12-29-2013, 11:41 AM
There is no better subject for a movie than defection, lemme tell ya.
I've long been a big fan of Johnnie To, but then not so much. He blew me away with a couple of his early efforts. Exiled stands way out as a masterpiece of suspense from the get-go. Action plus effective love-hate tension among characters. But then I fell out of like with him after several vehicles that seemed soulless. I just couldn't find any compelling characters in a string of his movies. I remember one movie that opened with a single-shot 10-minute gun battle on a street, involving lots of people and several vehicles all in constant motion. While I admired the technical achievement, the movie itself greatly underwhelmed me.
Maybe it's time to call off my defection, if he's back to fixing omelets the way I like 'em. I'll give this one a gander.
I've long been a big fan of Johnnie To, but then not so much. He blew me away with a couple of his early efforts. Exiled stands way out as a masterpiece of suspense from the get-go. Action plus effective love-hate tension among characters. But then I fell out of like with him after several vehicles that seemed soulless. I just couldn't find any compelling characters in a string of his movies. I remember one movie that opened with a single-shot 10-minute gun battle on a street, involving lots of people and several vehicles all in constant motion. While I admired the technical achievement, the movie itself greatly underwhelmed me.
Maybe it's time to call off my defection, if he's back to fixing omelets the way I like 'em. I'll give this one a gander.