The Lunatics

Chung: Chow Yun-Fat
Tsuen: Paul Chun Pui
Tsui: Stanley Fung Shui-Fan
Tina Lau: Deannie Yip Tak-Han
Doggie: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai

director: Derek Yee

IMDb link: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0090940
other links:
Version reviewed: VCD
Ratings:
nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; VCD Audio: 6 of 10
nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; VCD Video: 5 of 10
nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Subtitles: 4 of 10
nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Story: 6 of 10
nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Performances: 7 of 10
nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; CYF: 8 of 10

This is a very strange film. Part social documentary and part horror movie, it is both a no-holds-barred look at mentally ill streetpeople and their sufferings and a blood-spattering shock fest. Not exactly your usual combination.

Very controversial at the time of its release in 1986, The Lunatics was the directoral debut of Derek Yee, a former Shaw Brothers actor. The film's depiction of insanity and the attitudes of both the social welfare establishment and the general public toward them angered many people, including the union which represents social workers in Hong Kong. There was also criticism that the very title was objectionable and that the film should be banned from theatres; all of the publicity surrounding the controversy only caused the public to become curious, and the film drew in more boxoffice receipts than expected for a film of its kind, enjoying a theatrical run of 20 days that summer (a somewhat lengthy run by Hong Kong standards of the time).

The Lunatics is a story, told "a day in the life" style, of the social worker Tsui (played by Stanley Fung). After 20 years on the job trying to assist the mentally ill homeless and downtrodden in metropolitan Hong Kong, he has reached a stage of bitterness and frustration; his success rate is minimal, and even those few whom he has helped to try and assimilate into modern Chinese society are only on the fringes. The best he seems able to do is assist the few who are willing to accept his help; distributing small articles, intervening in crises and perhaps most important of all offering a sympathetic ear and honest advice is his daily regimen. Sometimes having to literally chase down his clients, he puts himself in harm's way on a regular basis, both from the unstable streetpeople and the filthy and dangerous environments where they manage to cling to a sort of existence.

In his office one day he is told by his boss that Tina Lau (Deannie Yip), a reporter from a major newspaper has requested to go along on his rounds in order to observe and write a series of articles about the state of "the lunatics" living in the streets and back alleys of Hong Kong. At first he strongly objects, on the grounds that it will strip away the years of work it took to gain the trust of his clients, and also because he suspects that the reporter is more interested in exploiting their misery than in actually trying to help them. Being told that he must face the fact that the publicity from such a series of articles will help the agency, which is facing yet more cutbacks in funding, he has no choice but to agree to the intrusion upon his routine.

Warning her of the dangers of his profession, Miss Lau is at first dismissive and does not bother to follow his instructions - both to her detriment and those of Tsui's clients. As Miss Lau slowly comes to realize the depth of the suffering of the people for whom Tsui has been caring for 20 years, she also begins to see just how superficial her own attitudes have been, even though she is an educated and 'enlightened' modern woman. She makes sweeping statements such as "why don't you just hospitalize them?" and then realizes that there are not enough hospitals, not enough funding and not enough compassion to go around. As she witnesses Tsui's battles with the government, uncaring doctors, ignorant townspeople and frightened or callous relatives, she begins to comprehend the problem in terms other than "something should be done", and how that "something" isn't necessarily writing shocked and outraged newspaper articles.

Stanley Fung gives a fine performance as a man, no longer young, who has spent his life trying to help those who do not necessarily appreciate it. There are three other performances in this film which make it worth watching even if the idea of a documentary-cum-horror-movie about the mentally ill doesn't appeal to your tastes: Paul Chun Pui, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Chow Yun-Fat as three of "the lunatics" with whom Miss Lau and Tsui come into contact.

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai plays Doggie, a young man who eeks out a living in a fish market; with the mind of a child, Doggie seeks the love and approval of the adults around him, but becomes belligerent when rebuffed. The scenes of him playing fisticuffs with a Jackie Chan doll manipulated by Tsui are sad and amusing at the same time; the amusement fades as he is driven by taunts into brandishing a meat cleaver, and ends up being driven away in a police van, screaming in fright. Though in this film it is made quite clear that he is guilty of a heinous crime, we are also shown how he is a victim both of fate and neglect. Tony Leung's portrayal comes very close to being over-the-top but never quite topples over, so that we see only the frenetic energy of a man living in his own murky internal world.

Paul Chun Pui, as Tsuen, one of the few "success story" clients of Tsui's career, gives us a man who is tortured both inwardly by his illness and from without by his neighbors and his ex-wife; even his mother, who loves her troublesome middle-aged son, contributes to his eventual downfall by her ignorance and fear of his illness. There are scenes from his descent into insanity which are very disconcerting, but the depiction of a man driven into total madness by grief and despair are horrific. After committing a bloody series of acts, Tsuen comes to his end in the kindergarten of his young son, perhaps never really realizing what it is he has done, and the onlookers certainly unaware that their attitudes toward the mentally ill have contributed to the spectacle.

While a smaller part than that of Paul Chun Pui, Chow Yun-Fat's role as Chung is one which proves again that CYF is more than just a good-looking guy who can hold a gun. As Chung we have a portrait of a kind and gentle soul, a loving father and a man who lives in a twilight of fear and misery. Making his home amongst the unspeakable filth of a neglected city dump, Chung cares for his daughter as would any other father, bringing her toys, playing a kissing game with her and smiling down at her loving face as she lies near death on a pad of refuse. After discovering the girl, Tsui and Miss Lau have her transported to the hospital for treatment; taking Chung with them to answer a few questions Tsui and Miss Lau notice Chung becoming more and more agitated until he is reduced to a state of almost incomprensible nerves, begging them over and over not to arrest him, that "it's not my fault". To their sorrow, they learn just what it is that is not Chung's fault, and the scenes in the darkness where Chung leads them to the answer are harrowing, and not for the easily distressed.

This isn't a great film, but it does have great performances in it, and covers a wide spectrum of emotions. As a documentary, it is a total condemnation of the then-current state of affairs as regards the mentally ill in Hong Kong; as a work of fiction, it does offer a glimmer of hope, but a faint one.





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