Like walking past a trash bin in summer and finding the scent not all that unpleasant.
This Chinese film noir about a detective with nothing left to lose and the lawless waif who wronged him is set in gutters, sewers and back alleys where it peels back the filth of Hong Kong to reveal the tarnished gold and scarred souls that lie beneath.
This movie would have been so much better and more suspenseful if the ending hadn't been given away in the first scene.
The portrayal of trash, waste, dirt, the city, and its citizens in black and white works so well, that with a slightly better story and without the mentioned first scene, this movie could have been a masterpiece. I'd still recommend it though.
Shout by Miguel A. ReinaBlockedParent2022-02-19T18:46:31Z
The aesthetics of a careful B/W cinematography turns Hong-Kong into an unreal city, made up in 4K, present and observing violence in an underworld of garbage and rot. However, it hides a narrative that enjoys the humiliation and harassment of Wang To, an involuntary executioner and victim of male monsters. There is an aesthetic of violence that is formally fascinating but narratively debatable.