Saturday, August 25, 2018

A Little TLC(w): Doctor Mack (1995)

Despite veering a little into too-muchness on occasion, this is pretty good, a light medical dramedy with good performances and engaging characters.

One night, when a thief is shot by a police officer in a Hong Kong slum, locally-practicing Dr. Lau Mack treats him and accompanies him to a nearby hospital, where he’s the only one who sees how to extract the bullet without the patient suffering brain damage.  There, he gains the attention of Roger, an old friend from medical school, and Sam, a young doctor impressed with Dr. Lau’s expertise.  Sam tracks Dr. Lau down at his shabby little practice and begs for the opportunity to work with him.  Under Dr. Lau’s sharp but eccentric tutelage, Sam learns a lot about being a doctor, both personally and professionally.

The film’s biggest flaw is probably a tendency to make Dr. Lau a bit too low-key saint-like.  While his odd quirks can bewilder those around him and his seemingly-cold attitudes can make Sam shout, “Do you even have a heart?” at crucial moments, the film is peppered with him unassumingly going about his business while another character monologues about some noble thing he did or sacrifice he made in the past.  It gets hokey, for sure, and it’s only partially balanced out by the edge in the film’s tone at other places.  Still, it only gets mildly eye-rolling.

Other than that, it’s a fairly solid movie.  I like the colorful cast of locals who fill Dr. Lau’s world, from prostitutes to beggars to preachers.  There’s a decent amount of interest among the more prominent characters, too:  Dr. Lau’s police-officer buddy, a sweet cancer patient (again, a little saccharine and pretty predictable, but I do like her,) a high-class Hemingway-reading hooker, a rich girl looking to do a little good, and Sam himself, who acquits himself reasonably well in his new environment.

Additionally, I like the theme the movie explores when it comes to what you might call charitable medical practice.  Despite Dr. Lau’s obvious dedication to the patients in his pay-as-you-can clinic, he’s wary of doctors with dreams of “serving in Africa” because he feels a need to know their motivations first.  Something of a reverse of Tahani on The Good Place, he’s not interested in service done for the sake of personal acclaim.

Dr. Lau is a rather interesting character for Tony Leung Chiu-wai to play.  He has elements of other characters we’ve seen from Leung – sardonic sense of humor, makes a show of indifference but cares more than he lets on, smooth with the ladies – but it combines into a character that feels like something different.  I particularly like his weird quirks and just-try-to-keep-up randomness.

Not that I’d call Dr. Lau one of Leung’s best performances or most interesting characters.  Rather, he’s someone who defies my expectations of him at several turns, which ultimately helps him stand out from other stories about charming and saintly doctors serving the less fortunate; I appreciate being surprised.

Recommend?

In General – I think so.  While it’s cheesy in places, it has enough going for it that it doesn’t feel overly typical.

Tony Leung Chiu-wai – Maybe.  Like I said, this character has recognizable qualities from others Leung has played, but the result feels like something different.

Warnings

Violence, sexual content (including prostitution,) drinking/smoking, a few racist jokes that seem to come out of nowhere, and thematic elements.

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