I'm afraid I can't agree with some of the other reviewers on here. I really liked this film - for a number of reasons.
It was fast-paced, funny, while highlighting some of the issues facing an increasingly commercialising China. Mental illness, cultural erosion, love, loss, crime - this story has it all.
Living in Asia, I watch a lot of movies of various ethnicities - it's nice to see some 'serious' film- making that doesn't have a cast of tens of thousands, a music score with 200 dancers, or based on a folk story from a thousand years ago, etc.
The reviewers that derided this film as being derivative are missing the point - as well as being factually incorrect, IMHO - this is a modern, urban tale of an emerging China and as such is almost impossible to compare with something from the West. While the sub-plot of the buddy movie that allows Spacey his role, the more pervasive story line is the modernisation of China.
I think a lot of Western audiences, given the opportunity to see this film, will be surprised at the way life is heading in Asia - the old stereotypes are falling daily.
The impact this film has had around Asia is indicative of the scarcity of quality home-grown drama. While on a storytelling level this film was a little uneven, what it does is breaks ground for other directors and sets the stage for audiences to expect a level and content of Chinese film-making previously unseen.
For years now China has been making technically superior films - beautiful scenery and cinematography, massive sets and casts of thousands along with stunning design and costuming, but nearly always the subject was historical stories or epic fiction.
Seeing a new wave of Chinese directors making films for an increasingly cosmopolitan middle-class is heartening as this pushes further the maturation of China as a modern, democratic country.
Once you start to see films such as this exposing some of the foibles in society, you know that acceptance is not far behind, and acceptance breeds an egalitarian society.
I love visiting the new China and I look forward with relish to Mr Eng's next work.
It was fast-paced, funny, while highlighting some of the issues facing an increasingly commercialising China. Mental illness, cultural erosion, love, loss, crime - this story has it all.
Living in Asia, I watch a lot of movies of various ethnicities - it's nice to see some 'serious' film- making that doesn't have a cast of tens of thousands, a music score with 200 dancers, or based on a folk story from a thousand years ago, etc.
The reviewers that derided this film as being derivative are missing the point - as well as being factually incorrect, IMHO - this is a modern, urban tale of an emerging China and as such is almost impossible to compare with something from the West. While the sub-plot of the buddy movie that allows Spacey his role, the more pervasive story line is the modernisation of China.
I think a lot of Western audiences, given the opportunity to see this film, will be surprised at the way life is heading in Asia - the old stereotypes are falling daily.
The impact this film has had around Asia is indicative of the scarcity of quality home-grown drama. While on a storytelling level this film was a little uneven, what it does is breaks ground for other directors and sets the stage for audiences to expect a level and content of Chinese film-making previously unseen.
For years now China has been making technically superior films - beautiful scenery and cinematography, massive sets and casts of thousands along with stunning design and costuming, but nearly always the subject was historical stories or epic fiction.
Seeing a new wave of Chinese directors making films for an increasingly cosmopolitan middle-class is heartening as this pushes further the maturation of China as a modern, democratic country.
Once you start to see films such as this exposing some of the foibles in society, you know that acceptance is not far behind, and acceptance breeds an egalitarian society.
I love visiting the new China and I look forward with relish to Mr Eng's next work.