![]() ![]() And for the boobies.Ĭhelle: I was afraid he was going to fall asleep. The film was really about the relationship between the two leads, and as such, it was a sexy, tragic film that I will probably watch again. Honestly though, I think the plot was beside the point. As a result, I really didn't know what the plot was half the time. My only major criticism of the film is that as an ignorant American, I could not keep straight all the character names that would come up during the discussion of the warring crime bosses. With all the film noir build-up, I was really hoping that the story would take a turn for the unexpected and end happily. I suppose I can't fault it for not having the ending I would have liked, and the end had a poignance of its own. ![]() ![]() She betrays him, and in the end, he kills her for it. She was pretty, but it was her personality that made her so attractive. She was absolutely charming, so much so that I, as a viewer, fell for her act as much as poor Takeshi Kaneshiro did. Again and again his character was warned against her, and he never fully trusted her, but in his awesomely understated performance, you could see that he had fallen for her. Played by Mirai Yamamoto, she wasn't the sultry, drop-dead gorgeous asian babe you might expect. Its femme fatale was especially good, so good, in fact, that I had really hoped she would end up going against type and turn out to be a decent human being underneath it all. And good it was. The first thing that struck me was the look of the film: its gorgeous photography and vivid color palette of neon blues and greens against the backdrop of night. It was definitely a film noir with all the classic tropes. And boobies there were, yet I suspect her motives went deeper, that perhaps she wanted me to watch this film because it's, I don't know. A lengthy running time and derivative nature of the plot also work against this film, meaning that I didn't think much of it at all.Chelle had been attempting to get me to watch this film for months, tempting with promises of boobies aplenty. Yamamoto fails to make her repulsive lead in the least bit likable and suffers because of that, while the excellent Eric Tsang is underused as the mob boss, appearing in all of three short scenes. Kaneshiro is a good actor, but his character isn't given a great deal to do here and comes across as a little staid. I found the last scene to be overlong and devoid of the badly needed emotion it sought to generate, but at least something's going on, unlike in the middle section. Then things pick up in the last half hour, with lots of action and shoot-outs and more twists and turns than in five regular Hollywood movies. The pacing slows down to a snail's crawl while this romance is explored, and the filmmakers do attempt to generate some suspense by keeping their character motivations murky, but it doesn't work very well. For the next hour we're treated to a lifeless romance with one of the most worthless female characters I've seen in a film. Unfortunately, Kaneshiro's character then meets a girl, and the whole film falls flat. The first half hour follows this type of plot with some stylish direction and another solid performance from Takeshi Kaneshiro, who once again delivers a 'quiet but cool' type character with emotions bubbling just under the surface. ![]() This Hong Kong/Japan co-production starts out as a traditional gangster thriller, as we meet our youthful hero and find himself caught between opposing sides: a violent criminal gang from Shanghai, who frequently employ torture and murder as their methods, and a lone gunman with psychotic tendencies. Reviewed by Leofwine_draca 4 / 10 Promising crime drama let down by a boring romance Meanwhile, Fu-Chun's girlfriend, Natsumi Sato turns up to sell something to Kenichi. Yuan wants to get even and attempts to do so by using Kenichi. Things are calm, however, his former partner-in-crime, Fu-Chun, is rumored to have returned to Kabukicho, having fled years earlier after killing the number two to gangland boss, Yuan. His domain is in Kabukicho, a gangland controlled by various Shanghainese gangs intent on taking overall control. You can sell him anything except children's organs. Kenichi is a half-Japanese, half-Chinese man of the underworld. ![]()
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