Vengeance - Killer unter sich

It's the same pre-credit sequence that has kick-started dozens of films over the last few decades: a happy and loving couple are gunned down for apparently no reason in brutal fashion – although in this case they take the next step and include the two young cute children in the massacre to increase the stakes.

Now the rest of the film will be about who is the most p*ssed off and desperate for revenge.

That guy is Mr Costello, the French father of the critically injured mother, her two children and husband all not surviving the killing. I should point out here that at times the language switches between Chinese, French (with subtitles) and English. The film takes place in Macau but while the Hubby was Asian, the wife – and Costello's daughter – was French. I don't know why I found this interesting but I did, but it doesn't drag you out of the story.

In true vigilante fashion Mr Costello eschews the traditional law and order approach to finding the killers, after a chance encounter at a crime scene Costello declines the opportunity to bring a killer to justice and instead tracks down the accused to enlist him and his team to help find his daughter's family's killers. An odd form of ambulance chasing indeed! The new trio of bad guys agree to hop on board after Costello promises them cash and the restaurant he owns. They start using their contacts and trade secrets to get swift results, during the process it becomes evident that the 65ish Costello has skillz of his own – even if they haven't been utilised for quite a while.

So why doesn't he track them down himself? Well aside from his lack of inside Macau knowledge Costello's advanced age has caused memory issues in a similar vein to that of the lead character in Memento – he too takes photos and scrawls on them for reminders, meaning he can be a little ineffective once he has a "turn".

The plot is reasonably formulaic with only subtle variations on the usual sequence of events – a major shootout is delayed by the arrival of several of the combatant's kids. Vengeance has a couple of nifty battles where various minions are picked off with clean kills while the main characters are lightly wounded with bloody clothes being the only lasting sign, until near the very end of the film where the Reservoir Dogs rule – that of "most/all must die" kicks in.

Final Rating – 7 / 10. Take a pinch of SPL, add the core elements of Taken and a dash of Memento and you have a pretty good um… ahhh… Vengeance film. I guess they nailed the title.

Vengeance is about a Frenchman who travels to Hong Kong and Macau to avenge the murder of his daughter's family. The Memento-like riff is that he is losing his memory and so needs to take photos of people to remind himself who they are. It takes a long time before the filmmakers find a way to use this idea creatively, and then they use it really badly. What's annoying is that the movie doesn't need the memory loss lead at all, the whole movie still would work well if the guy was compos mentis, you still have a fish-out-of-water lead character, and you still have lots of material about loyalty and brotherhood.

Bloodthirsty vengeance is obviously a really bad idea, and so if you're going to make it the theme of a movie, you need either a strongly pulpy feel to the movie, or you need really stupid characters; maybe make it a samurai movie, as the sort of moral codes that existed centuries ago would make sense of the characters and their motivations here. As it is, this movie just doesn't make sense. Some of the narrative conceits are weak, like how the lead character comes across some assassins for hire randomly in his hotel. The movie also had really bad CGI, you could see the blood spurts each time someone got shot were amateurish.

I ended up being pretty annoyed, it just felt like someone had torn a first draft script from a scriptwriter's hands and just started shooting with it. Johnny Hallyday (rest in peace), is a picture of pain, but because he's been worn down by age and strife, not because he's acting it, there's nothing expressive about what he's doing in this movie. It comes across like he's involved so that the movie still got co-production money. According to Roger Ebert he was a last minute substitution for Alain Delon.

I won't deny that the movie has effective moments, the set piece at the barbecue spot at night is really good, although even that has a really stupid moment (improbable boomeranging Frisbee). I've recently watched Takashi Miike's Black Society Trilogy, and this effort from Johnnie To is absolutely light years behind those excellent movies in terms of quality. Somehow this was accepted in competition at Cannes in 2009.

"Vengeance" ("Fuk Sau") turned out to be quite nice. This is another great Johnnie To movie, and he is definitely in his right element with this movie.

The movie is driven by a fairly good storyline, but also by the drama and action sequences, but ultimately it is the powerhouse performances by the actors in the movie that carry the movie most of the way. And here I must especially point out Anthony Wong Chau-Sang (playing Kwai), Ka Tung Lam (playing Chu), Suet Lam (playing Fat Lok) and Simon Yam (playing George Fung). I didn't care one bit for the performance put on by Johnny Hallyday (playing Costello), and I think the movie would have been just that much better had they cast someone else for that role.

The storyline in "Vengeance" is about Costello who hires Kwai, Chu and Fat Lok to get revenge on those who killed his daughter, her husband and their children. It is a race to track down the culprits ranging from Macau to Hong Kong.

Aside from my own personal dislike against the lead actor in the movie, then "Vengeance" is a definite watch movie, especially if you enjoy Hong Kong cinema.

A decade ago, director Johnny To made an impression on many when he released "The Mission". Several years later, he explored similar ideas in "Exiled". Now, in 2009, Johnny To releases another movie and like the former two, it is a story of stoic killers dealing with issues of duty, loyalty, friendship and revenge all wrapped up in violence and tragedy.

To's style is unmistakable and yet reminds you of many high profile directors. There is of course the resemblance to Asian cinema in the vein of Woo. To like many of his contemporaries likes to mix modern, stylish action scenes with the bleakness of Noir films. The fact he is a fan of Jean-Pierre Melville shows big time, especially in Vengeance. I would also say he puts his mark on films as much as Sergio Leone did decades ago.

If you've liked The Mission and Exiled, chances are you will enjoy Vengeance although it is the weakest of the three in execution. Many scenes are reminiscent of the other two (particularly Exiled) and it features many of the actors. I thought the blood splatter effects from gunshots in Exiled were bold and promising. Unfortunately, here they aren't as stylish and clash a bit with the action.

Johnny To likes to concentrate on style. The stories are primal, the characters are archetypes. The Mission had an extremely simple core story, allowing the scenes to flow one after the other. In Exile, the plot was more convoluted while being less interesting. Vengeance is a return to a simpler plot. Unfortunately, it relies on extraordinary coincidences making suspension of disbelief impossible. You just have to enjoy the ride.

A good film but not the director's best.

It is not very often nowadays that you will get to see Johnnie To's new production frequently in the cinema, compared to his heydays with his working partner, Wai Kar Fai. Both had churned out several box office hit and flops during the early decade of the 21st century, and it is believe that good things are worth the wait. Vengeance is the answer to To's long awaited latest action thriller, after directing two previous productions beyond his normal scope of story line.

With his usual suspects (Anthony Wong, Simon Yam, Lam Kar Tung and Lam Suet), To recruits French rock star Johnny Hallyday to be the leading actor in the Hong Kong – France production. Nominated for Palm D'Ors in Cannes Film Festival 2009, Singapore has the opportunity to get the release of Vengeance in its original Cantonese-English version, since Hong Kong productions are barred from releasing in Cantonese version due to Singapore censorship regulation. This gives Singaporeans a true blue experience of the idea and message To wants to bring to his audience. And yes, it is a must to catch it in cinemas.

Vengeance begins with Costello (Hallyday) seeking revenge for the massacre of his daughter's family. He recruited three professional assassins, namely Kwai (Wong), Chu (Lam Kar Tung) and Lok (Lam Suet). While Kwai, Chu and Lok helps Costello in hunting down the killers responsible for the massacre, the investigation leads them to the mafia boss and employer, George Fung (Yam), who is behind the massacre.

Vengeance marks the last chapter of To's gunman trilogy (The Mission, 2001; Exiled, 2006), where the trilogy shares the same trademark of a mass gunfight, and stories revolving professional killers force to stand on the side they believed in, or made to believe in. While a mass crossfire between both conflicting sides is inevitable in To's trilogy, he never fails to surprise the audience in presenting the gunfight. Just like the mass shootout at the hotel in Exiled, Vengeance shows us with the crossfire at the garbage recycle center, where large cubes of compressed old newspaper becomes the shield for the gunmen.

Also, expect several scenes without any dialog, as To wants the audience to watch the body language, so as to do the interpretation themselves. The movie lives to the genre of an 'action flick', where body language is an action to tell the story.

Hallyday takes the leading role of Castello, which is something fresh that an audience can look forward to. Here, he is a chef with a past, where being a former professional killer, he had a short lived memory as a bullet was left in his brain. This creates a Memento like scenario, where he tracks down the people looking for using Polaroid pictures. He has the support of the three killers, who assist him in tracking down the killers behind the massacre. While there seems to be some kind of mirror reflection from Exiled, we do not see the fun elements that exist in Exiled. A sense of sorrow replaced the fun in Vengeance, where the killers do not kill for brotherhood (which explains why the fun elements steps in at Exiled), but for the sense of obligation, which slowly developed to personal revenge.

While Wong and Lam Suet were portraying similar roles in Exiled, Lam Kar Tung was given more opportunity to explore the role of the killer, compared to his minor role as a gang leader in Exiled. Similarly, Simon Yam was reprising the same role he had in Exiled, which makes no differences in both movies. Michelle Ye and Maggie Shiu, as the two leading actress, ends up being a sidekick in Vengeance, where Ye plays a pregnant woman taking care of Costello, while Shiu as the police inspector handling the massacre. This can be deduced that Vengeance is more of a masculine thriller.

In overall, Vengeance is one of the few thrillers in 2009 that must not be missed. If you love an action thriller, don't miss it. If you think that all Hong Kong thrillers are the same, Vengeance is something new that you can look at.