When I saw in the social media of one of the cinemas in Indonesia, I noticed there was this movie released only in several studios in Jakarta. I was intrigued by the premise and besides it has been a while since I saw a good quality Chinese movie in theater. So when we got the chance to see it on Saturday, my wife and I bought the ticket for the 12.45 PM show in between her events schedule. OK now we'll start with the movie.
Brief Story Line
A former hypnotic expert who currently work in a university named professor Xu (Nick Cheung - Beast Stalker, The Stool Pigeon etc) was given jury duty in a murder case. He had a young daughter who was also very close with Xu's brother in law Yang Kai (Hans Zhang - Wolf Warrior 2, The Rise of a Tomboy etc).
But when his daughter was kidnapped and he was forced to use his expertise to influence the case verdict, Xu had no choice but to comply with the demand while trying whatever he could to save his daughter.
So what would happen to them? Find them all in this entertaining Hong Kong action thriller movie.
But when his daughter was kidnapped and he was forced to use his expertise to influence the case verdict, Xu had no choice but to comply with the demand while trying whatever he could to save his daughter.
So what would happen to them? Find them all in this entertaining Hong Kong action thriller movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well that was quite a nice entertaining movie. I found myself feeling the suspense and enjoyed the way the story progressing. Sure the film was moving in a slow pace at first but it soon moved on at a faster pace after the kidnapping was done. From then onwards it was quite a thrill till the end. Now what I liked about the movie was it had some twists with one or two that still managed to surprise me. At a time where I was a bit used to with predictable twists, it was refreshing to still have the surprise and intrigued feel plus the curiosity of how it was done.
Aside from those elements, the film also got few action scenes with one that was suspenseful towards the end. When I read about the premise, I really thought this would be a full suspenseful thriller, a little bit of cat and mouse game, but the action was something that I did not think would be available in here. So it was a nice addition. Plus the actions were not bad and performed quite well by few of the cast.
Talking about the cast, I liked Nick Cheung's performance in here. It might not have been at the highest quality like in Beast Stalker which I thought was really awesome (he earned multiple awards and nomination in that movie). To be honest, he was not one of my most favorite Hong Kong stars like Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, Chow Yun Fat and so on, but I thought his roles were more diverse and better performed in the past years and resulted to me quite enjoy his films. Hans Zhang was quite OK in here and provided some good actions too. There were also quite a number of supporting roles with few that I recognized like Kent Cheng as one of the juror, Paul Chin and 1 or 2 more whom I knew from other movies but did not know their names. The rest of them were unfamiliar to me and my wife but they did their work adequately.
For an action thriller movie, I thought this one suit the category quite perfectly. It had sufficient amount of thrill, action and mystery. The only flaw was the early part felt a bit too slow and long to my personal opinion. I know that some perspective were required for audience on the characters but I thought it could be done a bit faster so it did not take too long to reach to the important part. But overall I still felt the movie was satisfying and entertaining enough for fans of this genre. My wife and I did enjoy the film, especially from the kidnapping moment. We were quite in awe of the amazing hypnotic ability our main lead was supposed to have, though I am not sure it can be said for people who must see proper logic in movies they see. So if you like this kind of film as long as you could wait a bit to get to the interesting part, then you should be able to enjoy it. But if you prefer a full action Hong Kong movie, then this would not suit your need. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Aside from those elements, the film also got few action scenes with one that was suspenseful towards the end. When I read about the premise, I really thought this would be a full suspenseful thriller, a little bit of cat and mouse game, but the action was something that I did not think would be available in here. So it was a nice addition. Plus the actions were not bad and performed quite well by few of the cast.
Talking about the cast, I liked Nick Cheung's performance in here. It might not have been at the highest quality like in Beast Stalker which I thought was really awesome (he earned multiple awards and nomination in that movie). To be honest, he was not one of my most favorite Hong Kong stars like Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, Chow Yun Fat and so on, but I thought his roles were more diverse and better performed in the past years and resulted to me quite enjoy his films. Hans Zhang was quite OK in here and provided some good actions too. There were also quite a number of supporting roles with few that I recognized like Kent Cheng as one of the juror, Paul Chin and 1 or 2 more whom I knew from other movies but did not know their names. The rest of them were unfamiliar to me and my wife but they did their work adequately.
For an action thriller movie, I thought this one suit the category quite perfectly. It had sufficient amount of thrill, action and mystery. The only flaw was the early part felt a bit too slow and long to my personal opinion. I know that some perspective were required for audience on the characters but I thought it could be done a bit faster so it did not take too long to reach to the important part. But overall I still felt the movie was satisfying and entertaining enough for fans of this genre. My wife and I did enjoy the film, especially from the kidnapping moment. We were quite in awe of the amazing hypnotic ability our main lead was supposed to have, though I am not sure it can be said for people who must see proper logic in movies they see. So if you like this kind of film as long as you could wait a bit to get to the interesting part, then you should be able to enjoy it. But if you prefer a full action Hong Kong movie, then this would not suit your need. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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