Ah Boys to Men 4 (2017)

Plot summary (story synopsis): The quirky and lovable gang of everyman national serviceman, led by Alex (Tosh Zhang), are now veteran reservists, and are magically reborn as armoured infantrymen. They have to deal with conflicts with civilian life, and a new strict by-the-book female platoon commander Lieutenant Zhang (Apple Chan).

***

(Full disclosure: I have never been in any military unit and am an armchair general.)

The fourth in the fabulously successful (at least in Singapore) Ah Boys to Men franchise, ABTM 4 is surprisingly good considering the quality of the previous movies. (I watched ABTM 1 and 3. I skipped ABTM 2 because the first was so bad.)

The first few movies suffered from preachy "social commentary", overt military propaganda, overlong scenes, a skit-based approach to story structure, and heavy-handed melodrama. Oh, and annoying in-your-face product placement. These weaknesses still exist in ABTM 4 but are greatly reduced. The movie is actually watchable and rarely cringe inducing.

The social commentary arises naturally and believably - foreign employees being favoured over locals because the foreigners don't disrupt corporate operations by having to go back to camp for mobilisation or training. Also covered is the awkward situation of your boss in civilian life suddenly becoming your subordinate in the military.

The military propaganda is balanced, not shrinking from showing the limitations of Singapore's Bionix infantry fighting vehicles, and the officially sanctioned relaxation of requirements for reservists.

Pacing is improved. Only a few scenes - such as the first scene in the canteen - felt draggy. Even the product placement is improved. I counted maybe 50 sponsors at the end credits but noticed only about 10 in the movie.

Unfortunately the verisimilitude-busting retconning of the Ah Boys into a different military unit, continues. They were basic infantry in ABTM 1 and 2, elite naval divers in ABTM 3, and now armoured infantry in ABTM 4. The only reason being to showcase different branches of the military, story logic be damned. 

At least they are now veterans and no longer new conscripts (they were new conscripts in ABTM 1, and then again in ABTM 3).

When the first movie came out, I heard a few parents saying that they wanted to watch to see what national service would be like for their sons who would be conscripted soon. Which was strange because the Singapore Armed Forces has a short documentary series on YouTube called Every Singapore Son, that covers the national service experience well. 

I guess the movies do give a more behind-the-scenes look at life in the Singapore military, albeit fictionalised and sensationalised yet sanitised. On the other hand, you're not going to learn much about Singapore military doctrine.

Standard American (and presumably Singaporean too) armoured doctrine is for infantry and armour to support each other. Tankers are very much blind and lack situational awareness, buttoned up inside their vehicle.

Armoured infantry act as eyes and ears, dismounting to be an advance guard to warn against enemy infantry and keep them away from the tanks. The tanks can then use their superior firepower to fend off enemy tanks and infantry.

None of this is shown in the movie. Instead, the infantry are shown independently traipsing off to their own objective during an exercise. The only communication shown is between them and their vehicle commander. The tanks (Leopard MBTs) are never shown communicating with the Bionix infantry fighting vehicles.

But this is a concern only to military nuts. For the average Singaporean, what matters are the more daily life aspects of military service. In this ABTM 4 does succeed. Good use is made of army lingo and procedures. Enough is sprinkled around to be authentic and interesting, without being over explained. 

The movie's character development is however, lacking. Alex's moral failure and sudden redemption at the end, come out of nowhere. Ah Long had a promising start but his character arc halts in mid air and fizzles out.The whole conflict between Alex and Lieutenant Zhang also fizzles out and amounts to nothing in the end.

ABTM 4 is still a loose collection of unrelated vignettes and comedy skits. For example, the mass Lamborghini convoy at the end is kinda pointless (and actually sucks the air from the real ending), its awesomeness way out of proportion to the minor character point it makes. 

While flawed, ABTM does entertain. And Jack Neo's usual dose of sly social commentary doesn't grate so much this time.

Sky Hunter (2017)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Chinese pilots from the elite Sky Hunter air base must rescue Chinese military and civilians who are taken hostage by terrorists in the (fictional) central European republic of Mahbu.

***

So is Sky Hunter more Top Gun or Iron Eagle? Well, it's both but that's not the problem. The problem is that there is no character development or character arc, and the military tactics are nonsensical.

It looks like the filmmakers wanted to have an action movie glorifying the Chinese air force but didn't want the complexity of filming a full scale war. So they chose a terrorist takeover of an air base. The problem is that jet fighters don't have much to do with rescuing hostages in such a situation, it's more about special forces infantry.

So the plot gets twisted to highlight the air force instead of the soldiers. For example, in order to have an "exciting" showdown between the terrorist leader and Wu Di, the terrorist leader is made to be an ace pilot. Come on guys, what the hell? The terrorists also take control of an ICBM silo (yes, little Mahbu has ICBMs) so that Wu Di can bomb the hell out of it. 

Sure, Top Gun was a recruitment poster for the US Navy but Tony Scott still put the story before anything else. And Top Gun really was about the fighter pilot school. Sky Hunter has some training scenes but these are not core to the story and act more as filler.

Character arc? There are none. There's some half hearted attempt at a love triangle between fighter pilot Wu Di (Chen Li) and rescue helicopter pilot Zhao Yali (the gorgeous Fan Bing Bing), and either fighter pilots Gao Yuan (Leon Lee) or Ba Tu (Guo Mingyu). I was confused.

Now for a list of the movie's military sins (warning - I'm a military nut/armchair general):

• American 4 engined propeller plane thinks it can outfly Chinese jet fighters? 
• Rescue helicopter pilot has to exit the helicopter to rescue people? There should be dedicated crew for that.
• Why initially send 2 jet fighters without any special forces or rescue helicopter?
• Then for the second attempt, okay, you have special forces and a rescue helicopter. But why send only 2 fighters and 1 helicopter?
• Jet fighters need air-to-air refueling but helicopter doesn't? Jet fighters way outrange any helicopter.
• Sky Hunter base happens to be within helicopter range of the air base under attack?
• Wu Di uses his jet fighter to strafe a terrorist machine gunner. How does he know the machine gunner is not a friendly? Aircraft, especially fast moving jet fighters, are notoriously blind to what is going on on the ground and need to be directed by friendlies on the ground or a slow moving Forward Air Controller aircraft.
• A jet fighter is hunting the rescue helicopter at night. Why not land the helicopter to hide?
• It is ridiculous to have two jet fighters flying head on at each other and firing their cannon. Their closing speed is so high that they will be within cannon range for less than a second.
• If you have a crippled aircraft coming in to land, you don't block the runway with fire engines.

P.S. Soundtrack is produced by Hans Zimmer whatever that means, but was written by someone else. The final result does not impress.

Good Kill (2015)

Plot summary (story synopsis): It is 2010. Major Thomas Egan (Ethan Hawke) is an experienced F-16 fighter pilot. He has finished multiple overseas combat tours of duty in America's war on terror. He is now a drone pilot, surrealistically killing Taliban halfway across the globe from the safety of his control station in Nevada, then going home at the end of the day to his suburban home and his wife Molly (January Jones) and kids. 

He misses the joy and danger of flying for real and begins to feel guilty over the civilian casualties his missile strikes create. He drinks and his marriage begins to suffer even more than when he was overseas, away from his family for months, flying an F-16. 

His boss Lieutenant Colonel Jack Jones (Bruce Greenwood, doing the wise and compassionate leader shtick he did in Star Trek) has no such qualms and handles Egan's drone team with a steady hand. The team includes Zimmer (the hunky Jake Abel) and new pilot Suarez (Zoe Kravitz - Lenny's daughter, who has been getting a lot of plum supporting roles recently - Divergent, Mad Max).

Things become worse when the team works with the CIA to kill suspected Taliban, working based on the CIA's new and looser Rules of Engagement. Their only CIA contact is the mysterious Langley (voiced by Peter Coyote, who sounds deliciously like the late John Forsythe as Charlie) who they only hear over the speaker phone. Morale plummets as the team is forced by Langley to carry out what Suarez considers to be illegal, war crime, strikes.

***

Writer/director Andrew Niccol does mainly SF (Gattaca, In Time, The Host - underrated movie based on Stephenie Meyer's novel with a beautiful performance by Saoirse Ronan) and military (Lord of War) movies, though not military SF. He also wrote but did not direct The Terminal (Tom Hanks is a stateless man stuck in an airport), S1mOne (Pacino in a comedy is a fail) and The Truman Show. Whatever the subject material, he's good at pushing your buttons.

Good Kill is similar to Lord of War (Nicolas Cage is a freelance arms dealer after the collapse of the Soviet Union). Andrew Niccol did a lot of research for Lord of War and wrote a technically accurate and dramatic script (with some over-the-top visuals that work).

He does the same for Good Kill, this time on the US drone war. In Time showed him to be an economics-illiterate bleeding-heart liberal, probably because he didn't feel the need to research economics and just went with his gut. From what little I know about real drone warfare, he has painted a relatively accurate picture (super accurate by Hollywood standards) in Good Kill.

He has obviously researched drone warfare and like Lord of War, Good Kill is technically believable and has a good storyline. Unlike In Time, his handling of the issues is quite balanced, though still left of center.

I do have some complaints. For one thing, no lawyers are shown. I'm pretty sure lawyers are heavily involved in drone operations, and the movie does address legal issues (which the soldiers amateurishly try to figure out on their own).

But overall Andrew Niccol succeeds in pushing his agenda because he plays it cool and almost neutral, not overtly propagandistic. Which is how effective propaganda works. And is probably why the media hasn't made a big fuss over the movie. It's too neutral for them. Both sides of the argument are shown (though I feel there are strong arguments for drone warfare that were not presented).  

And like with Lord of War, Andrew Niccol definitely has an agenda. Unfortunately for him, Good Kill has been overtaken by events. Specifically ISIS. After ISIS, you can't convincingly argue that drone strikes are a significant cause of militant Islam (cycle-of-violence theory). 

Andrew Niccol uses music well, almost as well as Michael Mann. Gattaca and The Host had effective, evocative and memorable soundtracks. Good Kill is mainly soundtrackless, and that works too. It's an interesting choice.

And like Michael Mann, he also has a strong visual style. Halfway through The Host (I went in not knowing who the director was), I thought, Hey this looks like an Andrew Niccol movie! Like the soundtrack, he has also dialed back the visuals on Good Kill.

He lets the strong New Mexico (standing in for Nevada) desert sunlight dictate most of the look. No fancy Lord of War time-lapses here. Again, it works. A few strong images do stand out. In The Host it was the aliens' mirror-skinned vehicles and elegant white clothes, in Gattaca it was the Art Deco architecture.

In Good Kill, it is the geometric rows of wheeled shipping containers that serve as drone control stations. It's a simple but strangely powerful image that you will not forget. 

It's good to see Ethan Hawke in an Andrew Niccol movie again. Bruce Greenwood does his Star Trek fatherly shtick well. January Jones and Zoe Kravitz also handle their roles well, and look pretty while doing so. Jake Abel (who to my surprise has less of a following than Channing Tatum, but then I'm not a teen girl) has a small role as a callous, racist, gung-ho member of Egan's team and is suitably hateful. 

The acting is good but it is Andrew Niccol's script that makes the characters come alive. 

Langley is the silver-tongued devil with his polished justifications for his morally questionable orders, Suarez is the team's conscience (superego), Zimmer is the ugly American who delights in killing (id), Jones is the adult (ego). Egan is all three - ego, superego, id - rolled into one, the classic Ethan Hawke sensitive new-age hero.

Pay attention to the ending. On the surface it's a feel-good ending. I found it very disturbing. I wonder if Andrew Niccol meant it to be. Other Hollywood directors, I would have assumed that they missed the implications. Not this guy.

Ah Boys to Men 3: Frogmen (2015)

Plot summary (story synopsis): In an alternate timeline (seriously, this is explained in a voiceover in the movie), the army conscripts in the movie Ah Boys to Men are sent to the Singapore navy's elite Naval Diving Unit (NDU, US Navy SEALs equivalent) instead of the army.

There, they have to survive the tough training, personal conflicts, family problems back home, and finally the dreaded 5-day Hell Week qualification.

***

Writer/director Jack Neo's popular folksy, low-brow, social-commentary, comedy-sketch-based, melodramatic, tell-don't-show, lovable-local-stereotypes, crowd-pleasing style is well known. You either love it or you don't. I won't waste your time criticizing his style in Frogmen except to point out that it is toned down (and therefore less annoying) compared to Ah Boys to Men. Yes, that includes Ken Chow's (Joshua Tan) mother, played by Irene Ang.

What I will do instead is look at Frogmen from a storytelling viewpoint. One fatal flaw in the conception of Frogmen, is the wholesale transfer of the average army conscripts into the elite NDU. It doesn't work.

The "lovable" every-man gang of misfits made sense as generic army conscripts. However it is difficult to believe that such screw-ups are accepted into an elite navy unit. This completely destroys your voluntary suspension of disbelief. Even worse, it gives a false view of the type of men who do join the NDU.

From a dramatic viewpoint, you lose the chance to see the military training of highly-motivated volunteers, instead of your reluctant conscript (if Ken Chow is a skiver, why would he volunteer for a siong special forces unit?). So Frogmen becomes a rehash of the first movie.

Jack Neo should have taken a chance and written in entirely new characters for Frogmen. Instead, he took the easy and safe route by re-using the proven, popular cast from the first movie. (There is one new character in Hei Long (Wesley Wong), a gangster who was brought up in Hong Kong.)

Having made this artistic choice, Jack Neo fails to exploit the audience's familiarity with the characters. Screen time is saved by not having to introduce the characters to the audience. But Jack Neo squanders the saved time by not using it to develop the characters much, except for feeble attempts with Ken Chow, Lobang (Wang Wei Liang) and Hei Long - all in his standard Korean drama style.

Rich-kid Ken Chow's sub plot seems out of place. Lobang's family problems are melodramatic. Hei Long's street gang and parent problems are ridiculous. Aloysius (Maxi Lim) has a satisfying confrontation with bully Hei Long, but the groundwork for it was not properly prepared (Aloysius's surprising reaction is not foreshadowed) and the confrontation therefore feels contrived.

Aside from having misfits enter the NDU, Frogmen further compounds this technical error by having their entire group of 80 men survive and graduate Hell Week. A quick Google search shows that the real pass rate is 30 percent. So instead of showing how tough and elite the NDU is, Jack Neo undersells its selectiveness. It's another missed dramatic opportunity - such a low pass rate would dominate the thoughts and actions of all the men.

Frogmen also doesn't show much about NDU training aside from a first-aid CPR session and a boat-capsize drill. The rest is mainly physical training. While you might not want to publicize any secret techniques, Frogmen doesn't even show the conscripts undergoing scuba diving training (a diving exercise is shown, one that doesn't use scuba equipment). Instead, we only see them as already fully-capable divers at their underwater graduation ceremony. Weapons training? Zero. Communications, navigation, tactics, demolition, escape and evasion, hand-to-hand combat, sky diving, rappelling? Nope.

Bonus gripe: In the action-packed flash-forward at the start of the movie, the terrorists that hijacked a commercial ship and took its crew hostage, are an unnamed group of "international terrorists" whose leader is an American. Nice cop-out to political correctness, Jack.

The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Zhuo Yihang (Xiaoming Huang - Wolf in The Guillotines) is promoted to head of Wu Dang (Shaolin-equivalent kung fu sect). He goes to deliver the customary Wu Dang red pills to the emperor. Along the way, he has a brief encounter with the mysterious Jade Raksha (Fan Bing Bing - Blink in X-Men: Days of Future Past).

Jade Raksha is part of the gang of irregulars that holds Lunar Fort, a small but strategic border outpost that controls a mountainous trail between the Han (Chinese) and Jin armies.

Traitorous general Jin Duyi (Vincent Zhao) kills the Governor (who is also Zhuo Yihang's grandfather) during a skirmish with Jade Raksha, and frames her for the murder.

Meanwhile, the red pills turn out to be poisonous and Zhuo Yihang is blamed for the emperor's death. He ends up in Lunar Fort, where he uses his medicinal skills to stop a typhoid outbreak, furthering his friendship with Jade Raksha along the way.

Some political intrigues later, Jin Duyi takes over Lunar Fort by treachery and holds Zhuo Yihang prisoner. Jade Raksha comes to his rescue but is captured too. There is a spell she can cast to break free, but only at a terrible personal cost.

***

Chinese movies are like a box of chocolates. With WHWLK, what you get is an odd mix of political intrigue, action-adventure and romance. The first two thirds of the movie is a disjointed mix of events that aren't really interesting, convincing, or integrated well with each other.

It's only in the third act, the fight at Lunar Fort, that the movie finally gets into gear. But it's too little, too late. It doesn't help that Lunar Fort itself, looks like a cheap stage set.

There are some interesting details of imperial Chinese customs - the red pills, "top scholar cookies" from the chief eunuch. But without an engrossing plot, these stand out more as curiosities and don't really make you feel like you are stepping into ancient China.

The wirework flying kung fu and slashing sword fights are okay, I guess. Quite standard, not too shabby, but not particularly outstanding either. There are battle scenes with hundreds of armored infantry, that do help to establish an epic scope, but what we are really interested in is the relationship between Zhuo Yihang and Jade Raksha, and there's precious little of that.

Acting is decent, given the limitations of the script. I'm not a Fan Bing Bing fan but she looks pretty good here.

Most reviewers seem to prefer Ronny Yu's 1993 version, The Bride With White Hair, which starred Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung. I haven't seen that movie.

If you want to watch a Chinese kung fu historical romance, I'd suggest 2012's Painted Skin: The Resurrection, instead. (http://pisang-movie-recommendations.blogspot.com/2012/07/painted-skin-resurrection-2012.html)