Bui doi Cho Lon

Most Vietnamese action movies contain lots of nonsense comedy scenes to make the films funnier but they are too meaningless. This movie doesn't have that big drawback so that's why my impression about it is totally good.

It has a simple story about preventing the expansion of the drugs gang. All bloody fighting/killing scenes are full of energy, entertaining and as realistic as The Raid (2011). This is a reckless idea of the director because of its genre and tense atmosphere. Although there had had many martial arts VN movie before, a crime movie was not a good idea at that time.

As the expectation, most Vietnamese claim that this movie can make the youth become violent but I think it has a good meaning after all when the film ends. There might be only 1 bad point is the soundtrack, which contains lack of music.

And to sum up, if you want to watch a low-budget gangster movie, it won't make you disappoint.

Its a great movie but as seen in Vietnam,this is a really violent movie,i was banned before even premiere.Its suppose to be Vn blockbuster of the year,but because it was banned so the movie increasingly popular in the online community,when the film is leaks everyone want to watch it In my opinion this is a great action/thriller movie for Vietnamese,its very Rarely seen a movie with investing in such action But the problem is the script is bad,too gangs fighting because of a girl ? I feel like this film is good in action,but bad in poorly script, not yet make the audience interested in the story The acting also terrible,the girl acting is a little bit fake,and i feel like she really doesn't want to act at all Anyway,the rest of the movie,i give it about 4.5,but because I'm Vietnamese so i gave it around 5.5 to 6.0

OK I think this film is excellent.

However I am lucky enough to have worked on it as senior colourist and have seen the REAL version. Unfortunately as it is currently banned no one will see it for a long time. That doesn't make me biased though, if I thought it sucked I would say so!

Nobody should watch the hideous torrents that are floating around on the internet. For starters its not the approved final edit nor has the post production been completed.

What you are all watching and reviewing is in fact a WIP copy and should be viewed as such. Remember that stupid Wolverine torrent from a few years back that was only around 60% complete? Same kinda thing.

The fight scenes for me are excellent, i watch a lot of action films and todays propensity for fast cuts and multiple angles is nothing more than a clever attempt to hide the fact that there is no real fighting being done.

The fight scenes in this movie are real and extremely well choreographed for the most part. Existing as single continuous shots (like the fighting in the apt) there is also none of the fantasy element that a lot of martial arts films have no crazy floating kicks or heavy vfx (not that they are bad things, they are just not in this film). You have to be really tight in order to make this style work and they have totally pulled it off.

On top of this the cinematography is outstanding and the directors original film is great.

Its raw and real and really really good.

Please be patient and hope that one day you will see the film the the director intended for the audience. It'll be worth the wait!

Bad acting. Directors need to put some soul in their actors, not just have them read the script. Really good realistic actions that needs major sound work, then it would be amazing. Fighting was like Young and Dangerous gone Donnie Yen. Lots of themes going on. Love, loyalty, brotherhood, etc. I don't know why they didn't release this besides the bad acting. My guess is that it depicts a social economic problem Vietnamese government is ashamed of. If you lived in Vietnam you would've seen some looney stuff, little blood doesn't scare anybody. We have a dish made with blood. I enjoyed it overall. Johnny's vietnamese is so corny omg.

I still remember how much heat and attention Bui Doi Cho Lon or Chinatown got back in 2013 when the Vietnam Cinema Department banned the movie to ever come out in theater just because it failed to pass the censorship due to the over the top depiction of gang violence and vulgar language that from their respective can cause a lot of stress and misguides for the general audience but when the movie finally upload illegally online all I have to say is the whole situation is quite overdone tbh. To see a massive gang war breaks out in the middle of the night without the cop kind of weird but because the event in the movie is completely made up and when it comes to the violence it is bloody and brutal but still not quite on the same level of Hong-Kong 90s Triad movies. Across the whole runtime, not one time that I see or hear anything that remotely glorifies gangster life only the opposite with the message about happiness in the end. The story can be boiled down to a watered version of the famous Trojan War without the complexity and characters development of the adaptation of the story Troy in 2004 and that only makes me more confusing about how this movie was banned in the first place. I extremely hate how because of this movie Dir. Charlie Nguyen and his younger brother Johnny Nguyen never make an action movie since then and that such a waste of talent