Asian Thieves Land

Feng Xiaoning’s Super Typhoon, which somehow ended up in the competition section of this year’s TIFF, is billed as “the first super disaster movie of China.” It’s certainly the first disaster movie I’ve seen in which nobody actually dies: a hymn to the virtues of good planning and upright city officials.

Chief among the heroes is Wu Gang’s mayor, a superhuman figure who repeatedly saves the day with little to fuel him but civic duty and cup noodles. First seen apprehending a pickpocket in the local market, he later gets to make life-or-death judgment calls and take on a shark with a big stick. Guided by the sage advice of his former elementary school teacher, now a meteorologist (Song Xiaoying), he evacuates the city before the titular storm hits, thus leaving his command center to focus their attentions on helping a pregnant woman deliver her child safely. Yeah, it’s that kind of film.

There’s been a lot said in the Chinese press about Super Typhoon‘s special effects, and for the most part they’re impressive, especially by domestic standards. Yet it’s hard to ignore the fact that the storm is apparently buffeting the same four or five cars around the city, one of a number of production glitches that dilutes the overall impact.

None of this stopped Super Typhoon raking in 10 million yuan at the Chinese box office during its first three days on release, of course, but it’s hard to imagine the film finding much of an audience overseas - well, except on the strength of its undeniable kitsch value.