6 AM (2004-HK)
review by Neo




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Not bad at all !!
“Remember this very moment”, “let’s just treasure this very minute”, wait a minute that’s sound so much like a Wong Kar Wai movie. Sorry, you got it wrong, it is actually an EEG production that parodies classical HK movies from God of Gamblers to A Better Tomorrow to Wong Kar Wai starring Boyz. Surely on hearing a Boyz movies, critics automatically deems their movies as crap and nonsense, and actually Neo went into this movie thinking it is going to be a piece of commercialism – buying on Boyz fans, but I was wrong. After watching the movie, Neo feels somewhat cheated by hearing comments of this movie as one of the worst of the year, as not only has Neo seen far worst in 2004, but this movie works effectively as a parody of time and while bringing along some touching inspirational moments – and that’s coming from someone that don’t like Boyz.

A film follows two young man's adventure in one night mixing with the triads, but the adventure turned into an error-fueled revenge comedy, and their aim is only to make it til 6am alive. Bowl (Kenny Kwan) and Noodle (Steven Cheung) are two idle high school students who have to evade three menaces everyday to get to school: the bully Razor, the policeman David, and the gangster Ganker. Ganker, on the lookout for new blood to replenish his ever shrinking gang, Bowl and Noodle inadvertently joined his gang, and ends up at a gangster conference where the Boss gives them $300,000 to perform a "Mission of Glory" at 6am the next day. Bowl and Noodle, with a deadly mission waiting for them in ten hours time, must now fulfill as much as they can in this period of time...

Seriously, this movie is by no means brilliant or work of art, but it is by no means a crap movie that doesn’t keep the audience watching. Sure the premises of the movie is silly and so is the plot, but the point and the fun and the emotions all comes from so very effective parody. Surely the parody of Stephen Chow’s movies and Chow Yun Fat was tiresome and so was the guest appearance of Twins totally pointless, but the Wong Kar Wai was delivered effectively and serves a pretty meaningful reminder. While Wong Kar Wai fans or lovers will say this is just copying or bad parody, director Adrian Kwan Shun-Fai does what he is meant to do…. appeal to teenagers to young adults. Think about it, how many people who are under 18 actually like watching 2046 or In the mood for Love or even know who the hell Wong Kar Wai is? Surely Neo likes and admire Wong Kar Wai movies for many years already, but I am sure as I have seen from most of my friends, they just don’t have the patience to watch master Wong films. So what’s better to do than made a movie that parody Wong’s themes and also showing the meaning of time, missed opportunities, the breaking up and starting of relationships in a movie that a teenager or young adult would actually watch?

However, in saying this, although I am probably one of the youngest HK film reviewer on the net, I strongly feel that this movie will not just appeal to people my age, because in fact I do not feel that it is a bad movie at all. Sure it goes over the top in terms of existentialism by constantly referring to time and this very minute, but who cares? I am pretty sure that this movie if a teenager actually watch it, they will see more into life than say some other EEG crap with popstars like Edison in it. While the Boyz acting is borderline bad and seriously I thought they would improve, but after 2 years in the film line and still pretty much the same, I must be critical in the way they expresses their emotions. If not for the good parodying direction in the tunnel scene, existential movie lines and using classical HK movies soundtrack, perhaps the movie wouldn’t work. On the other hand Katie Kwok shows some promises in a tiny role that do not require much, but I will be looking forward to her next role.

In a matter of fact, it all comes down to is not whether you like Boyz or not, but whether this movie is worth watching or worth nothing? Personally Neo actually somewhat liked the movie in a way that the movie didn’t seem boring, but perhaps what Neo liked the movie is because of the emotional impact that the movie sustains, the problems of that teenagers faces and resulting in an inspirational youth drama. While it is a parody, the movie does tries to give a message about the randomness of life, how one minute the world may be bad and the next may well be great. How nobodies can become great, though actions that was meant to be evil? Perhaps it is unfair that this movie deserve any praise, but anyhow Neo feels that at the very least this is surely not the crappest movie of the year by far and if you go in the movie thinking it is crap, perhaps that way you might get the most fun out of it. Or at least you could prove me wrong!

I rate it 7.5/10

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Artist Name(s) : Chan Wai Man | BOY'Z | Katie Kwok
Release Date : January 14, 2005
Language : Mandarin, Cantonese
Subtitle : Simplified Chinese , English , Traditional Chinese
Duration : 88 Minutes
Reviewed by Andrew (Neo), February 2005






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