East Meets West 2011

Jeff Lau is one amazing filmmaker — not because his films are always great, but because he attempts ambitious movies using random gags, generous overacting, rampant slapstick and more romantic metaphor than audiences may be comfortable with. True to form, Lau’s latest crazy opus, East Meets West 2011, is a bizarre postmodernist tale that defies expectation at every turn. On one hand, it’s the tale of proto-Buddhist immortals locked in a cycle of reincarnation and vengeance. On the other, it’s a superhero film satire. And finally it’s an existential romance that sends up and pays homage to the films of Lau’s longtime collaborator Wong Kar-wai. This is a fantasy-comedy-existential romance that’s alternately silly and sappy, and one that any director would have a hard time selling to audiences.
An attempt at plot description: seven reincarnated immortals are about to experience their once-in-a-generation evolution from average folks to super-powered gods, just in time to meet former comrade-in-arms Yaksha. Once upon a time, the eight were members of the Eight Heavenly Dragons, immortals tasked with inspiring humankind, but Yaksha went bad and slaughtered the rest. This cycle has been going on for millennia, and now that the seven good immortals are meeting up again, Yaksha can’t be far behind.
Newly reincarnated goddess Ashura (Karen Mok) attempts to balance her divine responsibility with an attraction to mortal Mr Charles (Eason Chan). Ashura’s mortal father is former Hong Kong pop musician Kenny Bee, played by Bee in a scathing parody on his own real-life persona. The other immortals are a silly bunch: mute chef Da Xiong (Ekin Cheng), who has the power to trap bad guys in large Chinese pastries; heiress Jade (singer Tan Weiwei), who wants to be a rock musician; Jade’s assistant Bing (Jaycee Chan), who’s actually a toady for her father; cab driver Wen (William So), who hails from Foshan like revered martial artist Ip Man and practices method acting while driving; and Bee’s wife Scarlet (Huang Yi), who likes nosebleed-inducing cosplay.
That’s a ton of strange characters and situations to explain and Lau does so with voiceover, animated montage, verbal exposition and random jokes, all set to a pace that can generously be called overwhelming. This dense, manic storytelling is pretty much business as usual for Lau; East Meets West 2011can be tough to take on a one-off viewing as there’s so much going on — and it’s all shoved out there so quickly — that it’s possible to get lost. However, patience and understanding (and maybe a second viewing later) do yield rewards.
The screwy characters provide plenty for the actors to work with. All the actors are self-effacing and very funny, with Kenny Bee and Jaycee Chan standing out from the bunch. Stephy Tang is delightfully devilish as a green-haired bad girl who may or may not be Yaksha, and Eason Chan and Karen Mok sell the film’s romance with gravity and grace. More than anything, the entire cast is remarkably loose, never acting as if they’re above Lau’s crazy comedy and romance. Who knows how, but Lau does know how to get actors to believe in his full-tilt wackiness.
The film is aided by creatively crazy costume design and gorgeously lurid art direction. Lau’s hit-to-miss ratio on jokes is maybe 2 to 1, but that improves when audiences get the total sum of what he’s doing. The time and energy that Lau spends pushing love can get long-winded, but thanks to the arresting imagery and romantic devices, there’s an undeniable attraction. Lau’s obsession with existential love isn’t just in the script — it can be seen in the music, cinematography and even wordless gazes from the actors. There’s craft and thought in all this nonsense.
Times have changed since Lau’s heyday, and it may be hard for modern audiences to fully appreciate what makes his films special. Lau actually makes more than nonsense — he makes literate, informed nonsense that’s greater than the genre implies. Lau is a director who’s imaginative and unpredictable, and uses comedy for more than quick laughs or parody. Most of all, Lau makes movies about love, and even when the movies are dismissed, he continues to make them. Believe it or not, or like it or not, Jeff Lau is an auteur. And East Meets West 2011, as impenetrable and flawed as it can be, should be considered among Lau’s most representative works.