Concerto Of The Bully 大樂師．為愛配樂 (2018) - Hong Kong
Reviewed by Andrew Chan (FCCA)
Music connects to a wider audience and its power can go beyond boundaries of humanity, touches soul, dream on and continue to evolve in the minds of generations after another. That’s the beauty of Concerto of the Bully which disguise itself as an kidnapping film that is essentially about the beauty and power of music to connect the two main leads played by the surprisingly wonderful Ronald Cheng and raw talent of Cherry Ngan.
Ronald Cheng puts in a wondrous shift of a performance that makes him best actor worthy. We all know that Cheng is a talent singer in real life, but it is his grounded nature and pure love for music that truly connects with the audience. Together with the excellent comic timing and chemistry pairing with Cherry Ngan, the duo simply makes the screen time breezes by like the wind and the sea.
Some commentary may say the story is unbelievable, but it is precisely why the film works so well as it oozes into fantasy and the dream-like world of music. Director Fung Chih-chiang should be complimented in brining the story to life, aided by the use of water boat house as the setting for most of the key interactions. This is a reason for Hong Kong cinema to continue to prosper and hopefully like the music, the connection goes on and on.
I rated it 8/10
