BEACH SPIKE DVD (热浪球爱战) (2011)
SYNOPSIS: Paradise Cove, filled with bikini girls, is Sharon (Chrissie Chau) and Rachel’s (Theresa Fu) homeland. The owner of Paradise Cove, Mrs. Brewer, is planning to demolish the beach and convert it into a holiday resort. All the beach inhabitants hold a strong protest against the demolishment. Sharon and Rachel challenge Mrs. Brewer’s children, Natalie (Jessica C), Natasha (Hannah Nicole Chou) and Tim (Law Chung Him) for a beach volleyball match. This led to the first encounter of Tim and Sharon. If Sharon and Rachel beat the Brewer family and win the Hong Kong Beach Volleyball Tournament, Mrs. Brewer will then keep her promise to cancel the resort planning. To improve their volleyball skills, Uncle and Auntie Dao teach Sharon and Rachel to incorporate martial arts into the Volleyball game. Sharon and Rachel’s team wins all the matches and enters the Final, where they will be challenging Natalie and Natasha. However, just before the Final, Sharon injures herself. As Sharon is badly injured, can they win the tournament and save Paradise Cove?
MOVIE REVIEW:
Let’s begin by listing the reasons why you should catch this movie, each of which are incidentally on the cover of this DVD:
1. Hong Kong model turned actress Chrissie Chau plays the lead- she who has become something of a social phenomenon in the territory after a head-turning advertisement where she rips off her office wear in the middle of the bustling central business district to reveal a bikini underneath. And guess what? You get to ogle at her in her swimwear from literally every conceivable angle in this movie.
2. Pan-Asian svelte beauty Jessica C- another one of the hottest new stars in Hong Kong, who’s made a reputation being Wacoal’s top lingerie model.
3. Another model-turned-actress Him Law- for those who avidly follow Hong Kong celebrity gossip, you’d know he was at the centre of a recent photo scandal involving openly gay businessman Lau Ding Sing, who is under investigation for photographing several male celebrities in various states of undress.
As you may have guessed by now, there is but one selling point to director Tony Tang’s ball-sy movie- that of seeing two of the hottest young babes in Hong Kong in their bikinis and just about the hottest young dude in Hong Kong without his top. It’s basically an unassailable offer- how can you resist the opportunity to see so many pieces of eye candy at the same time, and even better to see a potential catfight between Chrissie and Jessica?
Yes, Tang (who co-wrote the script with Leung Mong-Fung and Chan Pak-Nin) shrewdly sets these two beautiful ladies up against each other, with Chrissie playing the heroine defending her seaside village and beloved beach Pui Long Bay from a family of wealthy landlords (with Jessica C in tow) seeking to redevelop the land. Ultimately, it all comes down to a fierce match between the two down-to-earth local girls- Sharon (Chrissie) and Rachel (Theresa Fu)- and the two haughty landlord’s daughters- Natalie (Jessica C) and Natasha (Phoenix Valen).
As is typical with any sports movie, the leadup to that climactic fight is of course their tough training, led by a bickering husband and wife couple (Lo Meng and Sharon Yeung) who also happen to be kungfu masters. Ah yes, clearly inspired by Stephen Chow’s ‘Shaolin Soccer’, both Sharon and Rachel train in the art of kungfu to toughen their stamina for the game- while getting some opportunities to showcase their limited moves alongside veterans Lo and Yeung when Natasha leads a bunch of baddies to wreck their village restaurant.
For good measure, there’s also a bit of romance thrown in between Sharon and Natalie’s brother Tim (Him Law), which of course unsettles the locals at first but unravels the two sisters Natalie and Natascha. Unfortunately, Tang isn’t good enough a director to juggle so many disparate elements, and the end result is a movie that truly looks like it was stitched together from so many other better ones. Tang’s ineptness is glaring- and one notable example is the clumsy way he engineers Tim and Sharon’s first meeting by having the former save the latter after she develops cramps while swimming in the deep sea following an intense game of volleyball.
If the storytelling and direction are both dreadful, the volleyball scenes are no better. Except for the final game, there’s little attempt at any form of buildup for the rest, with Tang conveniently alternating between shots of bum, cleavage, girls diving into the sand and perhaps most amusingly girls getting smacked in the face in slo-mo. And apologies to Chrissie- she may have spent three months learning the sport just for the movie, but the terrible editing just doesn’t do any of her effort justice.
Of course, the fact that Chrissie plays her own volleyball in the movie is just a bonus- after all, the chief purpose of this movie is to ogle at her, and the cinematography of the movie fulfils just that. Ditto for Jessica and Him, both of whom were certainly cast for their looks more than for their acting (or the lack thereof). To be fair, they rarely embarrass themselves, so that’s about as much as you can ask for. As a skin flick, ‘Beach Spike’ achieves what it is meant to do, so don’t hesitate to take it at (err…) surface value.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
In addition to two teasers and two trailers from the movie, the highlight of the extras is undoubtedly the nine mini featurettes that make up the behind-the-scenes look at the movie. The first few featurettes cover the volleyball training that both the main actresses- Chrissie and Theresa- as well as the supporting actresses- Jessica C and Phoenix- went through. There's also a brief look at the kungfu and lion dance training sessions Chrissie and Theresa had. Again, check this out if you're a fan of Chrissie for more spontaneous shots of her bubbly personality.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 delivers a surprisingly strong bass during the volleyball scenes, but otherwise uses the back speakers primarily for ambient sounds. Visuals are clear and sharp, with colours dynamic and vibrant- pity though the picture isn’t presented in a high enough resolution to fit your entire 1080p widescreen.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Gabriel Chong
