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Hong Kong's Answer to John Constantine, Keeper Of Darkness – Look! It Moves! By Adi Tantimedh

Adi Tantimedh writes,

Keeper of Darkness came out on Hong Kong Blu-Ray and DVD last week, which means that everyone not in Asia who missed its theatrical release late last year can finally see it.

In a year where popular Asian series like Death Note and Ghost in the Shell are getting Hollywood remakes with white actors, it seems turnabout is fair play when you realise that Keeper of Darkness is really a Hong Kong take on John Constantine and Hellblazer

Nick Cheung directs and stars as Master Fatt, a working class freelance exorcist on the streets of Hong Kong who makes the rounds clearing hauntings and when some hapless punter gets possessed. Everyone knows him, but he has few friends, living alone in the flat he grew up in, with his only childhood friend assisting him with clients and trying to use him as a wing man to pick up girls, and a local fowl-mouthed gangster with a heart of gold as his ally. A tabloid reporter sees a video of one of his exorcisms that went viral and enters his world just in time for him to end up on the hit-list of a vengeful ghost that's been wrecking havoc all over town.

I might have been being flippant when I first said this movie looked like a Hong Kong take on John Constantine, but after I saw the movie, it's actually more true than I thought. Ah Fatt has a head of dyed blond hair and walks around in an old raincoat just like Constantine does. He even has his own Chas – his best friend isn't a cab driver, but follows him to help with his exorcisms and finds him clients. The story follows the Hellblazer model: the working class magician mingling with street life and sees ghosts and demons where normal people don't. Most of all, he knows the good ones from the bad ones and fights the latter with aplomb. I don't even know if Nick Cheung or anyone in the production has ever read a Hellblazer comic, since DC and Marvel comics are not readily available or popular in Hong Kong.

It's very Hong Kong, steeped in Chinese folklore and superstition and Taoist ritual, yet it captures the feel of the Hellblazer comics better than the Constantine movie and TV show ever did. There's a gritty whiff of authentic detail in the way it captures life in Hong Kong and finds social metaphors in the supernatural the way the Hellblazer comic did.

Nick Cheung used to star in comedies before Johnnie To began to cast him in his crime dramas and has evolved into a solid, dependable leading man in Hong Kong movies. Keeper of Darkness is the second movie he has directed, and his first, Hungry Ghost Ritual was very much a first effort, rough in places while he was feeling his way as a director. Keeper of Darkness is a more accomplished affair, pacing the movie like an entire Vertigo miniseries where you come to know everything about the main characters completely by the end, the performances full of quirks that make you feel they're fuly-realised character more than in most US movies or TV shows. The fact that the two movies Cheung has directed and starred in have been supernatural thrillers suggests he has an affinity for the horror genre. One of the details that make Ah Fatt feel more like John Constantine than the US TV and movie versions is the way Cheung plays him: totally matter-of-fact as he performs rituals and exorcisms like they were just everyday chores rather than hamming it up like a big, portentous deal. There's also a dry, deadpan sense of humour in Ah Fatt's calm, unflappable gaze even when all hell breaks loose. Ah Fatt and his supporting cast is likable and engaging, and since this was a hit in Hong Kong, hopefully there will be sequels.

The movie also has a layer of social and political commentary that was what used to give the Hellblazer comic its edge but the makers of the Constantine TV show bent over backwards to avoid. It's immersed in Hong Kong working class street life, with Ah Fatt's gangster pal making snarky throwaway comments about local topics and Mainland China's. The movie itself is an act of defiance in Hong Kong's ongoing culture wars with Mainland China – that it's a supernatural thriller automatically means it's officially banned in the Mainland since they prohibit movies that feature ghosts. However, now that the DVD and Blu-Ray are on sale, it means everyone in Mainland China will watch it through piracy, same with Deadpool. It's not the greatest movie in the world, and you may be used to Hollywood's treatment of supernatural thrillers like Supernatural and the Constantine series, but there's a freshness in the Hong Kong perspective here. Chinese and Asian culture tend to take the supernatural much more for granted than in the West, and treat it with the respect that comes from understanding that it's often tied to the fears, anxieties and horrors of Life.

If you're a fan of John Constantine and Hellblazer, you need to see Keeper of Darkness.

Keeper of Darkness is now available on region-free Hong Kong Blu-Ray and DVD.

Always looking in first-person at lookitmoves@gmail.com

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Look! It Moves! © Adisakdi Tantimedh

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