Brief Story Line
Zhou Quan (Andy Lau - Chasing the Dragon, Shock Wave etc) was a well known professional hitman known as Mr. Z. After his recent work, Mr. Z went to a public spa on his way back home where he briefly met with Chen Xiaomeng (Xiao Yang - Sheep Without a Shepherd etc), a failed actor who had lots of debts and just tried to kill himself. When a freak accident happened to Zhou Quan, he somehow lost his memory while Xiaomeng took his expensive personal belongings and resumed Mr. Z identity, not knowing that he was a hitman.
Meanwhile, Li Xiang (Regina Wan - God of War etc) was a single mother who worked as editor in a media company. By chance she met with Zhou Quan who thought he was Xiaomeng and reluctantly help him. As she was looking for a breakout news, Li Xiang felt that the story of Xiaomeng's amnesia would be wonderful and started to find out more about him. Things got further complicated when one of Mr. Z client, Wang Yanhui (Huang Xiaolei) wanted to give new assignment to him
So what would happen to all of them? Find out on this entertaining dark comedy movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well that was really enjoyable. I had great time watching this movie which was not exactly what I expected. At first I thought it would be a standard action comedy focusing on the case of mistaken identity, especially looking at Xiao Yang who played as the failed actor and looked a bit comical. However, as I continued watching, I found that this was a film with a bit of drama and having some dark comedy and not a lot of action. Usually I would be disappointed watching a movie that was not like what I hoped for, but this time around, I was able to enjoy it due to its captivating characters.
Those of you who have read my posts would have known already by now that I am a fan of Andy Lau (he also served as producer in here). And I think his recent works have been better in terms of quality. He might not have his youthful look anymore but his maturity in performing various roles have improved significantly. This time around, I really liked his characterization as both professional killer and when resuming the identity of an extra actor. Xiao Yang was also convincing playing this out of luck and full of debts small time actor who felt he won the lottery. And finally Regina Wan was pretty decent as the editor with her hidden agenda and had a good enough chemistry with Andy Lau.
After reading on the internet about this movie, I found out that it was a remake of 2012 Japanese film titled Key of Life which was quite highly regarded and was nominated & won few awards including Best Screenplay. Btw, this movie had a duration of around 119 minutes including closing credits where we could see few brief comedic scenes. I also like the ending which pretty much gave proper closures to the characters. Oh there was a song during the end credit that was in reference to New Year (the film was released on the 2021 Chinese New Year holiday).
Overall this was an entertaining dark comedy film with interesting story and engaging characters. It was fun looking at how the two male leads adjusting themselves with their "new" life. And the annoying villain Wang Yunhui also added some humor to the film. So those of you who are looking for a refreshing Andy Lau movie, then you would be happy to watch this one like I did. But if you are in the mood for a lot of actions or at least comedic action, then you have to be ready with the lack of it in here. The movie is currently playing on Celestial Movies channel.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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