I mentioned in 1 of my previous posts that while I was on holiday trip with my wife, I was able to watch 2 1/2 movies and one of them was this. I was intrigued by the title as it is clearly a remake of the hit 1986 classic which I loved a lot. So I opted this as my second movie of the day, and I was excited as I would be able to see this without interruption. Well here goes more on the movie.
Brief Story Line
Zhou Kai (Wang Kai - Railroad Tigers, Ode to Joy TV series etc) and Zhou Chao (Ma Tianyu - The Founding of An Army, Ice Fantasy TV series etc) were 2 brothers who were very close but were having the complete opposite line of work. Zhou Kai together with his right hand man Ma Ke (Darren Wang - Legend of the Naga Pearls, Suddenly Seventeen etc) were members of a smuggling ring and specialized in the route between China and Japan. Meanwhile Zhou Chao was a rookie police and never knew about his elder brother's activities.
When a deal setup by another smuggling ring member Pi Jin (Wu Yue) went awry, Zhou Kai and Ma Ke would be caught in the intrigue among the members and their leaders. Things became even worse for Zhou Kai when his brother found out about his work and affected their family. Not to mention the smuggling ring were trying to force Zhou Kai into doing something he would not agree to.
With everything seemed to be falling apart, could Zhou Kai amend his relationship with his brother and what would happen to Ma Ke and could all of them "escape" from the smuggling team's persistent effort? Find them all in this full of action movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well watching this movie from start to finish, I could not help but feel that it was not truly what I expected. I do not know why but I could not get the sense of excitement and amazed feeling that I had when watching the original. This was a bit strange since the story was almost identical with all the main characters were quite the same. Wang Kai's character was previously played by Ti Lung, Ma Tianyu was played by the late Leslie Cheung and Darren Wang's character was by Chow Yun Fat. But somehow I did not feel the "kick" from this movie. It felt like just any ordinary crime/mafia Hong Kong movies.
Now I respect the wishes of the director Ding Sheng (whose works included movies like Saving Mr. Wu, Police Story 2013, Railroad Tigers etc) to remake one of the most iconic Hong Kong movie, but the thing is the original characters of 1986 version were so implanted in my head that I could probably not accept other people portraying them. Now this would be purely a personal view as I actually got nothing against the new 3 actors playing them. If you set aside the movie being a remake, their acting were actually pretty good. Wang Kai suit his role as a cool and loving older brother while Darren Wang was also good in his action style (and I think the ladies would have loved his appearance) and Ma Tianyu also convincing as young man idolizing his older brother and disappointed in him.
The action sequence itself were pretty good with the climax being my favorite. However, that scene when Ma Ke terrorizing the enemy in the restaurant, even though it's well made, I still prefer the original classic scenes by Chow Yun Fat, especially with that jacket of his. There were also some kind of tribute to the original actors (by way of showing their photos and also playing the song by Leslie Cheung), but I thought it would be a nicer touch if the remaining alive cast were able to at least give cameo performance. Perhaps it was due to schedule conflict. Oh and just to let you know, the ending was different from the original movie. I am appreciative with its ending which was a bit surprising and I actually kind of think it's more logical.
Overall my personal feel of this movie is that if it is not a remake, I am guessing it would have been more appealing as people (like me) would not be comparing it with the original. Although I could be wrong and the appeal of the movie was actually being a remake itself. But I guess that would be up to the audience. From what I read in the internet, the movie did not make too much money and even less than the original 1986 movie. And critics were lukewarm about it.
So if you want to see a crime story movie with lots of actions, then this could be a good choice. But it would be better if you see this with an open mind and not be biased with the original (if you have seen it). If you want to see it for the sake of comparison or for nostalgic feeling, I would recommend you to just watch the original directed by one of my most favorite action movie director, John Woo. This movie is currently available in the inflght entertainment of Singapore Airlines and would be playing in Celestial Movies channel this Sunday onwards.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment