Incomprehensible Rose Noir comedy. The '90s parodies weren't that hot either, but this one is far worse. Two morons (the Twins)get drafted by a moronic ex-superheroine (Rose noir, Teresa Mo) to succeed her, and a moronic taxi driver (Ekin Cheng) tags along for the ride. They go up against a - can you guess? - moronic all-girl gang led by the daughter of Rose Noir, Miss LavenCam. Donnie Yen is co-director and probably mostly responsible for the action. Which isn't that hot, except for a short bit in which the Twins copy Jackie Chan's training sequences from Snake in Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master, and the fighting performed by a lethal schoolgirl played by Chris Yen, Donnie's sister. She's awesome, and looks good to boot. Let's hope she gets more and better chances than this! For the rest, Ekin being less boring than usual, but in a fairly thankless role, the Twins being not very funny and overly cute to no effect, and a few funny moments. But far too much duds, no storyline to speak of and no real classic moments.
6 Reviews
Odd movie...
paul_haakonsen23 December 2015
Hand on heart, then this movie is not the brightest moment in Donnie Yen's directorial history, nor in the history of the Hong Kong cinema. That being said, it should also be said that to fully appreciate "Protégé De La Rose Noire" (ake "Gin chap hak mooi gwai") you have got to have an understanding of Hong Kong cinema and the rather out there weird comedy that they incorporate.
I do enjoy Hong Kong cinema, but even I found "Protégé De La Rose Noire" to be a bit too out there at most times. It wasn't the type of comedy that really made me laugh or really sit well with my taste.
What made the movie worth watching was the impressive cast list. And if you are familiar with Hong Kong cinema, then you should be nodding in approval to the cast list. And the segment with Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung were acting out classic Jackie Chan scenes from some of his most prominent movies was really good and entertaining.
A lot of things throughout the movie just wasn't making all that much sense and just dangerously close to just being too bizarre.
This movie will appeal mostly to die-hard fans of anyone on the cast list. Other than that it is hard to find any reason to recommend this movie to anyone.
I do enjoy Hong Kong cinema, but even I found "Protégé De La Rose Noire" to be a bit too out there at most times. It wasn't the type of comedy that really made me laugh or really sit well with my taste.
What made the movie worth watching was the impressive cast list. And if you are familiar with Hong Kong cinema, then you should be nodding in approval to the cast list. And the segment with Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung were acting out classic Jackie Chan scenes from some of his most prominent movies was really good and entertaining.
A lot of things throughout the movie just wasn't making all that much sense and just dangerously close to just being too bizarre.
This movie will appeal mostly to die-hard fans of anyone on the cast list. Other than that it is hard to find any reason to recommend this movie to anyone.
The tricky capsule! Yes, so tricky!
cjlines26 April 2004
"Gin chap hak mooi gwai" (or "The Proteges of the Black Rose") is the latest directorial offering from Donnie Yen, who's probably best known this side of the world for being the fight choreographer on "Blade 2" and the likes. It's his take on the popular Rose Noir superhero myth. Here, Rose (played by HK comedienne Teresa Mo) is presented as an aging, delusional hasbeen with a split personality and a pathological hatred of men. She lives in a huge gothic mansion accompanied only by a robot called Jacket who has been programmed to castrate men on sight, using a huge pair of shears it has strapped to its front.
The plot begins with Rose, in a rare moment of lucidity, realising that she's over-the-hill for a superheroine and deciding she needs a protege to carry on this line of work for her.
Enter ubercute Cantonese pop duo The Twins (Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi, whom this film is basically a star vehicle for). Gillian plays Gill, a gifted and intense psychology student prone to violent episodes and random outbursts of kung-fu if anyone ever dares use her last name while talking to her. Charlene is Sandy, a perky young thing who believes herself to be an alien from a planet where everyone looks like the Teletubbies. She lives in and out of single Mum shelters, even though she has no children, claiming that on her planet everyone is called Mum...
Both girls lose their homes on the same day and meet each other by chance while flathunting. As they skip down the street and decide they're going to be great friends, they come across Rose's "Protege Wanted" ad and decide to visit the gothic mansion to apply for the job. After setting them a couple of traps, which the girls somehow find their way out of, Rose decides they are worthy successors and begins a vigourous training course that includes lots of costume changes, a gratuitous bubble bath, some amazingly weird magic pills and potions (including the Tricky Capsule (easily the funniest scene in the film!)) and a lengthy, side-splitting pastiche of Jackie Chan in "Drunken Master".
Add to this mix an accident-prone taxi driver called Jim Lo (Ekin Cheung - playing his now customary hapless goofball) who falls in love with Sandy, then top it all off with a supervillain called Miss LavenCam who is terrorising the city with the help of a rogue fashion model and a schoolgirl with mean kung-fu skills, and you've got yourself a recipe for... ...well, one complete mess, to be honest! But it's such a colourful, wildly ridiculous mess that I couldn't help but enjoy it. The production values are surprisingly good, with some wacky over-the-top set/costume designs, sharply directed fight choreography and lively camerawork throughout. I can't really fault the film for trying but I'd warn anyone considering watching it that they need a very high Nonsense Tolerance if they want to make it through the whole thing. Please don't expect it to actually make sense by the end. Also, I should mention to tread carefully as there is a musical number involved and it's sang almost to the tune of "Silent Night". Sadly, Jacket The Robot is the only main cast member to not get involved in the singing...
All in all though, "Gin chap hak mooi gwai" is a painless, inoffensive and often very amusing way to pass 90 minutes or so of your life and, I guarantee that, in almost every scene, you won't see what's coming until it happens... If you can't raise at least one smile by the end of the film, you should check to see if you even have a pulse left.
Overall Score: A timekilling and oddly endearing 6.5 out of 10.
[NOTE: As a bonus for those with masochistic tendencies, there are some torturous 'Engrish' subtitles on the Universe R3 DVD release of this film which make it an even more surreal experience than it's supposed to be. For example, the statement "Compared with those munta you're the best one" is responded to with an equally novel "mutton? yammy yammy!" and my favourite subtitle in the movie has to be "Boss, you picking rubbish again? You become a rich by picking rubbish". Yes, it's painful to read...]
The plot begins with Rose, in a rare moment of lucidity, realising that she's over-the-hill for a superheroine and deciding she needs a protege to carry on this line of work for her.
Enter ubercute Cantonese pop duo The Twins (Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi, whom this film is basically a star vehicle for). Gillian plays Gill, a gifted and intense psychology student prone to violent episodes and random outbursts of kung-fu if anyone ever dares use her last name while talking to her. Charlene is Sandy, a perky young thing who believes herself to be an alien from a planet where everyone looks like the Teletubbies. She lives in and out of single Mum shelters, even though she has no children, claiming that on her planet everyone is called Mum...
Both girls lose their homes on the same day and meet each other by chance while flathunting. As they skip down the street and decide they're going to be great friends, they come across Rose's "Protege Wanted" ad and decide to visit the gothic mansion to apply for the job. After setting them a couple of traps, which the girls somehow find their way out of, Rose decides they are worthy successors and begins a vigourous training course that includes lots of costume changes, a gratuitous bubble bath, some amazingly weird magic pills and potions (including the Tricky Capsule (easily the funniest scene in the film!)) and a lengthy, side-splitting pastiche of Jackie Chan in "Drunken Master".
Add to this mix an accident-prone taxi driver called Jim Lo (Ekin Cheung - playing his now customary hapless goofball) who falls in love with Sandy, then top it all off with a supervillain called Miss LavenCam who is terrorising the city with the help of a rogue fashion model and a schoolgirl with mean kung-fu skills, and you've got yourself a recipe for... ...well, one complete mess, to be honest! But it's such a colourful, wildly ridiculous mess that I couldn't help but enjoy it. The production values are surprisingly good, with some wacky over-the-top set/costume designs, sharply directed fight choreography and lively camerawork throughout. I can't really fault the film for trying but I'd warn anyone considering watching it that they need a very high Nonsense Tolerance if they want to make it through the whole thing. Please don't expect it to actually make sense by the end. Also, I should mention to tread carefully as there is a musical number involved and it's sang almost to the tune of "Silent Night". Sadly, Jacket The Robot is the only main cast member to not get involved in the singing...
All in all though, "Gin chap hak mooi gwai" is a painless, inoffensive and often very amusing way to pass 90 minutes or so of your life and, I guarantee that, in almost every scene, you won't see what's coming until it happens... If you can't raise at least one smile by the end of the film, you should check to see if you even have a pulse left.
Overall Score: A timekilling and oddly endearing 6.5 out of 10.
[NOTE: As a bonus for those with masochistic tendencies, there are some torturous 'Engrish' subtitles on the Universe R3 DVD release of this film which make it an even more surreal experience than it's supposed to be. For example, the statement "Compared with those munta you're the best one" is responded to with an equally novel "mutton? yammy yammy!" and my favourite subtitle in the movie has to be "Boss, you picking rubbish again? You become a rich by picking rubbish". Yes, it's painful to read...]
All over the place
Leofwine_draca24 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Another senseless movie featuring the dreaded Twins, here shoehorned into a sequel to BLACK ROSE II, made some ten years after the last. Teresa Mo essays the role of the retired superhero/crime fighter, but this is very much the Twins show, given over almost entirely to their own unique brand of mugging/non-acting. Directed by Donnie Yen, it has a cheap, slapdash approach, with dreadful FX and unfunny humour, and seems merely to exist to reference such things as CHARLIE'S ANGELS, THE MATRIX, THE POWERPUFF GIRLS, BATMAN and KILL BILL. The only good bits are a decent Ekin Cheng, a nice homage to DRUNKEN MASTER, and a henchman role for Donnie's own sister, who proves surprisingly adept.
Bizarre.
AwesomeWolf7 November 2004
Warning: Spoilers
Version: Universe VCD. Cantonese with English subtitles. Possible spoiler warning.
This is perhaps the strangest, most random movie I have ever seen. The VCD copy I have doesn't even have a blurb or anything - just a picture of Ekin Cheng dressed as Robin from Batman, and three women (Theresa Mo, and the Twins: Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung) dressed up as crime-fighters. The lack of any description and Ekin Cheng dressed up as Robin is pretty much why I bought it. At that time, I barely knew who the Twins were (I still haven't seen the Twins Effect, and I don't think I ever will), so that only made the whole thing more surreal.
The movie is supposedly based on the Black Rose movies (another element of this movie I'm not familiar with), and follows Black Rose as she prepares the Twins to take up her crime-fighting ways. Of course, Black Rose has gone completely insane, and she has a deep loathing of men (to the point where she has built a robot that destroys ANYTHING male), and her Protégés aren't exactly models of normality. Gillian is a psychology student, who has completed all the psychology courses at her university in the shortest possible amount of time, and her name must never be spoken. Charlene is an alien from a planet of single-mothers, and she has whatever powers are useful to the story. Ekin Cheng is a taxi driver who ends up donning Robin's costume and becoming... Robin, I assume.
Along with the insanity in the Black Rose mansion, her arch-nemesis Miss LavenCam (what the?), and her gang of models and school-girls are terrorizing the city for no apparent reason, and it is up to the Insano Squad (guess who that refers to) to stop them, in a series of equally insane face offs, with the final showdown turning into a scene lifted straight from Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master".
In case you couldn't tell, this movie is completely insane, in a good way. Most of it is very funny, in a really random/bizarre way. I was quite surprised to find out this was directed by Donnie Yen, this is like the polar opposite to what you would expect from Yen, but he does a good job as director. Unfortunately, the subtitles frequently don't make sense (not in a random way, but in an Engrish way), but reading subtitles does take your attention away from the full-grown man dressed up as Robin, running away from a killer, man-hating robot. Yeah.
If random and insane isn't your thing, stay far away. If random and insane is your thing, you should enjoy.
7/10
This is perhaps the strangest, most random movie I have ever seen. The VCD copy I have doesn't even have a blurb or anything - just a picture of Ekin Cheng dressed as Robin from Batman, and three women (Theresa Mo, and the Twins: Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung) dressed up as crime-fighters. The lack of any description and Ekin Cheng dressed up as Robin is pretty much why I bought it. At that time, I barely knew who the Twins were (I still haven't seen the Twins Effect, and I don't think I ever will), so that only made the whole thing more surreal.
The movie is supposedly based on the Black Rose movies (another element of this movie I'm not familiar with), and follows Black Rose as she prepares the Twins to take up her crime-fighting ways. Of course, Black Rose has gone completely insane, and she has a deep loathing of men (to the point where she has built a robot that destroys ANYTHING male), and her Protégés aren't exactly models of normality. Gillian is a psychology student, who has completed all the psychology courses at her university in the shortest possible amount of time, and her name must never be spoken. Charlene is an alien from a planet of single-mothers, and she has whatever powers are useful to the story. Ekin Cheng is a taxi driver who ends up donning Robin's costume and becoming... Robin, I assume.
Along with the insanity in the Black Rose mansion, her arch-nemesis Miss LavenCam (what the?), and her gang of models and school-girls are terrorizing the city for no apparent reason, and it is up to the Insano Squad (guess who that refers to) to stop them, in a series of equally insane face offs, with the final showdown turning into a scene lifted straight from Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master".
In case you couldn't tell, this movie is completely insane, in a good way. Most of it is very funny, in a really random/bizarre way. I was quite surprised to find out this was directed by Donnie Yen, this is like the polar opposite to what you would expect from Yen, but he does a good job as director. Unfortunately, the subtitles frequently don't make sense (not in a random way, but in an Engrish way), but reading subtitles does take your attention away from the full-grown man dressed up as Robin, running away from a killer, man-hating robot. Yeah.
If random and insane isn't your thing, stay far away. If random and insane is your thing, you should enjoy.
7/10
Purple Turd Academy.
Sinnerman7 March 2004
Don't ask me why I see these crapola movies....I just do.
This film, directed by Donnie Yen is worse than Twins Effect. Its messier, its lazier(in terms of plotting and editting), its less funny and its kungfu is laughable. Don't ask me what's the story. It won't make sense to you. Suffice to say there are aliens and magic beans, purple femme fatales and black roses...enough!!!! Horrors!!! Horrors my repressed memories for having seen this flick....
Ouch, the Twins' unfunny-but-straining-to-be-cute shtick grates on me nerves like chalk on black board. So they should really count themselves lucky I see this flick for someone else....
Yes, I see this celluloid heap of dung for the sake of my second fave comedian of the 90's (after Stephen Chow that is), Ms Teresa Mo. It is very very nice to see her back. Just look at that devilish relish she imbues into this role in above pic. Nice. Any scenes with her around is funnier than it should be, just a facial twitch here or a slight grimace there, I'll laugh with her just standing there......Unfortunately, this also amplifies how much more unfunny the other characters are. Yikes!!
E-kin Cheng is a joke. He can't act, he's OTT and he's completely bereft of comic timing. Where he's gonna hide his face for this acting disgrace, I also don't dare to imagine already. By the way, what's his name again?
For no reasons whatsoever, one woman in this flick will be spanked for a unbelievably loooooooooong time. This has gotta be the strongest lesbian subtext I have detected in a mainstream PG film in recent times....we see many scenes of the twins hugging and touching...hugging and touching each other.....Okay, at least it is now one of the few "guilty pleasures" moments I can take away from this horrid horrid flick.
So did I like it? Well, its sheer torture of the highest order folks!!!!!! But yes, I liked it. LOL... Note that the Sinnerman cannot be trusted for I have a blind weakness for HK comedies. I have very very low expectations for'em. As long as its 10-15% funny, can already...and this flick bearly scrapes by. Com'on, I love Twins Effect for chrissake!
SO FOLKS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED....
This film, directed by Donnie Yen is worse than Twins Effect. Its messier, its lazier(in terms of plotting and editting), its less funny and its kungfu is laughable. Don't ask me what's the story. It won't make sense to you. Suffice to say there are aliens and magic beans, purple femme fatales and black roses...enough!!!! Horrors!!! Horrors my repressed memories for having seen this flick....
Ouch, the Twins' unfunny-but-straining-to-be-cute shtick grates on me nerves like chalk on black board. So they should really count themselves lucky I see this flick for someone else....
Yes, I see this celluloid heap of dung for the sake of my second fave comedian of the 90's (after Stephen Chow that is), Ms Teresa Mo. It is very very nice to see her back. Just look at that devilish relish she imbues into this role in above pic. Nice. Any scenes with her around is funnier than it should be, just a facial twitch here or a slight grimace there, I'll laugh with her just standing there......Unfortunately, this also amplifies how much more unfunny the other characters are. Yikes!!
E-kin Cheng is a joke. He can't act, he's OTT and he's completely bereft of comic timing. Where he's gonna hide his face for this acting disgrace, I also don't dare to imagine already. By the way, what's his name again?
For no reasons whatsoever, one woman in this flick will be spanked for a unbelievably loooooooooong time. This has gotta be the strongest lesbian subtext I have detected in a mainstream PG film in recent times....we see many scenes of the twins hugging and touching...hugging and touching each other.....Okay, at least it is now one of the few "guilty pleasures" moments I can take away from this horrid horrid flick.
So did I like it? Well, its sheer torture of the highest order folks!!!!!! But yes, I liked it. LOL... Note that the Sinnerman cannot be trusted for I have a blind weakness for HK comedies. I have very very low expectations for'em. As long as its 10-15% funny, can already...and this flick bearly scrapes by. Com'on, I love Twins Effect for chrissake!
SO FOLKS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED....
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