Nothing out of the ordinary here, unless you haven't seen a Tsui Hark film before. Basically, this is your typical Hong Kong crime action movie with a Tsui Hark twist to it.The first 5 minutes of the film is actually deceiving. The story actually feels like a romantic comedy of sorts. A few minutes later the film
takes a turn and you now have the action adventure you should be expecting. The thing with Tsui Hark is that his cinematography and editing can make any type of film feel frantic. What would usually be a moderate to slow paced film actually feels like a thrilling roller coaster ride. While this is fine and dandy it can also confuse the viewer and throw off what should be a simple story. With that said, the first half of this film isn't anything spectacular and the action is somewhat limited. There is more of a focus on character buildup, which isn't too bad. The last 40-50 minutes of the film is all one big Tsui Hark stylized action sequence. Fairly entertaining.Like other Hark pieces, the action is different from other films of this genre and the choreography is quite good. What really sucks here is the editing and camera shots. At times it is good, but at many other times, and not just in this film, the fights become degraded by this. If it wasn't for Hark's editing and camera work, the action sequences could be impressive.The acting is pretty good for this type of film. Nicholas Tse is a good lead and most of the supporting cast is up to par. The only disappointments are the villains. They have a bunch of English lines and we all know how those turn out most of the time. It isn't as bad as other films though.The only people I would recommend this film to are fans of Tsui Hark or people in need of a different style of action film.
January 30, 2008
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