House of The Rising Sons at 2018 New York Asian Film Festival / NYAFF
July 6th, 2018 by Mr. C
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Director: Antony Chan
Cast: Carlos Chan, Jonathan Wong, Tan, Eugene Tang, Lam Yiu-sing, Him Ng, Simon Yam, Kara Wai
Language: Cantonese with English subtitles
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House of the Rising Sons was a fun biopic film of Hong Kong’s own rising son of cantopop fame known as The Wynners or should we say formerly known as the Loosers! I grew up in a household of 3 older sisters who were mostly raised in Hong Kong in the 60s & 70s before I came to existence in NYC and they were big Wynners fans! I can still remember my sisters jamming out to Wynners Tunes on vinyl, 8 track cassette in their Ford Thunderbird, and then eventually the cassette tape in in their Chrysler Cordoba. I was never a big fan of the Wynners and actually thought it was quite embarrassing hearing cantonese pop music being blasted in our car. Later on in my teens I ate my words as I came to be a pretty big fan of Alan Tam, one of the lead vocalists of The Wynners.
(Antony Chan on the drums at NYAFF!)
But before I digress, House of The Rising Sons made its world premier screening at the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival with director and drummer of the Wynners, Antony Chan who was on-hand for a Q/A and a quick drum solo to warm up the crowd before the showing of the movie! There was also a live performance from Wynners tribute band – Wyn Wyn Magic who re-winded us back to trippy 70’s visuals and sounds of the Wynners from Hong Kong!
(Wyn Wyn Magic – Wynners tribute band at NYAFF)
(Wyn Wyn Magic with some Wynners Tunes at NYAFF)
I thought House of the Rising Sons was a lightweight and enjoyable flashback flick to the origins of the Wynners. It didn’t really get too in-depth to the bands drum and heartbeat nor did it entail the trials and tribulations of the inner workings of the group while growing up in a struggling society. the film just gave enough background to make the new listener, new fan wanting to know a little bit more of the Wynners. This was not intended to be an all inclusive film about a band that has been together for 40+ years. It was interesting to see how the story was shot & told from a person with first hand knowledge being an actual member of the band! Through the q/a though, director Antony Chan did acknowledge that the end product was based a little on the commercial aspect of the business as getting investors for the film proved to be a challenging hurdle. It sounded like the director had to walk a fine line between being true to the arts (film & music) and taking care of business.
The film proved to be a brief but highly dramatized biography of this fab 5 (or really the fab 2?) who began to form a mold for the cantopop future to come! I especially enjoyed the conflicts among the parents who were against their kids choosing music over a viable blue collar profession such as selling BBQ meats. I thought the film captured a great snapshot and day in the life of Hong Kong in the 1970s with attitudes and attire to match! The story did seem to be rushed a bit from a band that was separated indefinitely in its early years to then reconciling after 5 years or so to do reunion shows even up till these present times! The cast who played the roles of the Wynners seemed to all gel together on-screen really well and had pretty good working knowledge & passion in music if not being a little bit green on the acting side of things. Actual live footage of the Wynners were sprinkled towards the end of the film to give you a good visual of how everyone matured! In the end, two members of the band in particular Alan Tam and Kenny Bee were very influential in Hong Kong pop music and in the acting realm but the House of The Rising Sons biopic put the other 3 members of the band including a very geeky but spunky drummer on the map!
Tags: 2018 nyaff, alan tam, antony chan, hong kong cinema, kenny bee, new york asian film festival, wynners
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)
