Fantasia - The Pye-Dog

The Pye-Dog

"Watch a Hong Kong movie, get a Hong Kong movie."

These words of wisdom were bestowed upon me from Al after I called him to discuss Pye-Dog, Derek Kwong's mix of gangsters and father-son bonding. The film begins with an amazing intro of paper airplanes fluttering around a cityscape as we are introduced to Lam Chi Wang, a young boy living with his grandmother after his father disappears and mother commits suicide. Visually stunning, the movie start with a bang. Just as quickly we are introduced to a young Dui, a boy who has also lost his parents, as he is picked on by schoolmates and spends his time inventing objects to fight back against his schoolyard bullies. This get him noticed by a local triad member who becomes his father figure and brings him into the gang as a weapon repairman and driver for hits. Fast-forward to the future, and we see a grown up Dui receiving orders from his father figure, Hong Kong film veteran Eric Tsang, to kidnap a rival gang leader's son from a local school. Not knowing who the boy he has to kidnap is, he is forced to pose as the school janitor.

While at the school Dui develops a close relationship with Wang, and it is this "father"-son relationship where the movie truly shines. The acting and script is convincing and I found myself falling in love with their off-beat relationship. Indeed, Dui is a crude but loveable slob and the two bond over their similarities (the loss of their parents), inside jokes, and playful games. Moreover, the first half of the movie is narrated through the eyes and voice of Wang as his voice over talks us through his experiences and we are visually treated with imagines of the young boy's imagination as he pictures himself being defended from tree monsters by his new found hero/father-figure. Indeed, the whole setup of the film works very very well.

This however, is where the film peaks and after their relationship is established, the movie collapses as we are quickly introduced to Dui's love interest, Miss Cheung. While their relationship isn't as convincing as his relationship with Wang, its passable. As the movie progresses, the melodrama begins to creep up and the crowd is 'treated' to a corny montage of the three of them running in the field, and staring into the night sky. As expected, we discover that Wang is the child Dui is supposed to kidnap, and he goes through an existential crisis as he contemplates to whom his loyalties lie. Compounding all this is that Wang's 'real' father returns to claim his son.

The music (if not the rest of the film) from this point on is forced, pathetic, and hokey (thing slow playing piano, guitar, or violin...all the god damn time). The unfolding storyline is unconvincing as we discover Miss Chung is a hired gun for Wang's real father and Dui turns on his mob brothers to defend Wang's real father. Its at this point that I realized that Wang's voice over narration has altogether disappeared. What the hell, how did we just switch storytelling methods?

The movie reaches its height of eye-rolling greatness as Wang stands onstage at his school singing in English, which transforms into an over dramatic three-minute montage of 'flashback' scenes we saw only twenty minutes earlier. Moreover, Wang's voice is drowned out by a female singer, and soon the entire cast is singing along. Scoffs, snickers, and bored sighs filled the theatre for the last twenty minutes of the movie. While the movie has its strong points (the development of the relationship between Dui and Wang was intensely genuine), like so
many Hong Kong films it ultimately degrades into a terribly pathetic and over dramatic soap opera that dragged on and on. Ultimately. the film was forced and poorly constructed. If you miss this film, you'd be doing yourself a favor.