This movie is available for purchase at www.edaymovie.com

Rating:

7

Year of release: 2005

Genre: action/comedy

Director: Stephen Fung

Action director: Yuen Woo-Ping

Cinematographer: Poon Hang Sang

Producers: Willie Chan, Solon So, Jackie Chan, Albert Yeung

Editor: Cheung Ka Fai

Music: Peter Kam

Writers: Stephen Fung, Lo Yiu Fai

Stars: Anthony Wong, Stephen Fung, Gillian Chung, Michael Wong, Daniel Wu, Charlene Choi, Josie Ho, Wu Ma, Jacob Strickland, Winnie Leung, Philip Ng

Rated IIB for violence and language

DVD Information

Company: Joy Sales

Format: widescreen

Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin

Subtitles: Chinese, English

Extras: trailers, cast/crew info, behind-the-scenes featurette, interviews, photo gallery, postcard, cardboard cutouts, keychain

Notes: A very swank 2-DVD set with lots of extra goodies, but of course, the bonus content isn't subtitled.

Related links:

Anthony Wong biography
Michael Wong biography
Movie Review index
Main Page

House of Fury

Stephen Fung surprised many viewers with the strength of his directorial debut, Enter the Phoenix. While it wasn't a classic movie, Phoenix was a strong start for Fung. His follow-up, House of Fury, builds upon the strengths of his debut, but on the other hand, it does show some flaws which are probably par for the course for any new director who has given a large budget to work with for the first time.

The film tells the story of two siblings (played by Fung and Gillian Chung) who are being raised by their father (Anthony Wong) by himself after the death of their mother. Dad has a bad habit of telling outlandish stories of being a secret agent, which embarasses the kids to no end. However, after a mysterious man in a wheelchair (Michael Wong) comes into their lives and kidnaps their father, it soon becomes clear that Dad hasn't been fibbing all these years, and the kids team up to try and save him.

Overall, House of Fury is just your basic "popcorn" movie -- it's something to shut your brain down for ninety minutes and enjoy. Nit-pickers and those wanting a deep or realistic story will probably want to look elsewhere. From the opening scene, where Anthony Wong takes down a group of ninjas (with the substantial aid of Yuen Woo-Ping's wire-fu trickery), you know that this is something to not be taken seriously in the least. And, as a fast and breezy action-comedy, House of Fury works. Both Stephen Fung and Gillian Chung make likeable leads, Anthony Wong actually seemed to care about his performance, and even Charlene Choi manages not to shriek or cry in her small role as Gillian's best friend. As you might expect from Yuen Woo-Ping, the action is quite over-the-top; there's even a little kid (Jacob Strickland) who can seemingly manage to beat the hell out of people three times his size. But for some reason, everything holds together enough so that the viewer is actually still engaged and interested in the fights.

However, like I said before, House of Fury is not without its' flaws. There are a few shots and sequences that seem out of place and put in there simply because Fung had the budget to put them in there (stuff like crane shots, multiple POVs, etc.). It's nice that Fung wants to expand his film vocabulary, but it comes at the expense of pacing. Also, it seems like Michael Wong is channeling William Shatner in his work here. Every... sentence... he... says... seems... to... drag... on. But getting a good performance out of Mr. "Mook Jung" ("dead wood") is nigh impossible for an accomplished director, and expecting Fung to pull something out of Mikey is probably expecting too much at this point in his career.

All in all, though, House of Fury is another good entry from Stephen Fung. Even though it seems like he's not going to be the next Wong Kar-Wai or Johnnie To, the fact that any young Hong Kong director has created two good films in a row is at least a glimmer of hope for an industry that many people consider to be on life-support.