Running on Karma (2003) 大隻佬 Daai Zek Lou

Johnny To Kei-fung (Dir.),
Cheng Siu-keung (Cinematography)
Wai Ka-fai (Script, Prod.)
Andy Lau, Cecilia Cheung

I have looked forward to watching this film for quite some time. I read the reviews on Amazon.de, there were some pretty bad ones and they made me very curious because they were either enthusiastic or totally devastating.
Then last week I bought it, finally, and had to wait several days before I was able to sit down and have what turned out a VERY entertaining evening with this wonderful piece of Hong Kong cinematic art!
The film depends on three things. Its two main actors and the skill of its director, Johnny To. A Jack-of-all-trades in Hong Kong Cinema, Johnny To Kei-fung has been directing movies since 1980 and has contributed to almost any genre imaginable, with great success. One of the great old men of Hong Kong movies...
In this movie, DAAI ZEK LOU, which translates as 'The Big Guy', he cooks up a crazy mixture of several genres from comedy, police procedural, supernatural thriller with a dash of martial arts epic and tragic romance. It goes to To's credit to keep the movie always straight on its track and carry the viewer from smiling and laughing out loud to wonderment and holding
one's breath, through sadness to a satisfying end, though with a tear in one's eye. It was like watching a movie of 20 years earlier, those incredible Hong Kong New Wave films of the 80's breathless from start to finish, my mind reeling from all the action, plot twists and mind-boggling concepts crammed into 90 minutes of film. I've yet to see a movie by Johnnie To that disappoints!
 

Credit goes also to the incredible cast.  Andy Lau's character, Big, so dominates the film that a less able actor would surely become boring, but I couldn't get bored by Andy who portrays this mountain of a monk with such skill and nuance, you never get tired watching him. The muscle suit he wears is really quite impressive and comes off as very realistic. Cecilia Cheung is also very believeable in her portrayal and has some heartwrenching scenes and of course it doesn't turn out the way the viewer expects. I liked how, when she fell in love with this impossible guy, she showed a very vulnerable side of her character. But of course destiny is cruel and karmic debts have to be paid...



What I liked about this movie is how it starts as a supernatural thriller and then turns into what is essentially a Superhero origin story, which then goes off in a completely unexpected direction. Big is a fledgling hero with the ability to see other people's karma, he has incredible fighting skills and strength, as well as an impressive physique AND is a trained buddhist. The first half of the film deals with his becoming a hero, up to the moment when he realizes he can't save the people from playing out the karmic debts from their previous lives, and is indeed preventing Cecilia's character from freeing herself from the circle of rebirth when he saves her life several times. That's when the spiritual half of the film starts. This is heavy stuff for western minds, but let it be said that, like any hero on a journey, Big meets his greatest fear- loss, for the second time- and has to confront himself in a what-might-have-been-if-version of himself. As soon as he realizes it's his own Buddha-nature he is confronting, he reaches enlightenment. He doesn't need to be the hero any longer and goes off to search for his enemy, not to seek retribution but to embrace him. He has broken his own karmic cycle.
A beautiful, very wondrous movie!