My Bodyguard
(2016)
Rating: ******
6/6
Directed by Sammo Hung
Starring Sammo Hung
With: Dean Shek, Yuen Biao
A powerful actor is Sammo Hung.
He can make us laugh or make us cry,
And dazzle us with the stunts he’ll try.
On the ladder of success, he’s on the top rung.
The woman who likes him.
As a director, he is just as great.
Behind the camera he’s a master.
He can slow down the tempo, or speed it up faster.
He can fit many duties onto his plate.
He took a break from directing features,
But he found a story he really liked,
And he asked his friend Jackie Chan to star if he liked,
But he was scheduled to be in another feature.
Tus, Sammo decided to star himself,
As a former security man,
One with honours and a retirement plan,
And with problematic mental health.
He was going senile, I’m afraid.
He memory was going bit by bit,
As if his brain had taken a hit.
Small parts of his life were beginning to fade.
He lived alone in a small little town.
What family he had he was distanced from.
The only thing close were a lady with tongue,
And a child who would visit when she was down.
The woman thought of Sammo as quite the catch,
So she would cook him up some food to eat.
The child had a father who was rather deadbeat
And would gamble his garden patch.
Sammo loved the child and hated her dad,
But the two almost never crossed paths.
One day some villains unleashed their wrath,
In the dead of night, in Sammo’s pad.
The attempted to kidnap the small little girl,
And Sammo beat them hard.
He told them to run very far.
He was the protecting force in her world.
The child’s father owed these guys some money,
And the weak little man said he’d stop,
But he wouldn’t run to the cops.
He would find some way to get money.
Sammo is especially
Protective of the child.
He has not seen his daughter awhile,
Despite his specialty.
A very long time in his past,
He was tasked with watching over
His young little granddaughter,
Who went missing very fast.
He searched and searched, but found not a trace.
They never saw the child again.
His daughter never spoke to him again,
And he lost a whole lot of face.
Though he’s no longer a security man,
He feels his greatest fears
When his little friend disappears,
And he goes on a rampage again.
He seeks out the criminal gang
Who assaulted the girl’s father,
And threatened his daughter,
And slowly shows them his fangs.
Now he gets pretty brutal.
He snows no remorse
(Though he wouldn’t, of course),
And makes each dying man yap like a poodle.
The story’s about a retired man
Who has to go back in the fray,
To ensure the baddies don’t get their way,
And to the audience, he is that man.
He’s old and fat, and doesn’t say much,
But he says a lot more with his silence.
He’ll be cool and calm before dealing with violence.
You’ll see that he hasn’t lost his touch.
You feel that he radiates hidden strength,
And each human being he inspects,
You can see he does so with respect,
All the while summarizing their strengths.
Sammo is outstanding in this role.
Could Jackie have done half as well?
Would his back flips have been the right sell,
Or would his believablilty have fallen into a hole?
I’m giving full stars for this.
The pathos and comedy balance out,
And that’s what the best drama is all about,
So it gets a six out of six.
