With the latest Batman movie The Dark Knight opening in theaters on Friday, we're probably looking at one of the biggest box office weekends of the summer. I have seen the movie, and it's pretty freaking fantastic. If you liked Batman Begins, this one's going to blow you away. That said... the movie wouldn't quite be complete without a few Asian bad guys.
SPOILER WARNING: Don't read the rest of this post if you don't want to know anything about the movie. Nothing major, just a few words on the fate of a minor character.
Yes, continuing the tradition of Ken Watanabe as faux-Ra's Al Ghul in the first one, Batman fights some more Asian foes in The Dark Knight. The movie briefly takes some of the action to Hong Kong, with a plot thread involving Chin Han as Lau, a shady business/mob guy who controls Gotham's gangsters' money. Yay.
But no worries, you will see, as he ends up being no match for Batman. There's a good scene where the Caped Crusader breaks into a building and beats the crap out of a bunch of Asians thugs to get to Lau. That's always fun. (I don't think I'm giving anything away here—we all know the movie's villain is the freakin' Joker, not shady gangster Lau.) In the end, he just winds up as another weak-ass Hollywood Asian guy. Saw that coming.
Oh yeah. I should mention that Hong Kong actor Edison Chen also pops up in the movie for about 4.3 seconds. Blink and you'll miss him. I'm presuming this was filmed before his amateur porn stash scandal hit the news, and he went underground. Good times.