Face Off

A man really struggles to sell a diamond in Ly Hai’s first of countless Face Off films.

Ly Hai’s Face Off is a curious collection of films. What I thought was just one fairly by-the-numbers action comedy movie (we’ll get to that in a second) turns out instead to be one in a series of almost annually-released films that have nothing to do with each other. For example, Face Off 7 from last year is an damn-near two and a half hour drama about an elderly widow who has to rely on her 5 children to look after her after an injury. Face Off, the original, is about diamond mines and crooks and the upsides of cosmetic surgery. Never has a series of films been so disconnected, and I look forward to checking them all out. But for now, let’s start at the beginning.

Face Off stars its director Ly Hai as Khai, a poor diamond miner who has been accused of murdering his friend Thang while stealing diamonds. Wanted by the cops and the criminals who run the diamond mine, he goes on the run. He opts to flee to Saigon, where he plans to sell the diamonds he stole and start a new life with his wife (My Hoa), currently being harassed by everyone under the sun for her husband’s actions. Khai employs hapless motorcycle taxi driver Toan (Truong Giang) to get him there. In classic buddy-movie style, shenanigans ensue, laughs are had and justice is eventually served.

Face Off as a series supposedly embodies Vietnamese values – family, honour, duty, and morality – and there’s some of that in here, but I can’t say Face Off necessarily showed any of this in any strong light. It’s a fun time with some surprisingly strong laughs, but it’s no different a hundred other mistaken identity/run-from-crooks type of film. The most uniquely Vietnamese thing about the film is all of the motorcycle taxi-ing that goes on.

So, as a standalone film, how does it do? Honestly, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It’s a film that doesn’t waste much time, diving straight into the action from the first minute. Due to this, it takes a while for every dynamic to fully reveal itself, and a lot of the story elements seem suspiciously out of nowhere, such as the oddly helpful psychic Mrs Loan (Kim Xuan) who shows up in the middle of a car chase and risks everything to help Khai out.

It’s a perfectly decent film that does exactly what you expect it would on the tin. There were some genuinely tense moments, some reasonably good action and even some moments of heart. I even found the comic relief sidekick, Toan, oddly endearing. Ly Hai is a better director than he is an actor, however, and for every beautiful shot of Vietnamese scenery, there’s a stilted line delivery from him.

Face Off is about as straightforwardly standard as this kind of film could be expected to be. Its tonal shifts and occasional overly dumb sense of humour might turn some people away, but I think it’s a pretty strong start to a series that, while certainly unrelated, will no doubt reflect its creator’s improving skills behind and (hopefully) in front of the camera.

Verdict: It’s not exactly a diamond in the rough, but Face Off still finds that in the right light, it shines

Overall entertainment: 6.5/10
Violence: 6/10
Sex: 0/10
Stunts 6/10
Humour: 5/10
Falling: People sure do fall off a lot of stuff in this
Cosmetic surgery: It’s the answer to all your problems
Mrs Loan: Barely satisfying story beat, but at least it more or less works

Face Off (2015)
Also known as: Lật mặt (Flip Side)
Vietnamese

Director: Ly Hai
Writer: Ly Hai

CAST

Ly Hai – Khai
Truong Giang – Toan
Vo Thanh Tam – Duc
Lam Minh Thang – Dung
My Hoa – Hue
Handsome Long – Long
Hua Minh Dat – Quoan
Quach Ngoc Tuyen – Disciple
Kim Xuan – Mrs. Loan
Trong Hai – Tam
Tiet Cuong – Thang
Nam Thu – Thang’s wife
Phi Phung – Mrs. Phuong
Viet Anh – Mr. Phuong