"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Friday, May 17, 2019

A Little TLC(w): Monster Hunt 2 (2018)


While this has a lot of the trappings that can make kids’ movies annoying – gross-out humor, handwavy plotting, at-times comically-broad acting – and, by all accounts, this sequel isn’t as good as the film that preceded it, I still found myself liking it a lot, almost to a surprising degree.  Beneath the goofiness and nonsense, there’s a lot of charm and heart.

Okay, so Wuba is a baby monster who is super-important to both the monster and the human worlds – there’s an evil monster king constantly sending minions after him, various humans are willing to pay big bucks to get their hands on him, and there’s some sort of prophecy that he’s the one being that can bring harmony to the monster and human worlds.  But Wuba doesn’t feel important; he just feels like a baby monster who misses his parents, the two humans who cared for him and, at the end of the first movie, sent him back to the monster world because they thought it was best for him.  Now, though, they’re missing him as much as he misses them, and between a lot of action, hijinks, and adventure, the unconventional family tries to find their way back to each other.

That’s a pretty long summary, and there are definite points where I was running to keep up.  I’m sure it follows better if you’ve seen the first movie, but overall, I had a fairly good understanding of what’s going on, even if some of the plot hinges on just-go-with-it logic.  There are easy jokes, fun sight gags, slapstick action as well as martial-arts action, inventive quirks, and dubious tangents, and it all adds up to something that’s surprisingly-compelling to watch.

Much of that comes down to the heart of the film, the central family that’s trying to reunite.  Wuba is very clearly designed to be too cute for words, and it’s no wonder that nearly everyone he meets falls in love with him.  For me, though, I was even more charmed by Xiaolan and Tianyin, Wuba’s human parents.  Despite an occasional, aggravating tendency on Xiaolan’s part to emasculate Tianyin (especially since he’s the one who evidently “gave birth” to Wuba in the first movie,) the young couple is, frankly, adorable, and I love what they’re about.  She’s tough and he’s sensitive, but he’s always brave when he needs to be and she has a bigger heart than she sometimes lets on.  If I at some point decide to go back and watch the first movie, it’ll be because of these two.

But of course, Tony Leung Chiu-wai is only in this movie.  He plays Tu Sigu, who I can best describe as a kids’-movie-set-in-a-fantasy-world-based-on-ancient-China answer to Han Solo.  He’s a voracious gambler and small-time con man who’s found a variety of ways to cheat at dice and mahjong by creatively using monsters and their powers.  When he and his monster sidekick stumble upon Wuba, Tu sees in the little guy a big payday that can get him out of debt, but Tu isn’t quite as selfish or callous as he makes out to be, and if there’s anyone who could tug on his heartstrings, it’s probably Wuba.

Acting, for the most part, plays by different rules in kids’ movies, and some of what we get here from Leung is silly and overdone – a comic antihero whose competence level veers at times to mildly bumbling (this is another film where Leung’s Mandarin is dubbed, so I’m not sure what he would’ve done with the dialogue, but his physical performance can be pretty broad, too.)  But Tu is also more grounded at times, both comically and dramatically.  I enjoy the relationship between him and his long-suffering monster buddy, with both often seeming equally exasperated with each other, and it’s fun to watch him fight a losing battle against Wuba’s charms and cuteness.  Overall, this is a fairly enjoyable character/performance, and to be perfectly honest, it was more than I expected going into this film.

Recommend?

In General – Yeah.  If you enjoy kids’ movies at all, you’d probably enjoy this one.  It’s not Pixar, but it’s fun and sweet.

Tony Leung Chiu-wai – I think I would.  This is a different variation on the sort of charismatic schemer that Leung played so often in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, and Leung does well with it within the limits of the story.

Warnings

Gross-out humor, violence/scary moments, suggestiveness, and drinking.

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