The Drummer - 戰鼓

The Drummer (戰鼓) is a 2007 film out of Hong Kong. The movie stars Jaycee Chan, Tony Leung, Angelica Lee, and Roy Cheung. Eugenia Yuan makes a brief cameo.

Jaycee Chan plays Sid, the son of one of the toughest triad bosses in Hong Kong. That tough triad boss is Tony Leung as Kwan. Sid starts up a relationship with a mistress of a triad boss higher up than Kwan, Stephen Ma. Ma catches Sid and his Mistress Carmen. Sid confronts Ma and insults him in front of his men. From that point on, Ma wants Sid dead. Kwan steps in and sends Sid to Taiwan to hide out while he takes care of the situation in Hong Kong with Ma. While in Taiwan, Sid has to settle into a boring life and laying low and not causing trouble. Sid is awoken daily by the sound of drums every morning. Sid was a drummer in a band back in Hong Kong and is interested in finding out where this sound comes from. Sid works his way into the group. As its most junior member, he'll have to learn the virtues of being a drummer. Sid befriends Angelica Lee as Hong Dou and tries to impress her. Along the way, the events in Hong Kong eventually get worst for Kwan as he ends up in jail. Will Sid be able to find the virtues of drumming? Will he be able to get back to Hong Kong?

The movie was beyond my expectations. It took the Hong Kong triad movie style and applies it to the slow pace of a "coming of age" story. Character development of the primary protagonist Sid is explored to its fullest at the expense of of the people around him. The pacing of the movie was herky jerky, but it worked for me. At times, the mood who be intense, than move to a somber moment. The mood shift would normally be too abrupt for me. But it worked me in this film. Fast to slow, slow to fast, over and over again.

The drumming group featured in this film is the famed U-Theatre (優人神鼓) drumming group based out of Taiwan. Other than Angelica Lee and Jaycee Chan, the rest of the troupe are real members. I would like to see U-Theatre one of these days. If I ever find out they are coming to Los Angeles, my wife and I will try to make time to go see their show.

I got the movie off Netflix and their was only 1 language track with English subtitles available. The scenes in Hong Kong were in Cantonese and the scenes in Taiwan were in Mandarin. Normally, I'd like to watch the completely Mandarin dubbed version so I don't have to read subtitles. But this version wasn't bad and it was a change of pace to hear their real voices. The "making of" was long and gave an in-depth look at the movie that was excellent.