Review - Brother Wang and Brother Liu Tour Taiwan

October 30, 2021
 
Brother Wang and Brother Liu Tour Taiwan – Taiwan, 1959
 

I have seen a number of images of long lines snaking around movies theaters in Taiwan during the 1950’s and 60’s, of stars walking the proverbial red carpet as adoring fans make their feelings about their idols perfectly clear, and of hundreds of joyful faces as the magic of film washes over them. These are images of what many have said were the golden years of Taiwanese cinema. However, never have I seen any evidence that these audiences were for a film starring either Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello, yet the influence of these two comic pairings on Lee Hsing’s 1959 film Brother Wang and Brother Liu Tour Taiwan seems unmistakable.
 
The names in the film’s moniker refer to a rather heavy-set poor young man named Wang (Li Guan-chang) and his equally poor, much thinner pedicab-driving roommate and best friend, Liu (Chang Fu-cai). Out of necessity, the two share a bed in a dinky one-bedroom shack that likely doesn’t have a kitchen or anything resembling indoor plumbing. It is in this setting that the two of them discuss their plights and, in one humorous scene, continually utter the only word that comes to mind, alas. The beginning of the film clearly establishes their characters. Liu is the harder working of the two, yet his efforts are often for naught. As for Wang, he can never seem to get enough sleep. In an early scene, Liu drives him to the spot where he shines shoes, only for him to plant his head against a column and fall asleep standing up. His eyes don’t stay open for long at work either.
 
These early moments contain attempts at comedy that were not entirely fresh even in 1959. In one, Liu unsuccessfully attempts to transport two overweight passengers; in another, Wang’s fellow shoeshines take advantage of his narcoleptic tendencies and use shoe polish to make him look foolish. There’s also a gag involving just how many plates of rice the two starving young men can eat. Some of these hit just enough to be entertaining; some of them, alas, are well past their expiration date.
 
The film is more successful – at least initially – during scenes in which Liu interacts with her girlfriend, Ah-Hua. In these scenes, Liu moves beyond the stereotypical role of the lovable loser and acquires a certain level of depth, and it shows during a tender scene in which Liu shows his appreciation by purchasing Ah-Hua a pair of shoes. Ah-Hua is bubbly played by Ke Yuxia, and her scenes with Liu have a tenderness to them that the film has a hard time recreating when she is not on screen, which, alas, occurs far too often. Fortunately, Li and Chang have a good rapport onscreen, and when the material they’re given is halfway decent, as it is in those early scenes, they are quite entertaining.
 
One day, Wang and Liu meet a fortune teller who looks at Wang through a rather large magnifying glass, a la Sherlock Holmes, and proclaims that he’ll strike it rich in three days. To Liu, though, he delivers more somber news – he only has 44 days to live. Incredulous laughter follows these predictions, of course, but there’s Wang, three days later, suddenly rich after winning the lottery. You can probably guess what Liu’s reaction is. The solution, you ask? Well, let’s just say the title isn’t a red herring.
 
Thus begins a series of misadventures that more closely resemble disparate half-hour television episodes than a continuous narrative. There’s a running gag involving a briefcase that Liu carries everywhere and which contains all of Wang’s money. It soon catches the eye of a mysterious traveler. Later, in a much more problematic scene, the two are captured by a group of Taiwanese aborigines and brought into separate huts, where two female tribal leaders attempt to get our heroes to sleep with them – something you certainly never saw in a Laurel and Hardy short. And then there are the gangsters Wang and Liu encounter, a meeting which culminates in the two friends dressed in drag and leading the gangsters on. To say the two men make unconvincing females would be an understatement.
 
Bookending these scenes are brief glimpses of some of Taiwan’s tourist hot spots – destinations like Zhinan Temple, New Beitou, Fort Zeelandia, and Sun Moon Lake – and when I say brief, I mean seconds long. In most of these snippets, we don’t even see Wang and Liu, leaving the impression that the director simply used stock images. Even more problematic is the fact that Wang and Liu never discuss the places they visit or seem particularly affected by anything they see. They don’t even have a reaction to a sign on a trail in Pingtung instructing visitors to speak only Mandarin Chinese. Politically, this is understandable, as Taiwan was in its first decade of martial law. Narratively, though, it stretches credibility.
 
I mentioned earlier the impact that teams like Laurel and Hardy appear to have had on the film. However, it does not appear that Lee Hsing and screenwriter Tung Hsiao truly understood what made many of those early comedy teams so great. First, Laurel and Hardy were never slackers – they had dreams and worked hard, even if they were rarely successful. Then there’s the innocent, boyish excitement they exhibited when a young lady looked in their direction – that aw shucks smile that came across Laurel’s face and the way Hardy shyly fumbled with his tie. While Liu has some of Laurel’s charm, little of Hardy’s innocence comes through in Wang’s mannerisms. And then there are the character’s steady personalities. Laurel was always Laurel, and Hardy was always Hardy. However, in Brother Wang and Brother Liu Tour Taiwan, Wang starts out Hardy and ends up becoming Abbott; Liu starts out Laurel and transforms into Costello. Seriously, can you imagine Laurel ever paying a woman to be able to kiss her cheek, especially if he was engaged, and then getting the girl?
 
Brother Wang and Brother Liu Tour Taiwan is therefore a truly mixed bag. It does an ample job of establishing its lead characters and putting them in situations that have both dramatic and comic potential. However, it does not appear that anyone involved in the film had any idea what to do with them, and so these initially likeable characters inconsistently fumble from one “adventure” to another without ever evolving or acknowledging the reason they took the trip in the first place. Alas, they deserved better. (on DVD in Region 3)
 
2 stars
 
*Brother Wang and Brother Liu Tour Taiwan is in Taiwanese with English subtitles.
 
*I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Brother Wang and Brother Liu Tour Taiwan has two parts. The first one ends rather abruptly (in the middle of a chase scene, no less) when Liu and Wang appear onscreen and actually utter those famous words to be continued. According to Wikipedia, the second part came out two weeks after the first.
 
*The film also apparently spawned seven sequels. Go figure.