David Loman (2013)
David Loman, a simple country bumpkin who accidentally becomes a big boss in the criminal underworld. A decade passes, and life seems to go on as usual - solving daily problems for locals and receiving "protection fees" - until one day a deity tells David through a medium that he needs to find a double to avoid a catastrophe. Panicky, the boss seeks help from Old Ho, who agrees to pass as David for a few days, but is assassinated when attending a gathering with fellow gangsters.
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It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
David Loman ("Huge Badass" in Taiwanese!) is a hilarious comedy that never tries to take itself too seriously, but in order to enjoy much of the humor, it helps to have an understanding of East Asia's love for playing with word pronunciations. In East Asian languages, many words are spoken the same or similar way (it could be the same "spelling" but with a different tone). Taiwan commonly use Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese, and the play on pronunciations expands even further by mixing the 2 dialects.The movie is a story of a man (played by Gou-liang Chu) who moved to the city with his daughter for a better future but ended up becoming the head gangster and ruining his relationship with his daughter (Hsiao Chin, played by Amber Kuo), and Xiao Ho (played by Tony Yo-ning Yang), who is young and dreams to be a superhero. After a murder occurs, David Loman and Xiao Ho end up working together for the same goal. The movie does not try to parody Kick-Ass's plot but rather just borrows some ideas from Kick-Ass.I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and although I think the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more (especially Xiao Ho who doesn't seem too affected by the murder), I understand that this is a comedy, not a drama.