Ji Qiang

I thought the movie was rather interesting.. I watched it by accident but once it started, i couldn't stop. it had a lot of turns and twists. A bit predictable at the beginning but rolls on to a lot of substance. It could be a movie to relax with depending on the mood, its also full of suspense and the ending leaves you with a sort of satisfaction.

I did not enjoy the characters or the plot of this yawner. A guy harasses a woman for compensation for his girlfriend, killed by the woman's husband, but she eventually ends up saving his life, and he hers as it turns out. The story becomes more and more preposterous as it progresses and was completely and utterly unconvincing. Way too slow moving with too many conveniences, which I'm not even going to go into, because it'll be way too long a review. This was just silly and boring.

Loved the characterization of the three main leads. Yu Miao's life spiralled out of control when her loser of a husband let jealousy drive him to kill an innocent passerby, Jia Xiaoduo. The clueless Xu Tian got dragged into this mess because he wanted to avenge the death of his girlfriend. The one cliche belongs to the police officer, Lian. Like so many other movie cops, he dies while trying to save Yu Miao.

For viewers who aren't familiar with Chinese customs, they might think that Xu Tian's behaviour is non-sensical. Why would he chase after Yu Miao for money rather than get justice through the courts? Why does Yu Miao seem to be accepting of his behaviour? It all has to do with social norms in contemporary Chinese society, especially for those who are living in poverty.

Upon double-checking the release dates, this movie was produced before the tv drama series, "The New World," starring Yin Fang as Xu Tian. That makes this movie the precursor to the drama series. A lot of common elements become evident, in addition to the characters' names. Yu Miao is the original Tian Dan, who was betrayed by the man she loved and was caught in a horrible situation. Only by her sheer will-power, intelligence, and a bit of help from a police officer was she able to survive all this tragedy.

I wish Xu Bing would redo this as a drama series so that we can see these characters being fleshed out, and to let the story unravel in more detail.