The Treasure Hunter – Movie Review
The Treasure Hunter is about people finding treasure…I guess. Qiao Fei (Jay Chou) is a handsome adventure type who lives in the desert and is an expert in priceless artifacts. His childhood friend, Lan Ting (Chiling Lin) is an adventure writer in the city. They haven’t seen each other in years but have to come together after Lan Ting’s father is murdered to find a secret tomb filled with treasure. That is all I can tell you about the plot as I really have no idea of the finer plot points.
The first time we meet our hero, Qiao Fei is in a bar in the middle of the Mongolian desert. A group of bad ass treasure hunters have come in to hock some priceless artifacts to Qiao Fei. The thing that bothered me about this scene is that one of the Bad-Ass-Henchmen is wearing an eye patch. A fake one. Which has a small but very obvious mesh hole to see through. Now, I completely understand the need for depth perception when doing a fight scene but the least you could do is NOT shoot close-ups on his face until the actor had swapped to a real eye patch.
It seems as though the character of Qiao Fei was supposed to represent the epitome of adventure. He is a master martial artist like Bruce Lee. When he dresses casual he wears black leather and studs like James Dean. He fights evil sand monsters like Brendan Fraser and he protects priceless relics like Indiana Jones. Did I mention he also fights with a whip? A WHIP!
I’m also finding it a little odd that in each film I’ve seen now with CineAsia, the rotund comic relief character has been named after the pig. There was Piggy King in Storm Warriors and now Pork Rib (Eric Tsang) in The Treasure Hunter. Heck, even Monkey has Pigsy. Just an observation. I am aware that the “pig” character plays a role in most Chinese fables and stories but I just feel bad for the guy. I’m sure his parents didn’t actually name him Pork Rib, or did they know he was going to be fat and funny? Or was it the fact that they named him Pork Rib that caused him to grow up to fit the stereotype? There is a philosophical discussion in there but I think that is for another time.
The men who kill Lan Ting’s father are never really shown. They’re all blurred out in the background to give us a sense of “mystery” but when using that technique there is usually a big reveal scene….right? Well, no. Not in this case. Also, they are never held accountable. “Lan Ting, you’re father’s dead. You have a minute to grieve then we have to go…Oh, and you will never have vengeance or even know who did it…Sorry ‘bout that.”
The fight scene between Qiao Fei and (I can only assume) one of the Father-Killing-Henchmen was a little bit silly. The guy rips of all his clothes and underneath is a whole mess of bandages that come out like tentacles and he uses them to fight with. Was the person supernatural? I have no idea. All I know is that it looked like Qiao Fei was fighting a giant toilet paper monster and I just kept thinking of the evil “Beta Max” from the Mighty Boosh. *Sigh. It was silly.
Qiao Fei and Lan Ting’s private, touching moments were not really that touching. I mean, there was sentiment but when a guy tells you to, “Cry it out” after your father has just been murdered, you do have permission to punch him in the face. In fact, that would have been hilarious. Also, the scene where sexual tension is supposed to be building made me and everyone in the cinema feel uncomfortable. I can’t put my finger on why but it made me feel irksome.
There were a lot of moments where I was confused and scared. For example, in one fight scene there is a little kid playing Spanish guitar. It didn’t… fit. Everybody in the cinema laughed but I was just freaked out. He looked so serious. Apart from plot holes I think some of the moments where I said, “Huh?” were meant as jokes. At least, I really hope so. It is hard to get every joke when you can’t see a character’s face and read their lines at the same time. Also translations do not always convey humour very well. Or maybe it just wasn’t funny. I really liked the style of Slumdog Millionaire’s subtitles as they were more like speech bubbles and you didn’t have to miss visual clues. Please let that style of subtitles catch on. HINT, HINT. Also sometimes Pork Rib talked faster that I could read.
I feel bad for talking so badly about something people have put their creativity into making, so I always try to find at least one good thing about a film. The best scene in the movie was when everyone reaches the secret tomb. The Fungal Blooms were a nice touch and Chiling Lin finally gets to do something cool with her character. Daoming Chen was very good and I liked that his character thought that everyone else was an idiot. He reflected my feelings perfectly. Also the cinematography is quite well done. It’s just the story that stinks.
In conclusion, this story is confusing. I read on IMDB that it is about TIME-TRAVELLING lovers. WHAT!?!?!? I saw no time machine or black hole. Nothing! And people are saying that this movie is making more at the box office than Storm Warriors. I encourage people to avoid this movie but if you think you can make more sense of it than I can, watch it. Then please, please tell me what the heck is going on because analyzing this thing is making me go insane.
Trailer
The Treasure Hunter is cinemas now (Australia). Thanks to CineAsia for the screening.
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is this in english or Chinese?
It was in Mandarin I think.
“Also translations do not always convey humour very well. Or maybe it just wasn’t funny.”
No. It just wasn’t funny. In fact, the movie was a giant steaming turd. Scratch that, giant steaming turds are more interesting.
Started my 2010 so badly!! Such a waste of my time.
Oh my, it was bad.
A hundred horsemen outrun an all-terrain vehicle, while a fat faced guy on the backseat throws dynamite as far as 100 meters from the car. And our hero has a secret button which converts the bike between chopper (00:56 in the trailer) and cross (00:59 to 01:02).