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Heavenly Kings" is a mockumentary which blurs
the line between fact and fiction, following a
Hong Kong
boy band called 'Alive', who may or may not have
been created solely with the intention of poking
fun at the music business. The result is a sharp
and at times hilarious expose not only of the
cantopop industry, but of fame and the narcissism
of celebrities in general.
The film begins with the
formation of the band back in 2005 by actor Daniel
Wu, along with fellow thespian friends Terence
Yin, Andrew Lin, and Conroy Chan, apparently
"to have some fun and make some music
together". However, after failing to land a
satisfactory record contract, possibly due to a
glaring lack of talent, the boys hatch a plan to
create an internet downloading scandal and use the
resulting publicity to launch the band properly.
Although this works wonderfully, the fact remains
that apart from Andrew, none of them can sing, and
as a woefully incompetent stage show reveals, they
still have a great deal to learn about surviving
in the image-obsessed industry.
Whatever the motivations
behind the formation of 'Alive', "The
Heavenly Kings", directed by Wu himself, is
very clever, skilfully weaving an apparently
fictitious narrative around actual footage of
events and mixing in interviews with real popstars
(including the likes of Miriam Yeung, Jackie
Cheung and Nicholas Tse) and producers as well as
with the band members themselves. The film is well
constructed, making for a good mixture of comical
satire and genuine commentary on the industry, and
although not particularly revelatory, it does
cover some interesting ground. It certainly helps
that with a running time of less than an hour and
a half the film does not outstay its welcome, and
Wu keeps things moving at a good pace. As such the
band's development plays out quite naturally and
none of the film's critical elements feel forced
or repetitious.
Although a mockumentary, the
film is actually very believable, and aside from a
few obvious gag scenes, on the whole it is quite
difficult to tell when the band members are acting
or simply being themselves. In this way, "The
Heavenly Kings" is certainly quite a brave
film, with all four actors allowing their many
faults to be explored on camera, some of which
cross into fairly personal territory, such as
Yin's frequent flatulence. Wu underlines this
through some crazy animated inserts which work
well both to reflect the band member's inner
turmoil and to help liven up the film. As a
result, the four end up being quite endearing, in
an incompetent sort of way, especially Chan, who
proudly announces that he is the fattest guy ever
to be in a boy band.
All commentary and wry satire
aside, "The Heavenly Kings" is genuinely
hilarious, in a straight faced, "Spinal
Tap" type of way, with the laughs divided
equally between the lameness of the band and the
insanity of the industry. One scene in particular
is a real side splitter, which sees the boys being
kitted out in increasingly flamboyant 'Village
People' style outfits, to their obvious discomfort
and shame. Strangely, the film has a category III
rating, although it is not particularly offensive
aside from some foul language, and the laughs
never veer into bad taste or shock tactics.
Perhaps more than anything
the film deserves praise not only for daring to
criticise and lampoon the music industry, and both
themselves and other celebrity actor/singers, but
simply for offering an alternative to the usual
low-brow
Hong Kong
comedies. Working well on many different levels,
the film is entertaining and interesting, and
deserves to reach a wider audience than it sadly
probably will, as the points which Wu makes can
certainly be applied to the music industry and
celebrities of any country in the world.
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