(2022) Come Back Home - An Emotional Movie with Some Strong Performance by Donnie Yen in Dramatic Role

As major fans of Donnie Yen, my wife and I did not need any encouragement to see his latest movie. Even if I know this would be a different genre from the films he usually starred in, I still wanted to give it a try. Since it only played in several cinemas, we had to wait till the weekend to see the movie in a location that was convenient for us. All right, let's get to it.

Brief Story Line

A De (Donnie Yen - Raging Fire, Iceman: The Time Traveler etc) with his wife Xuan (Cecilia Han - Para Para Sakura etc) and their children Le Le and his younger sister were travelling to the snowy mountains. Unfortunately, Le Le had somehow gone missing. A De and Xuan had to seek the help from the police, although the captain (Jia Bing) was not too receptive as he felt A De was too snobby.

As the best time to save a missing person was only 48 hours, a lot of people joined in the rescue mission that was hindered by the difficult weather and terrain.

So how would the story conclude? You can find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

As I mentioned above, I already knew that this would be a drama movie from the simple synopsis I read. Even though I was hoping there would be a bit of action, especially since I saw there was a name mentioned in charge of the action sequence in the opening credits, but there were only very few intense moments in the middle and towards the end which could be considered as action-ish. 

For me personally, the drama was strong enough that it made up for the lack of action that you would normally see in a Donnie Yen's movie. However, audience who are looking for those might not be as receptive. Perhaps this was the factor contributing to low audience rating. I actually felt the movie's strength was in the amazing performance of Donnie Yen in this full dramatic role. His facial expression as a worried father searching for his lost son or his guilt feeling was very apparent. I think it was wonderful that he is willing to try other movie genre to enlarge his portfolio.

The story itself which started off quite simple turned out to be a bit more complicated, especially when other parties were involved. At first my wife and I were a bit confused in the earlier events, but we were delighted that it was later explained and did not leave a loose end. Understandably for this kind of movie, there would be emotional moments and we got plenty of those. One particular scene in the base camp for searching the child, combined with the Chinese version of the song Bella Ciao that was so perfectly inserted was just really heavy and totally affected both of us. 

Another thing that I liked in this movie was the ending. It was something that my wife and I believed gave a stronger impression and much more memorable. I thought the writer/director Law Chi-leung did a great job in bringing out the best of Donnie Yen in here. It should not be a surprise since he was experienced in directing critically acclaimed movies like The Bullet Vanishes and its sequel The Vanished Murderer and few others. Other cast like Cecilia Han and Jia Bing were also quite awesome in here. Although few things might seem a bit illogical but in general I could still accept them. So if you want to see Donnie Yen performed a dramatic role in a very emotional drama of a father doing whatever it takes searching for his lost son, then you should be pleased with this one. But if you just want to see Donnie Yen fight and fight, then you would not find it here. For us, this one is definitely worth seeing.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars