Gallants (打擂台) is a 2010 film out of Hong Kong. The movie is a homage of sorts to the kung fu flicks of yesteryear. The old skool cast include Siu-Lung Leung (Leung Siu Lung aka Bruce Leung) as Tiger, Kuan Tai Chen (Chan Koon Tai) as Dragon, Teddy Robin Kwan, and Shaw Yin Yin (Susan Shaw). The new skool cast includes Wong You Nam, JJ Jia, and MC Jin.
Wong You Nam as Cheung is a office drone that's sent out to the outskirts of HK to collect on a property. When he get there, he's picked on by local gangsters and runs for help to a local tea house. There, 2 kung fu masters are in disguise, Bruce Leung as Tiger, and Chan Koon Tai as Dragon. They take in Cheung. JJ Jia plays Kwai, an orphan girl taken in by Tiger and Dragon. Cheung and JJ form an uneasy relationship. Mc Jin as Mang is a local land developers son. The put on a tournament and try to take over the land the tea house current stands on. Tiger and Dragon have also been waiting for their master to awaken from his slumper of 30 years.
The movie was a homage to the old skool and a shout out to some of the current new skool stuff. In general, the movie was quite entertaining and I was hoping for more JJ screen time. I don't know if I bought into the hype and expected it to blow me away, but I was greatly underwhelmed. The movie was very very long and the storyline with Robin Teddy was annoying. Very annoying. And that storyline was roughly half the film. If I knew who Robin was and his impact, maybe I would look at it differently. But I don't know who Robin Teddy is.
If it weren't for JJ, I can't really recommend this film.
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