Though this mesmerizing movie is supposedly about revenge, it's really a story about honor. The honor a man carries for his family. The honor he shares among men like himself. The honor he clings to when everything else in his life is gone. It's the sense of obligation that drives men to do the most horrible of deeds and make the most noble of sacrifices. With the deliberate direction of Johnnie To and a cast of smoldering intensity, Vengeance is the sort of film that you can't stop watching.
After his daughter and her family are gunned down in China, a Frenchman with the fashion sense of Boris Badenov and a face that gets odder the closer you are sets out for revenge. A stranger in a strange land, Francis Costello (Johnny Hallyday) hires three expert killers (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Ka Tung Lam and Sute Lam) to find the men responsible for his family tragedy and help him take his revenge. But a surprise found along the way and a secret Costello is keeping to himself force all four of them to decide what kind of men they are and in what sort of world they're willing to live.
The main thing to know about Vengeance, other than that it's quite good, is that this motion picture is dominated by silence. There's very little dialog, less of a soundtrack and even the gun battles are striking for how they echo in the quiet. Except for a few blips of expository dialog, the storytelling here is entirely visual. Director To exhibits a master's touch in framing his actors' movements, expressions and even postures to beam this tale through your eyes and imprint it on your brain.
The action scenes here are magnificently realized and striking in their use of space. From a running gun battle through moonlit woods to a shootout in a building, the way events unfold in a linear fashion is far more compelling than the most frenetic blur of jump cuts and camera movement. It captures the athleticism of real human movement without exceeding into the realm of stylized combat ballet.
Johnny Hallyday may be the star of Vengeance but I found him too odd looking a duck to connect with. It took me a while simply to get used to the fact that he wasn't wearing some poorly molded prosthetic make up. For me, the standout of the cast was Anthony Wong Chau-Sang as Kwai, the de factor leader of the three killers hired by Costello. He draws your eyes in like magnetic iron and then reflects your gaze back onto Hallyday. Chau-Sang plays Kwai as seeing that Costello used to be the sort of man Kwai has always wanted to believe he was, helping to define both men's characters and giving the viewer a true north upon which to fix their eyes. It's Chau-Sang that elevates this story and banishes all petty and craven motivations and concerns.
Now, it doesn't make a lot of sense that in one scene Costello and his killers have the aim of drunken Sleestaks and in the rest they can shoot like Annie Oakley. The secret Costello carries is also more plot device than anything else. Those are minor quibbles, though.
Vengeance is a great example of how playing against convention can breathe new life into the most clichéd premise. Instead of being hot and loud and insistent, this movie is cool and calm and attractively implacable. It will leave you wanting to see more work by Johnnie To and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, which is always one of the highest compliments you can give any film.
After his daughter and her family are gunned down in China, a Frenchman with the fashion sense of Boris Badenov and a face that gets odder the closer you are sets out for revenge. A stranger in a strange land, Francis Costello (Johnny Hallyday) hires three expert killers (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Ka Tung Lam and Sute Lam) to find the men responsible for his family tragedy and help him take his revenge. But a surprise found along the way and a secret Costello is keeping to himself force all four of them to decide what kind of men they are and in what sort of world they're willing to live.
The main thing to know about Vengeance, other than that it's quite good, is that this motion picture is dominated by silence. There's very little dialog, less of a soundtrack and even the gun battles are striking for how they echo in the quiet. Except for a few blips of expository dialog, the storytelling here is entirely visual. Director To exhibits a master's touch in framing his actors' movements, expressions and even postures to beam this tale through your eyes and imprint it on your brain.
The action scenes here are magnificently realized and striking in their use of space. From a running gun battle through moonlit woods to a shootout in a building, the way events unfold in a linear fashion is far more compelling than the most frenetic blur of jump cuts and camera movement. It captures the athleticism of real human movement without exceeding into the realm of stylized combat ballet.
Johnny Hallyday may be the star of Vengeance but I found him too odd looking a duck to connect with. It took me a while simply to get used to the fact that he wasn't wearing some poorly molded prosthetic make up. For me, the standout of the cast was Anthony Wong Chau-Sang as Kwai, the de factor leader of the three killers hired by Costello. He draws your eyes in like magnetic iron and then reflects your gaze back onto Hallyday. Chau-Sang plays Kwai as seeing that Costello used to be the sort of man Kwai has always wanted to believe he was, helping to define both men's characters and giving the viewer a true north upon which to fix their eyes. It's Chau-Sang that elevates this story and banishes all petty and craven motivations and concerns.
Now, it doesn't make a lot of sense that in one scene Costello and his killers have the aim of drunken Sleestaks and in the rest they can shoot like Annie Oakley. The secret Costello carries is also more plot device than anything else. Those are minor quibbles, though.
Vengeance is a great example of how playing against convention can breathe new life into the most clichéd premise. Instead of being hot and loud and insistent, this movie is cool and calm and attractively implacable. It will leave you wanting to see more work by Johnnie To and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, which is always one of the highest compliments you can give any film.