Summary
A pretty straightforward biopic of of the Hong Kong Cantopop veterans The Wynners runs through their career at a cracking pace. Comes complete with angry drum solo.
The Wynners may not be a household name outside of their native Hong Kong, but they were a pretty big deal in the 1970s. The quirkily named HOUSE OF THE RISING SONS (兄弟班), which makes its world premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival, is a brief dramatised summary of the rise of the band and the wider mark they had on the HK entertainment industry.
Case in point, it’s the band’s drummer Anthony Chan who directs his own biopic, returning to the director’s chair for the first time since 1992’s My Americanized Wife. Starting out with the Loosers struggling as a ‘garage band’ in the back of a shop owned by the lead guitarist’s father, their fortunes rise with a name-change and the addition of lead vocalist Alan Tam and vocalist-rhythm guitarist Kenny Bee.
It rises so fast, in fact, that we see the band transition from grungy cover band to Cantopop pioneers without so much as a time-skip montage. Sitting somewhere between Jersey Boys and That Thing You Do, with a sprinkling of Backbeat thrown in for good measure, it becomes rapidly obvious that this is more about greatest hits than deep cuts. Chan knows that the meat of the story is in the conflicts that arise from Alan Tam and Kenny Bee’s solo careers, although this transition is also treated in a linear and perfunctory fashion.
The closest we get to some of the angst behind the music is unsurprisingly through director Chan’s own on-screen avatar. Coming into conflict with his father over his choice of profession, there’s a highly stylised and angry drum solo (the best kind of drum solo, really) that’s filled with flashbacks. Similarly, guitarist Ah Kin’s cheerleading father (played by the ubiquitous Simon Yam, a veteran of over 200 productions) serves as the mouthpiece for his son being sidelined in the band. Indeed, it’s fair to say that his protestations are the proxies for the band’s internal monologues. Both of these threads add a personal touch to the overview, and a familiar subtext about father-son relationships.
Where Chan’s film soars is in the production design, a wonderfully retro explosion of 1960s/1970s aesthetics. Skies are vividly realised backdrops of red and blue. The colour saturation on every article of clothing or slickly quaffed hairstyle is turned up to 11. At times the band is silhouetted against the neon signs of period Hong Kong as they croon into the night. At others, there’s a series of frenetic cuts as the boys do “Flight of the Bumblebee” a cappella while they boss battle a guitar hero. These nutty non sequiturs are completely silly, but also expertly executed and endearing.
The one constant thread throughout the film is a geeky fan that we see in the first audiences right through to the more recent reunions. Chan has made this film for the fanbase that she represents, even if newer initiates don’t learn much more than “they were a band.” Yet as Chan peppers his coda with actual footage from the Wynners’ entire career, along with the acting roles of Alan Tam and Kenny Bee, he makes a pretty good case for their importance as one of Hong Kong’s cultural institutions.
2018 | Hong Kong | DIRECTOR: Antony Chan | WRITER: Antony Chan | CAST: Carlos Chan, Jonathan Wong, Tan, Eugene Tang, Lam Yiu-sing, Him Ng, Simon Yam, Kara Wai | DISTRIBUTOR: Sil-Metropole Organisation Limited, New York Asian Film Festival (US) | RUNNING TIME: 99 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 2 July 2018 (NYAFF)
