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8/10
Bangkok Beautiful
21 August 2003
I Really enjoyed this one. The imagery is beautiful and imaginative, excellent editing and vibrant colors.

The cast was good, especially the guy playing Kong, the deaf assassin, he did a fantastic job, showing a full range of emotion without uttering a word. I really felt for the guy. In fact, I completely fail to see how the characters are flat and undeveloped like someone said. True, we don't get their life story, but i found my self really caring for them, they felt sort of real even though you didn't get to know that much about them.

That, and the girl playing Kong's love interest is so cute it'll make your eyes hurt...

About the action. Some people complain about this not being up to par with John Woo's action choreography, but who said an action flick, just because it's from Asia should have to be about making every shoot-out look like the Swan Lake? This is grittier, more unrehearsed, it's not about looking good firing that gun (even though I'm a big fan of that too).I thought that there was some really smart stuff, where brains won over brawn, watch out for the scene with laser sights at the end. I went "ahhh - Clever!"

This is not a perfect movie, it has flaws. I felt the ending to be a bit formulaic, and the whole "violence begets more violence" concept surely is nothing new plotwise, but still, it's not dumb and full of holes like so many other action movies. And it's sooo pretty to watch...
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1/10
Run - don't look back!
18 August 2003
Stay the hell away from this one... No, really I'm serious - I know you might think this is a fun, campy, cheesy Hong Kong action style B movie. I did, but trust me, it's not. In fact, the only thing accurate about that description would be the words Hong Kong, and then only used in a strictly geographical sense.

Yes, Donnie Yen has co-directed it. Jackie Chan has a cameo. The guy Ekin Cheng, from Storm Riders plays the lead. It got vampires. It should be good - or at least fun, charming and action packed. Once again - it's not.

I could digress on why this movie sucks - I could dissect it, hack it to tiny, shivering pieces. But where to start? There's so much to hate...

To make it easier, and to give this hate-fest some credability, let me say that I'm usually a big fan of Hog Kong cinema. The heavier drama stuff as well as the more lighthearted action and/or comedy.The really good movies as well as the really cheesy ones. I can sit through hours of bad subtitling, jokes lame enough to make first graders roll their eyes. I can handle lovers as chaste and celibate as a convention of nuns, that and pretty much anything else the average film goer would bang their metaphorical toes against on their way between action sequences. Also, Hong Kong or any other origin - I love it when a movie goes from just being bad to bad enough to be good.

But this - Arrgh! It's just horrible, STUPID, unwatchable garbage. So far from being funny or charming it's actually painful. So derived of action it makes a Bergman movie look like the Texas chainsaw massacre.

Why?! Why waste such an opportunity?! This could have been so much fun!
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