Monga (2010)

To me, this movie is perfection.

hyped garbage

Good concept, poorly executed.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Taiwanese actor-turned-director Doze Niu's second feature film, MONGA is a local box-office knockout at the turn of 21st-century's second decade, notably for humbling the juggernaut AVATAR (2009) upon its release (grossed more than $8 millions, it is a humongous number for the itty-bitty island). Niu's film smartly harks back to the indigenous gangster counter-culture in the 1980s which is left with an indelible mark by auteur names like Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, it takes place in the Monga ("Monga" means "little boat" in tribal dialect, it is today's Wanhua, Taipei's oldest district), local gangsters are safeguarding their respective turfs where street vendors, temples, brothels and their patrons are among the hustle and bustle peopled within the mazy, narrow alleys. A 17-year-old Mosquito (Mark Chao in his star-making movie debut) moves to Monga with his single mother (Lin Hsiu-ling), bullied by classmates in the school, he is recruited to the "Gang of Princes" as their fifth member, nominally lead by Dragon (Vaughn), the son of the triad leader Geta (Ma Ju-lung), but the real savvy one is the consigliere Monk (Ethan Ruan), whose devotion to Dragon roundly surpasses the usual purview of scorned brotherhood, and Niu acutely channels the tangible bromance into the narrative but camouflaged as a brotherly friendship, and leaves the signals hither and thither without asserting the obvious. Monk, as his name suggests, is the only one who shuns the brothel, but through his intimate interaction with Dragon, and the benign gestures with Mosquito, we don't need to be spoon-fed to understand what is his deal. Genre tropes start to encroach the gleeful tone when the quintet comes in for the usual hiccups, from a vapid girlfriend squabble, to a vengeful act (with super-glue) goes awry, until the impending annexing bid from a main-lander Grey Wolf (Niu himself, exuding understated menace but doesn't hog the spotlight by dint of his directorial clout), power-usurping is in the pipeline and assassinations begin to pick off the old-guards, which are designed in a cavalier fashion and to some degree distracts viewers from taking its graveness seriously. But a pivotal reveal portents the disintegration of their bond which will be topped off by blood-spilling fratricide, which also flags up Niu's penchant for over-egging the pudding with wordy elaboration albeit the stylish visual artistry (blood morphing into cherry blossom is a nice wrinkle).The central young cast is gratuitously photogenic and Mark Chao comes off as slightly stilted but acquits himself in Mosquito's greenness and the consequential disillusion. But the showstopper without any doubt is Ethan Ruan, who won a coveted BEST LEADING ACTOR trophy in the Golden Horse Awards, which is the most prestigious recognition from pan-Chinese cinema. His endeavor impresses with both physical exertion and copious pathos. In the main, MONGA breezes a bracing air into the teen-gangster genre, which usually entails a veto of a mainland China release due to its unlawful subjects, and subsists its ethnographic mark remarkably.

The world of cinema has had a long and fruitful love affair with the underworld. From crudely un-sleek Tony Montana to Kitano's too cool for school gangsters, our fondness for these rebels who live on the outer ring of rules-following society stem from our own yearning to break free of authoritative constraints. In 'Monga', directed by actor/director Doze Niu, a young man named 'Mosquito' falls in with the wrong company and like us, is drawn into a love affair with all things explicitly illegal. Set in the 80's, there's a feeling of gleeful reminiscence when watching this. Violence and back-stabbings occur like bees drawn to honey-pregnant flowers as with all secret societies but it is all done with such a sentimentalized, romanticized gloss that it came across as refreshing as a glass of lemonade on a scorching day. We feel special mention should be given to Ethan Yuan. He plays 'Monk' with such conviction and heartbreaking vulnerability we felt he anchored the whole movie with his presence. Similarly, its impressive cinematography and direction gets a shout-out too.

So this was the hottest flick in Taiwan after it came out, overthrowing Avatar's reign at the box office. After hearing so much about it, I had to go see it... and it was quite good. I have to honestly say I wasn't really expecting too much based on Taiwanese films I'd seen before (disclaimer: I actually haven't seen very much), but this one is very well made, has a great story, and the actors are pretty hot... Takeshi Kaneshiro, watch out!In short, it's about a place called Monga, which I have learned was a port where many mainlanders entered Taiwan from back in the day. In this film, the story takes place in the '70s and '80s and is about a group of friends, part of the Temple Front gang. The narrator of the story, Mosquito (Mark Chao), is invited to be a part of the gang after a silly fight with members of another gang, the Back Alley. Mosquito has grown up without a father and has never had any real friends, so after Monk (Ethan Ruan) and the others take him under their wing, he fully embraces the new lifestyle and there's no turning back. The story has a number of heart-wrenching twists and while it is a drama, there's also a lot of humor which I loved. In the end, it all comes down to the characters trying to balance the harsh realities of a violent gangster life with the honor of friendship and brotherhood.I have no idea when the film will be hitting the U.S., but it has a promising future as it's totally something fresh out of the Taiwanese film industry. As they would say in Taiwan, this film is 紅 ("hong") or red... meaning it's hot!Overall thoughts: Strong acting, engaging story, and a good film to watch with a group of friends!

After the stunning "What On Earth Have I Done Wrong?," the second film by the persistent director/actor Niu Cheng-Ze(aka Doze Niu) has finally been released under expectations. Besides the attractions of the new generation actors/idols Juan Ching-Tien and Zhao You-Ting(aka Mark Zhao), everyone was also expecting, if this will be better than "Cape No. 7," the Taiwanese box office miracle back in 2008. From the first day box office record, it was helped by the success of "Cape." As for the film itself, it's so much better than "Cape." The story begins from a non-Minnanese teenager, who was raised in a single parent family and had no friends, faced the embrace of the "Prince Gang," an inheritor of a major local gang, he of course couldn't resist the eagerness of getting recognized. But the best of youth also came to the inevitable testament of humanity.Before I saw the film, I couldn't help wondering, if this will have the shadow of "I Vitelloni" by Fellini, or the look of "Goodfellas" by Fellini's follower Scorsese, or even the glamour of "City of God," by the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles. When it comes to the violent scenes, the way Niu used the slow motions and soft instrumental score reminds me of Scorsese's romantic sentiment. I could also tell he was trying to avoid any too artistic presentation. With the outstanding editing, it was very intense with the length of 140min. It inherited the deep observation of Taiwanese gangsters by Hou Hsiou-Hsien and Chang Tso-Chi but also gives it a new look for the audience to get close to more easily.Though it's not perfect, the plot came out of Niu's thinking direction makes it more reasonable than any other new Taiwanese films. The desire for friendships of the accepted boy, Mosquito, led him to be the most loyal member in the gang. He was too innocent to see the fragility of humanity. Monk, who was considered the smartest one, could only be trapped in a fate of religious superstitions. His value of loyalty, due to one single false judgment and the raised anger of vengeance, has been pushed to the edge of his reason with the paradox in his heart. To decrease the strong masculine of a gangster piece, Niu added the young prostitute who made Mosquito know what love is. This blended a sense of tenderness into the film smartly.Comparing to saying it has the romanticism of "Goodfellas," it's in fact closer to the tragedy of the conflict between idealism and realism we see in "Infernal Affairs" and the remake "The Departed." It's not told from a first person, unlike most Scorsese works, but from the upgraded multiple point of views such as "The Departed." More strictly defined, Mosquito and Monk, like Tony Leung and Andy Lau, DiCaprio and Damon, are the two narrators of the story. But shamefully, the characters lack of the quality of more vivid or heartfelt which they could've been, despite of the enough backgrounds and motivations and the natural twists and truths. While being so, it's still a film that represents the period and culture in Taiwan truthfully. It is unique and has the unique feeling that only Taiwanese audience can connect to.Sandee Chan's music leads the atmosphere successfully. It even has a slight epic feeling of "The Godfather" and a slight sharpness of "City of God." With also the quality guaranteed sound processing by the national treasure Tu Du-Che, the performance of sound in the film really reached an international standard. Niu selected a hit at the time "Making Love Out of Nothing At All" by Air Supply especially to describe the time Mosquito and the young prostitute spent together. It also added up a bit of cute and retro cheesiness. The big space for the two leading actors to interpret also made them the promising candidates for the year-end's Golden Horse Awards. This film can also be seen as the unity of Taiwanese filmmakers, such as an award-winning actor from "Cape No. 7," the producer of "Orz Boyz" and even the director of "Winds of September" who joined as an assistant director with his crew. It all shows another Taiwanese Cinema New Wave has officially been set off.