SO CLOSE (Hong Kong, 2002)
: : New York Premiere : :



110 minutes, 35mm, in Mandarin and English with English subtitles
Directed by: Corey Yuen
Starring: Shu Qi, Vicky Zhao Wei, Karen Mok, Yasuaki Kurata

Hong Kong director Corey Yuen (one of Jackie Chan's childhood kung fu classmates) delivers a radically fun punch to the head with this surprisingly moving, big budget, action wedding cake. Two assassin sisters,
Shu Qi (THE TRANSPORTER) and Vicky Zhao (SHAOLIN SOCCER), versus one cop, Karen Mok (FALLEN ANGELS), in a movie that's not only an upgrade of the Hong Kong "Girls with Guns" genre, but a lesbian date flick, as well.

The plot is very similar to Flaubert's Madame Bovary in that it revolves around a computer program that can hack all the security cameras on earth. Developed by their dad, the program was inherited by Shu Qi and Vicky Zhao
when he died, and rather than sell it and make lots of money, they use it to become career assassins - follow your dreams! But after years of busting caps, Shu Qi has become a hurting-on-the-inside kind of hottie. Her passion for being a supercool hitwoman has cooled and she's starting to feel sorry for the thousands of people she's snuffed. Unable to bring herself to do more than kneecap the legions of goons she used to blithely blow away, she's started to think about getting out of the game, finding a guy, and settling down. Loser. Little sis, Vicky Zhao, on the other hand, wants to wear revealing outfits and open many cans of whup ass on veritable armies of henchmen. Karen Mok, a cop who has run into the glass ceiling so hard she's got a concussion, unwinds from all the razzing she gets from her sexist colleagues by pursuing Vicky and Shu Qi and maybe, just maybe, falling for Vicky in the process. Cop/criminal romances are, historically, really bad ideas but scrawny, pale, Hong Kong movie nerds are extremely grateful that Karen and Vicky are ignoring precedent on their behalf. Lesbians who like their women armed, Asian, and able to run up walls and kick people on the tops of their heads hard enough to kill them, will also appreciate the effort.

Flying bullets, spinning sidekicks, supercomputer balderdash, car chases, and shattering sheets of glass tumble off the screen like an all-you-can-eat action feast and it takes a fight with Japanese screen legend Yasuaki Kurata (who, despite being well into his late 50's, still manages to break out his patented brand of spazz-fu) to bring this whole butt kick buffet to a close. Corey Yuen deploys the pop ballad "Close To You" all over the soundtrack and here's a chance for a whole new generation to get it stuck in their heads, associating it with images of Shu Qi dealing out death from nickel-plated 9mm's, rather than Rick Moranis warbling it pathetically in PARENTHOOD. To my mind, that's a gift that'll keep on giving and should earn Yuen a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

The three leads are obviously relishing the one time in their careers they get to play action heroes, chewing up every second of screen time like mouthfuls of thousand dollar Kobe beef. SO CLOSE is a movie that manages the neat trick of being simultaneously super-silly and super-cool. With Corey Yuen bringing years of being Jet Li's action director to the table; and Vicky Zhao, Karen Mok and Shu Qi bringing perfect hair, perfect clothes, and perfect roundhouse kicks, it's like a fashion shoot that can beat your ass.

> The official SO CLOSE web site: www.so-close.com/