is still one of the sexiest leading actresses around. She wears her form-fitting costume very well and a slightly-raspy voice lends her even more sensuality. She performs most of her own stunts and that’s a feat considering the amount and quality of the action. Ailen Sit, a veteran of Rumble in the Bronx, Martial Law, and Shaolin Soccer presides as action director. This is probably his best work to date. There is a lot of wirework, but it’s used well to enhance movements, rather than to create them. It should be made clear that the action and the many action poses are intentionally exaggerated in order to fit the film’s superhero theme. My least favorite scenes involve Michelle fighting in the villain’s ‘rec room,’ first against four costumed thugs strapped into bungee cords and later against even more thugs geared up for roller hockey. Conceptually I see their potential, but these scenes end up relying too much on their respective gimmicks. Highlights can be found in Michelle’s brawls with a villainous tag team made up of the attractive Li Bing-bing appearing in various anime-style wigs and the talented Michael Jai White who sports a wicked metallic glove. Anyone disappointed over the loss of Michael’s action scene in Kill Bill should be happy to see him taking furious swipes at Michelle and Richie.

As lead villain UK actor Luke Goss is colorless, but I blame the script for giving him little to work with. But visually, he’s pretty menacing with his bionic arms and Hellraiser-like shaved head and frock coat. Richie Jen (Gorgeous) is more of a comic actor who plays it straight here aside from one humorous cross-dressing scene. He makes his unremarkable character interesting and makes a good screen match for Yeoh. I actually would have liked to see more of the kind of antics the pair displays at the end.

The last major item, yet hardly the least to comment on is the film’s look. Jingle Ma is one of Hong Kong’s top cinematographers and certainly knows how to shoot action as witnessed by Fong Saik Yuk and Drunken Master II. Along with the art director, he gives Silver Hawk a very slick, hi-tech look that is consistently maintained through futuristic set design and locales, the blue and silver hues that dominate most of of the scenes, and dynamic camera work. Contemporary Hong Kong action films commonly favor rich colors, dark interiors, and strong light and dark contrast. It’s refreshing to see a film that conversely maintains minimal color saturation and a clean look. Added to the attractive cast, this makes for a film that is certainly easy on the eyes.

Silver Hawk is an action-packed kung fu movie with Michelle Yeoh shown brilliantly in all of her outstanding physical prowess. Jingle Ma proves to be a DP who is more adept at handling a story than Peter Pau and yet is able to still create impressive visuals. The script is poor and the plot is routine, but everyone seems to perform above and beyond their roles. If judged by general movie standards, this would be an average effort, but as a martial arts film it gets my hearty stamp of approval.