It's fair to say that neither Joh or I expected much from the movie Brighton Wok, a copy of which she bought me for my birthday. I mean, it was always going to be better than Urban Menace but I was expecting something like Brighton: The Musical, of interest mainly to people from Brighton.
Brighton Wok is actually a very good movie. Not good as in 'despite the low budget', or 'because it's filmed somewhere I know'. I enjoyed it more than some of the blockbusters I've seen this summer. Recently I've been comparing films to Iron Man - $140 million to make, entertaining enough, but no spark.
Brighton Wok was a much better film than Iron Man, and used its smaller budget very well. The baddies are based in the Royal Pavilion and the film starts with some lovely aerial shots of the town. The script is funny without being corny, particularly the French student, who speaks mostly through subtitles and is obsessed with 'street cred'. The fight scenes are fun and the storyline exciting.
The plot is that an army of ninjas have taken over the town (after burning down the West Pier, of course). They begin kicking out the hippies and harrassing residents. Two old ladies search for a champion to save the town as rumours spread of a 'chosen one' with the power of Ganja Boxing. The soundtrack is fantastic, with some great songs, but above all I loved the strange vision of Brighton: kung-fu experts training in traveller camps, the 'Ninja Express' shop, the Crazy old man up a tree at Queen's Park, the constant references to Brighton-and-Hove rather than Brighton.
I loved this movie and will force everyone to watch it with me on my return to Brighton. Everyone!
Thank you Joh!
Ditto - I enjoyed it way more than I expected to.
And the excellent Dr Syntax featuring on the closing music, too!
Posted by: Tom Hume | July 22, 2008 at 11:00 PM
that looks fantastic ... where can I get a hold of it? x
Posted by: Naomi | July 23, 2008 at 01:29 PM
You can get it at www.brighton-wok.com, it's being sold via the film website. I don't know if you can get it in the shops.
Posted by: Hazatt | July 25, 2008 at 04:25 PM
@Hazatt - Thanks for adding the link.
Hopefully I'll have some time in the next week or so to watch the film again.
Posted by: James | July 27, 2008 at 09:24 PM