A bodybuilder/stripper who happens to be a former monk is recruited by a young cop to help her solve a mystery.
Written by Ka-Fai Wai, Nai-Hoi Yau, Kin-Yee Au, and Tin-Shing Yip, and directed by Johnnie To and Ka-Fai Wai, Running on Karma this action drama with touches of comedy is one that works quite well on all fronts with some silly elements that may make some scratch their heads. This is how most of the movie goes, until it takes a turn near the end and goes off the deep end, embracing the silly and the nonsense or maybe just losing track of itself and its own style and story. As it is, the story works fantastically well for most of the movie, takes a turn and makes a massive style change before the end which ends up feeling very much like a completely different movie for the last third or so. This is something that somewhat works and if one can easily play connect the dots and create their own logic, this can work well. Of course, this won’t work for every viewer.
The cast here is led by Cecilia Cheung as the cop, Inspector Lee Fung Yee, and Andy Lau as the bodybuilding, stripping, former monk nicknamed Big for obvious reasons. Supporting Lau is one special muscle suit which spends more time uncovered than most would like. This look is something and takes away a bit from the film’s serious scenes as it’s always right there in your face, staring back at you from all its latex-ness. It is part of the character that is Big and Lau makes the most of it, trying to make it look natural while also looking like he might be stuck in it. HIs performance works decently well here even if not his career best. Cheung is great next to him, pretending she doesn’t notice the fake bodysuit, and being a charming, overwhelmed, intelligent, career-driven character who has to take matters into her own hands at times. Her performance sells the character and helps sells the film as a whole. No matter what happens, the two of them work well together and make the most of the film’s set-ups and stories.
The film’s look is good here, giving the viewer clear view of the action as well as a solid understanding of how to make a film like this work visually. The cinematography by director of photography Siu-Keung Cheng works well and makes the film’s action scenes shine. The editing by Wing-Cheong Law works well with these images and clearly knows how to make an action scene feel dynamic.
Running on Karma works great for the first two-thirds or so of the film and then takes a turn that may or may not work for viewers as it feels a bit odd with the rest of the film. The action is fun, the acting works, and the images are well done. There are a few hiccups here and there, but most are easy to ignore or bypass.
This new release from the Masters of Cinema series from Eureka! Looks great from its packaging with new art from Time Tomorrow and a bunch of solid extras. The more interesting extras here are the two new audio commentaries and the archival making-of featurette.