it's so bad it's good. great fun if you're not taking it seriously
A slow burner. I thought it took way too long to explain the setting, it's almost a two part story, although the second part was worth the wait.
Jeon Jong-seo's acting was so good I would recommend watching the movie just for her character!
For music, some of the sound track transitioned way too abruptly for my taste.
In summary a great thriller if you are ok with slow story build up.
Also I want to note the mid credit scenes are horrible. I hate silly end scenes that don't try to make sense and only there just add scare factor /prep for a potential second movie, just incorporate it properly into the actual ending gosh. If you can, please stop watching once the credit starts so that the movie will still seem good in your mind.
Ok the summary is way too concise to make sense, I'll try again without giving away the whole story:
The story follows our cop protagonist (Wang Qian-yuan) who was tasked to catch a robbery gang. By chance, he crossed paths with the gang and there he developed a personal vendetta to catch the gang leader (Daniel Wu) no matter how long it takes.
To sum it up, it's an alright crime story but with over the top cinematography that seemed to be an attempt to imitate a western/cowboy style (or at least to me it seemed). It was an interesting attempt to not follow the formula or create a new one.
The cinematography was not bad, in fact quite engaging and different to the typical Chinese crime/detective movie, but there were definitely moments that felt forced and just there for the cinematography. A good comparison would be Wu Xia by Peter Ho-sun Chan; it's also a crime/detective movie done in a unique style with a focus on protagonist vs antagonist. Although it also had interesting cinematography, scenes and moments mostly did not felt forced.
Story was quite typical, with a sprinkle of popular tropes here and there. Some things needed more time / explanation / development, such as the antagonist's love interest. There were also a few scenes that felt very propoganda-like and not essential to the story, but it's a Mainland Chinese film so I understand if they have to add these in to get an ok from departments.
Actors were great, although the movie didn't provide enough chances for them to show their acting skills.
Questionable ethics and moral in the story but if you don't take it as a serious movie then it's a good watch.
A beautiful drama with a very positive message. The great performance from all casts perfectly brought the movie to life. A worthy watch if you're after some tear inducing feel good movie.
As per title, the movie is about vulgar humour. If you're not a Cantonese speaker and don't know a bit about HK culture it'll be hard to get the jokes. Even the director and main protagonist Chapman To said so themselves in an interview: they did the movie partly to spite mainland netizens who made fun of them for arguing with Weibo netizens when they can't even speak Mandarin, in return they wanted to make a movie that these people won't be able to understand.
There were a few pretty good scenes (such as the scenes with Brother Tyrannosaurus, which could be found on YouTube), but overall it's an okay comedy.
A very realistic film about the less fortunate in HK. Every night, 24/7 MacDonalds turn into makeshift homes to some. This film follows a group of these "roommates", and how each of them survive everyday live.
Instead of sugar coating the issue, this film unrelentlessly hit the viewers with blows and blows of reality. The movie does not make up a good ending, only realistic events that leaves you feeling powerless and hopeless for them. If you're after a feel good movie then this won't be the film for you, but I highly recommend saving this film for days when you feel like watching a tearjerker.
A story about a missing child, and how this led to the interaction of three seemingly different lives: a mute misfit miner looking for his son (Song Yang); a lawyer on the verge of losing his licence (Yuan Wenkang); and a mining tycoon (Jiang Wu).
Cinematography, at times, beautifully depicted the remoteness and uncertainty of the situation. While the director tried to use beautiful metaphors to imply events, sadly they always ended up explaining the whole thing, leaving the metaphors only for show. I suspect this may be due to strict rules with movies in China; the unnecessary ending-note felt inserted just to tick some requirement.
I feel like the charcters could have more backstory and development to make the interaction towards the end even more tense. All in all, a nice watch and really scratched my itch for movies that unravel slowly.
A very cute and heartwarming story about friendship and dealing with conflicts between friends. It's got the typical chibi maruko-chan humour but also doesn't interfere with serious parts. A great movie for kids and adults.
To summarise, this is a redemption story for senior inspector Chan (Jackie Chan). With the intervention from a new quirky partner (Nicholas Tse), Chan battles his guilt and scars from his failed operation to try and arrest the antagonists once and for all. I've never seen the other movies in the "Police Story" series so you don't need previous knowledge to understand this movie.
As a HK 90s kid, this movie will always have a special place in my heart. It's got the typical outrageous Jackie Chan stunts, the easy to follow crime story line, sprinkle of comedy moments here and there for some good laughs, tiny bit of character back story for both good and bad guys to tug at your heart strings, and great acting from the cast - especially Daniel Wu (main antagonist Joe).
I may sound like a psychopath or something but the savageness and coolness of the antagonists, especially Chan's failed operation at the start of the story, will always be one of my top movie moments.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves a nice crime / action movie and don't mind a serious storyline with tiny bits of funny moments.
Edit: I later found out the novel this movie was based on is suspected of plagiarizing Keigo Hinashino's two novels "Journey Under the Midnight Sun" and "The Devotion of Suspect X". I've never read the two books so I'm not sure how similar the movie is to the two books.
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A bitter-sweet story about bullying at school. Story follows Nian Chen, a high school student preparing for her biggest exam so she could ultimately escape to the big city Beijing with her mum. We experience with Nian her struggles as she tries to survive her harsh school life being the bully's next targeted victim. Without help from any adults, Nian finds an unexpected friendship with a local gangster Xiaobei.
I found most characters and settings written quite realistically. While I might not be able to resonate with the actions of the characters, I was able to understand their motives and action (there are exceptions, especially the actions of the bully). Some events in the movie seemed too good to be true, and I would suspect this could be due to the movie seemingly being a promoting material for the newish anti-bullying laws in China (I.e. pre-credits), or complying to media laws in China. Sadly, the story went downhill in the second half, losing its focus from everything the first half of the movie tried to set up. The resolution seemed forced to me, with some actions of characters (especially the bully) not making sense. There were also characters that play important roles but were not explored properly.
All in all a good-looking movie with great acting and cinematography but lacking on the story side.
