this film is inspired by John Woo (吴宇森)'s Bullet in the Head (喋血街头). by using Shanghai (上海) as background, the film presented perfect image of: gangland chiefs ruling the streets, beautiful girls craving for a better life - singing, dancing or acting. it showed how the boys venture into gangland. being tested for loyalty n comradeship. they soon found out that there are much more to sacrifice, for guns n girls. the film is truly presented in a elegant n "perfect" sets n costumes. however, there was a general sense of emotional emptiness. the gun-fights can be more believing if it weren't one-sided all the time. which means the good-guys can still walk even after being shot. where else the bad-guys all fell in one shot. sometimes they barely have time to shot at all. surely this is too fast too furious .. 2 brothers n a friend head to the big city for an opportunity. leaving their village to pursue their dream. they do not see greed n the desire to have power coming. their friendship are tested severely. challenging the Chinese saying of "blood being thicker than water" (血浓于水). the love story are pretty messed up. too much angle of "possible" love advancing. yet nothing happens. everyone sticked with the "original coupling" thingy in the end. Daniel was obviously struggling with Mandarin, just to sound right. pretty good effort though. having to sound real, especially in anger scenes. Shu Qi is trying to be innocent with Daniel, but she ain't. she is the gangland chief's girl after all. struggle hard to be his number 1 girl, she search for comforts in affairs. more than an average love-triangle. despite its weaknesses, the film did prove to be charismatic enough to hold my attention till the end. the characters are portray beautifully, regardless of how bloody it is. everything is simply "perfect" to the eye ..
some background on the movie:
- director: Alexi (陈奕利)
- released: 2007
- casts: Zhang Zheng (张震), Daniel (吴彦祖), Liu Ye (刘烨), Shu Qi (舒淇), Tony (杨佑宁)
- language: Mandarin
- genre: Action/Romance
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