Revenge: Sympathy for the Devil

"Revenge: A Love Story" ("Fuk Sau Che Chi Sei") is without a doubt one of the more brutal and raw movies to make it out of Hong Kong cinema. Sure, there are lots of action movies that are equally good, but there is just something more profound to this movie that transcends, pardon the expression, mindless action sequences.

The story is about a series of ghastly murders in the Hong Kong rural villages, where pregnant women are found with their bellies cut open and their babies removed. Kit (played by Juno Mak) is being framed for these heinous acts and he sees how corrupt police men take turns raping Wing (played by Sora Aoi), a simple minded girl that he has sworn to look after following the death of her grandmother. Kit will stop at nothing before these crooked cops have paid their dues.

I will say that the storyline was quite interesting, and the characters were nicely detailed and portrayed by the actors playing them, but more importantly, the story is very graphic and visual, which I enjoyed and found to be a rather nice surprise for a Hong Kong movie. Mind you, that some of these visuals, especially at the murder sites, can be a little bit too much for some viewers to handle - so viewer discretion is advised here. There is more to the story than just revenge, especially if you look at the movie from the eyes of Kit and Wing, then it is a story of love and compassion.

Not really being familiar with Juno Mak, I will say that he put on a really good performance in "Revenge: A Love Story", as did Sora Aoi (although she has some fairly questionable movies etched in her belt), and together they really complimented one another with the on-screen chemistry.

I had initially just expected this to be an action-thriller, but it turned out to be something much better. And I highly recommend this movie to anyone fan of Asian and/or Hong Kong cinema.

My rating is 9 out of 10 stars. "Revenge: A Love Story" was as surprising as it was entertaining.

This is a grotesque exploitation movie that tries to be more than what it is. Still it got my attention most of the way through since I wanted to see how it would end. It did a good job of making the audiences hate the ones behind the corruption. The story is about a meat bun guy falling for a pretty handicapped high school girls. But things get sour when corrupt police officers do things they shouldn't be doing. The movie has plot-holes that doesn't make sense sometimes. But it doesn't try to make a believable story but heads more towards the hard hitting elements and exploitation. It's basically a B-movie that tries to be something more but when it comes down to it. Although it tries to show a deep message the intentions of this movie is quite clear and what direction and things they wanted to show. Which is exploitation and violence. It's also not clear if the meat bun guy is doing all the things he does for the one he loves or for himself because of the circumstances in this movie. Sora Aoi is in this and her scenes might be predictable which takes away from the shock factors. But it's still comes off as hard-hitting and brutal.

6.9

Revenge: A Love Story puts its best foot forward from the get go, drawing the viewer in with early scenes of remarkable cruelty that are shot with a clarity of vision one would expect from a veteran filmmaker. Unfortunately, the film stumbles and eventually falls flat.

The film is divided into 'chapters'. For fear of spoiling anything at all, I will refrain from discussing them in depth. I will say though - the first three play out over the first hour of the movie. These three, and the third especially, are strong, with a few setbacks. After that first hour, I was expecting to be rewarding this movie with 7 or even 8 stars.

I may be jumping to conclusions by saying this, but I am of the belief that this movie was simply watered-down too many times pre-production. There was most certainly something great beneath it all. In the lead role, Jun Mak showed off his acting chops and I can't say, by any means, that he was bad in the role. There wasn't enough dialogue. I felt like the movie was tailored for pop stars and took away any opportunity for them to appear to be poor actors, subsequently preventing any semblance of a strong performance. Solo Aoi almost never spoke. It was briefly alluded to that her character was 'retarded' or 'mildly retarded'. Her role in the movie felt too much like 'smile and be beautiful'.

Buried somewhere deep within Revenge: A Love Story is a truly brilliant film, comparable to prominent films in the revenge sub-genre. The recent I Saw The Devil comes to mind. In fact, there are even parallels to be drawn between the two, as Revenge too invokes the notion of pure evil when the title of chapter 5 refers to the devil. By that time, the film had already begun it's self-destruction, and we're subjected to the third installment of Jun Mak running, shirtless, in slow-motion, with his panting the only audible sound.

I would recommend this to revenge-movie geeks. You'll likely enjoy the movie (as I did). You might even be enthralled through the first hour (as I was). But be warned: If you are expecting a good, intelligent thriller, this is not it.

From the opening scenes of slow-motion choke killing, and the first 20 minutes, I was expecting another gory slasher Asian movie. But than, everything goes upside down. Explained via flashbacks this movie is 100% connected with the title; Add in brackets ( ultimate ) revenge; a love story. Director Ching Po Wong beautifully draw's you into the story. There are slow-motion scenes, there is repetition and than there are difficult gory scenes to watch. But believe me this is one of those movies that if you pass the first 20-25 minutes you will drop the popcorn's, forget about the love squeeze and just watch the movie. The main character Kit ( Juno Mak ) is exceptional as a mean-clean-killing machine. But what is his motive? Why all the brutalities? One of the flashbacks starts with "ultimate revenge is in forgiveness". Obviously Kit bypassed that section in his life and he will not stop until his revenge is complete. Sola Aoi in the role of the girl for who Kit falls in love is quietly perfect. Acting, direction and the script is excellent and this is one of those movies that will be difficult to shake off, it's not a date movie and it's not a movie to watch after getting a parking ticket for example. But it is one of those hidden gems that will stay with you for a while. Check it out as soon as you can! Andreja K.

Revenge; A love story, is a Hong Kong based production from 2010. It's pretty effective as a revenge/love story.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Story: Some maniac is murdering the pregnant wives and husbands of a small town police force. He kills these women by cutting their unborn children out of their wombs while they're still alive, and leaving them to bleed to death. He dispatches their husbands by whatever various means at hand. Did I mention this movie is frequently brutal?

The police are desperate to catch and punish this lunatic, and they soon capture the primary suspect who is obviously the culprit of these crimes. However, there is a lack of evidence to convict him, so he's eventually set free. The police officers tasked with interrogating him before his release, are well aware of who this guy is and soon realize why he's committing these crimes.

As the story unfold via flashbacks, it becomes clear what is going on and why; there is a group of police officers who wronged a young man and young girl in the past and then tried to collectively cover up what happened. What the coppers did in the past is now coming back to haunt them in the present, and they now must pay the price.

If you need to know more, here it is: (SPOILERS) An underprivileged young man who sells roadside steamed buns takes a liking to a pretty young school girl who visits his shop on a daily basis. The girl is semi-mildly retarded, but not totally incompetent, and the two of them eventually develop a relationship. Through a series of events, the young girl gets mistaken for a new prostitute serving the small town (which the local police force is regularly accustomed to taking advantage of). Things spiral out of control quickly, and the police force eventually realizes they've dipped their wicks where they shouldn't have (but only after they have viciously taken advantage of and used this girl for their own pleasure). They somewhat regret what has happened, but the damage has been done, and there is no turning back, so they decide to brush everything under the carpet and protect their brotherhood. Meanwhile, her life is now in ruins, and her young boyfriend has become insane with rage and obsessed with revenge (hard to blame him really). So, there you have it; he's determined to make everyone involved with this incident pay for their sins.

The lead actor (guy seeking revenge) is played by Juno Makhe's, and he's pretty impressive in this role as the love struck young man bent on obtaining brutal revenge. He's also credited as writing the original story, so it's clear he has some talent. The rest of the cast is rounded out by the lead actress, and the 5 primary cops who the lead is seeking revenge on. The actors portraying the cops are quite effective; they range from pure evil to simply complicit in their actions, but they are all pretty much deserving as to what's coming to them. I don't think anybody will feel sorry for any of them.

The lead actress is played by Aoi Sora. She does a capable job in her role, but she's not given a whole lot to do. I don't how much this has to do with the role she's pegged for, or the fact that she's a Japanese actress acting in a Chinese language film, or what have you. It should also be noted that she's pretty new to acting in mainstream movies, and, I find her efforts to evolve from former hard core porn star to legitimate actress an incredibly fascinating story on its own. I thought she was pretty solid as the lead In "Man, Woman, and the Wall", and was effective enough in her supporting role in the wonderfully odd "Torso". She invariably still has to take her clothes off in all of her recent mainstream roles to date, but she seems plenty capable enough to eventually cease having to do so one day, and if she succeeds, good for her!

Bottom Line: This is a solid story that becomes a bit unbelievable and over the top at times, but, it's effective for the most part and pretty good for what it's trying to accomplish. It's frequently brutal & often depressingly sad, and, it's not for the faint of heart. Not great, but, I will recommend it if you like this sort of thing.

As such, I'm giving it 7 out of 10 stars!