The Owl vs. Bumbo (1984)

Director: Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
Writer: Lai Ling Cheung
Stars: Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, George Lam, Deannie Ip and Michelle Khan

Index: The First Thirty.

Everyone has to begin somewhere and Yeoh Choo Kheng began by becoming Miss Malaysia in 1983. She was born in Malaysia, to a senator and his wife, so grew up speaking English but only understood a little Malaysian Cantonese. So, when she was offered a TV commercial for Guy Laroche watches with Sing Long on a call in Cantonese, she had no idea who that was. That commercial led to this picture and four decades later she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, breaking a lot of glass ceilings in the process.

Of course, if you’re reading this zine, you’ll know Yeoh Choo Kheng as Michelle Yeoh and may well know that Sing Long is Jackie Chan. He isn’t in this film but it was directed by and stars Sammo Hung, who grew up with Chan in the Seven Little Fortunes group at the Chinese Drama Academy in Kowloon, so there’s a clear connection there. He’d also appear in Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars, her second film.

Sammo plays Bombo from the title, who’s a thief. This picture begins with his final job, to rob a bank, for which he’s well armed indeed, with a crazy amount of ammo, grenades and a bunch of explosives, lots of which turn out to be fake, as we discover when he strafes a fish tank with a machine gun and nothing breaks.

Then we move to the Owl, played by George Lam. He’s another thief, also perpetrating his last job, in which he and his crew steal a lot of money from a gangster called Au Gung with a very clever sting operation.

Both get away with their respective loot. On the other side of the law, Sgt. Fung, played by Stanley Fung, is committed to taking down Au Gung, but he’s frustrated by his boss, Insp. Liu, who’s secretly on the gangster’s payroll. So he quits and that’s it for our setup, so we can skip ahead three years to find Bombo has become a yoga instructor, the Owl is now happy playing polo and ex-Sgt. Fung has a plan.

Initially, it feels like his plan is to set up the Owl vs. Bumbo conflict suggested in the film’s title. He’s figured out what they did and, while they initially believe that they’re blackmailing each other, he’s actually blackmailing both of them, into helping Joyce Leung at the juvenile detention center she runs. Their two choices are to do voluntary work or go to jail.

Of course, before they’re let in on this, the Owl and Bumbo go at it in the hotel room Fung has invited them to and they go at it again in Joyce’s office, after they independently break in to figure out what’s happening. They fight outside and there’s a chase scene with stunts and, goddamn, I love Hong Kong cinema from this era. These actors and these stuntmen are very capable indeed, but, wow, this looks like it hurts a great deal.

So where’s Michelle Yeoh, you might ask. It is her first film, so she doesn’t have a big part, but it’s a speaking role with some substance. It also arrives when the Owl and Bumbo show up at the juvenile detention center, because she’s the teacher failing to maintain order over the class of unfortunates Joyce introduces them to as career advisors. She’s Miss Yeung.

If you think you can see where this is going, you may be right, but likely only if you have a background in Hong Kong cinema. What they do in their films isn’t much like what western filmmakers do in theirs. Most obviously, they combine genres for fun and they shift tone on a dime, which can be a little jarring for anyone not used to it.

This film starts out as an action comedy. It’s about thieves robbing banks and pulling heists but there’s a comedic undercurrent to all of it.

Bumbo’s happy to fake shoot up the bank to a blaxploitation movie soundtrack, then show a bunch of older women outrageous moves in his yoga studio. There’s an entire scene of him chasing a cherry around a restaurant with his spoon. It’s hilarious but it’s not Hollywood. On the Owl’s side, he masquerades his heist as a fake police raid, which is priceless, and plays polo to a cowboy soundtrack.

The fights are harder hitting than anything in eighties Hollywood, but there’s slapstick in them and everything’s a misunderstanding for comedic effect. I tend to find that Hong Kong comedy is hit and miss for me, because some of it’s absolutely hilarious but some of it seems juvenile in the extreme. It’s decent here.

However, in the classroom, things suddenly get serious. Almost out of nowhere, there’s an impeccable speech from Bonnie Leung, one of the students, verbally eviscerating her teacher for being what she sees as a rich woman who has no understanding of the problems she and her peers have gone through. She leaves Miss Yeung in tears. The tone is utterly changed, a lot of serious growth to come for the students before they get to join in on the action finalé on BMX bikes armed with baseball bats. If you wondered what Sister Act was missing, it’s got to be that.

In the meantime, Bumbo fights most of the class then performs a dance number for Joyce Leung, complete with a comedy routine and a tap sequence. This movie has everything.

Bear in mind that Sammo Hung doesn’t look like your typical martial arts star, being short and squat and rather heavy. I’ve read reports that he was 220 lbs at only 5’7”, which means that he’s both shorter and heavier than I am, but I’m far too out of shape to do anything he does. He played into his size often in his roles, including playing the title role in Enter the Fat Dragon, a film he also directed. I’ve seen a lot of Sammo Hung movies and he never ceases to amaze me with his agility and skill.

I haven’t seen as much of George Lam, who was nominated only a year earlier for a Hong Kong Film Award as Best Actor for playing the lead in Ann Hui’s Boat People, but he’s arguably best known as a Cantopop singer. Joyce Leung is Deanie Ip, another singer who won and was nominated for many awards before the movie usually seen as her masterpiece, another Ann Hui film, A Simple Life in 2011, which won her almost everything at the age of 64.

Then there’s the debutante, Michelle Yeoh, who was credited as Michelle Khan this early in her career. She doesn’t get a huge amount of screen time, but she uses it well. She’s very young but still just about recognisable to fans of her later work. It’s her students who get the most dramatic moments, not only Season Ma as Bonnie Leung but Ronald Wong too as Chan Chi-ming. However, she’s there and she helps the scenes happen, her tears highly effective. It’s far from her best role, but it was a start.