The Pig, The Snake and The Pigeon (M18)

Starring Ethan Ruan, Ben Yuen, Chen Yi-Wen, Gingle Wang

Directed by Wong Ching-Po

This Taiwanese gangster thriller — combining the realistic with the absurd and violence with tranquillity — is unconventional and uneven.

Which isn’t surprising, considering its thug life-obsessed writer-director, Wong Ching-Po (Once Upon A Time In Shanghai), from Hong Kong. In 2004, he helmed Jiang Hu, a triad pic which contained two stories simultaneously.  

This time, it’s an eccentric deal — a black comedy without comedy — about crime, punishment and twisted rebirth that’s split into two wildly different halves. A strong first half of intense, believable gangster action. Followed by a jarring transformation into a religious cult drama that’s long and slow. With a killing spree in a meditation hall rivalling the insane church massacre in Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Thing is, these two parts of gripping thug night and boring spiritual day don’t hang well, despite Ethan Ruan's charisma. Was director Wong struck by a schizophrenic epiphany?

A pity because the main dude is an intriguing cold-blooded anti-hero straight out of a Quentin Tarantino leftfield draft. The swaggerer-murderer atones for his sins via self-flagellating lashings meted out by crazy born-again devotees.

More bizarrely, he seeks to put discernible value into his life’s work of ending lives by becoming Taiwan’s No. 1 Bad Guy. Although, with zero backstory, we don’t know why.

FYI, this plot is apparently inspired by a folk tale about Zhou Chu, an ancient Chinese ruffian-turned-general who fought three scourges —a tiger, dragon and himself, a terror needing reform. It's based on the “Three Poisons in Buddhism” of greed, anger and ignorance represented on the wheel of life as a bird, snake and pig respectively.

Meet not-so-cute: Ethan Ruan uses his eye power to help Gingle Wang. 

Stricken with end-stage cancer, gangland assassin Chen Kui-lin (Ruan exuding gleeful, unperturbed amorality) is concerned about his criminal legacy. “I’m not afraid of death. I’m afraid of being forgotten after death,” the terminal terminator reveals as he keeps declaring “My name is Chen Kui-lin” as a self-promo.

A terrific opening sequence sees him killing a mobster at a pai kia-packed mob funeral before battling a cop in close-quarters combat so fierce you’d think this is where this film nabbed seven nominations at the Golden Horse Awards later this month.  

With his beloved grandma dead and his own time dwindling — he cherishes a watch with a pig image from her that signifies him as the ignorant pig — Chen is persuaded by an underworld doctor friend to turn himself in. He almost does it until in a darkly comical moment, he spots a “Wanted” poster placing him in an embarrassing third place behind two even badder bad guys.

Motivated to set the order right, the peeved man goes after the two headliners. A nutty ambition which puts this flick up there in idiosyncratic David Lynch dark-underbelly territory.

Alas, it veers off-course as it goes on, losing vital momentum as it turns serene, less interesting and less profound than it pretends to be.  

The No. 2 baddie, a Cantonese-speaking brute from HK named Hongkie (Ben Yuen from Raging Fire) —  the angry snake marked by a snake tattoo on his arm — is a nasty beast who sexually abuses his indebted squeeze, Cheng Hsiao-mei (Marry My Dead Body’s Gingle Wang).   

Please donate generously: Chen Yi-Wen plays a cult leader and like all cult leaders, he claims to have access to heaven... via your pocket. 

You think you’re watching the Gangster Pic Of The Year as the show hits a gritty peak filled with tight drama, tension and violence with Ruan going into Monga mode as he cleans house. 

Setting you up for an anticipated eager showdown as our guy heads for Villain No. 1, Lin Lu-ho (A Sun’s Chen Yi-Wen), the greedy pigeon. Instead, the quest brings Chen to a resort of spiritual peace and us to a slumberous letdown.

I don’t know about Taiwan’s loony-moony divine salvation fringe. But these false-prophet stories are so killjoy-predictable in that they’re often variations of the same trick about unholy conmen hiding something nefarious. In this case, stolen earthly possessions.

You’re befuddled by this change from great gangster aesthetic to strange godly ascetic. Maybe director Wong wishes to show that this dark underworld he’s fascinated by holds redemption offered only through deceit and cynicism.

Alongside a biased notion about violence committed by two ugly, older guys being more abhorrent than brutality done by a cuter, more sympathetic fella.  

Either way philosophically, only the first half of this flick, as Ethan Ruan strives for here as a gangster, is indisputably Number One. (3.5/5 stars)

Photos: Shaw Organisation