Shock Wave

Shock Wave is a quite intense action-thriller starring Hong Kong star actor Andy Lau. It tells the story of an undercover police officers who arrests the brother of a ruthless terrorist who is specialized in using explosives. About a year later, the terrorist has specialized in drug trade but is obsessed with getting his revenge. He kills one of the commanders in charge of his brother's arrest a year ago by making his car explode. The undercover cop who has a successful career, is respected by his peers and has met a teacher who has become his girlfriend over the past twelve months, realizes that the terrorist will challenge him to get his revenge. A series of bombs are found in Hong Kong and it becomes more and more difficult to dismantle them for the protagonist. However, nobody is prepared for the terrorist's magnum opus: he kidnaps hundreds of civilians by blocking the exits of a tunnel with two trucks filed with explosives. His goal is to discredit the Hong Kong police corps, make money with a ruthless businessman and reunite with his imprisoned brother. The undercover terrorist must try to deal very carefully with the excitable terrorist in order to save as many civilians as possible.

There are numerous elements I liked about Shock Wave. The film has vivid pace and is entertaining from start to finish. The acting performances are great as Andy Lau convinces as calm and rational police officers while Wu Jiang delivers the goods as clever and pitiless terrorist. The action scenes in the film are always dramatic and intense. The special effects look great. The settings in Hong Kong are also quite interesting and especially the scenes in the tunnel make for a claustrophobic atmosphere. The film has a few nice ideas that keep it original such as the terrorist's brother who has found religion and unexpectedly doesn't cooperate with the dangerous terrorist. I also liked the movie's unusual ending which distinguishes it from similar movies where an honest officer is challenged by a pitiless terrorist. One wouldn't see such a resolution in an ordinary Hollywood flick.

On the other side, the movie also has a few minor flaws. The story is quite predictable which makes the film lose momentum and tension. The relationship between the honest police officer and the emotionally unstable teacher isn't credible at all as the police officer has the charisma of an iceberg while his love interest seems to be constantly discouraged.

Overall, Shock Wave is a quite good action-thriller that will entertain you from start to finish. It makes me think of the Die Hard series and similar franchises but since these movie have been mostly disappointing recently, it only makes sense to look for something similar but more convincing produced in Hong Kong with its know-how of spectacular action cinema.

Typical Hong Kong movie that didn't put much focus on story, it's flat throughout even though it has put in place conflicting characters and elements of brotherhood and father-and-son among the characters.

The film features some incredible action sequences and also a few very tense moments. A great premise convincingly executed thanks to believable acting and an experienced director. The humor was kept to a minimum, making the film an effective nail-biter.

Police Drama injected with Action. We have seen a lot of good movies coming out of Hong Kong (I have I should say, but if you are interested in this my guess is, this isn't your first either) and after the re-entering also from China. So this almost feels like a step back if you are being as real as possible.

Still in Hollywood standards this is at least decent. Very predictable and all, and not that tension filled as it believes it is, but the action is good, Andy Lau pulls his weight and if you only like him a little bit, that will be enough to let you love this anyway. It does have an ending that may be a bit too much, but then again, it does try to blow the top of the roof of anyway ... no pun intended

I had the chance to sit down and watch "Chai Dan Zhuan Jia" (aka "Shock Wave") and must admit that it was nice to be in the presence of the gracious Andy Lau once more. I had not even heard of the movie prior to finding it. But seeing that this was a Hong Kong movie and it had Andy Lau in the lead, I needed no encouragement to pick it up and watch it.

While the storyline in "Shock Wave" is nothing that haven't been seen already, then it was still a very enjoyable movie. Especially so since I used to live in Hong Kong, so it was particularly thrilling to see the Cross Harbour Tunnel being the focal point of the movie. However, the storyline was rather streamlined, and there were no shock moments or surprises along the way, well aside from the ending - which I am not going to give away. But it was a story that headed straight ahead at 200 mph without any turns or climbs.

The acting in the movie was good, but then again Andy Lau is such a skilled actor that he masters many different genres, and he is no stranger to action movies. So it was no surprise that he carried this movie quite well. The characters in the movie were nicely detailed, and brought to life by an ensemble of different talents that each brought their own touch to the movie.

There is a good amount of action in the movie, and that is supplemented by character build and interaction. So that made for a very wholesome movie experience.

The downside to "Shock Wave" was its predictability. You saw things coming a mile away. But being able to look past that, then the movie was good entertainment and definitely a movie I would recommend that you take the time to watch if you enjoy Asian cinema.