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.

This has to be the worst move I seen. This is really an embarrassment to Vietnamese entertainment industry. The casting, scripting and acting are all below amateurs level. The trailer got me exited and I was hoping this will showcase Vietnamese talents on the big screen. My hope got shader after watching 10 minutes. The acting and fighting was so bad that I could not continue. Luckily this movie did not make it to the theater in Viet Nam. I have no idea what they were thinking when making this film. They did invested a lot of money into this production and it came out really bad.

This has to be the worst move I seen. This is really an embarrassment to Vietnamese entertainment industry. The casting, scripting and acting are all below amateurs level. The trailer got me exited and I was hoping this will showcase Vietnamese talents on the big screen. My hope got shader after watching 10 minutes. The acting and fighting was so bad that I could not continue. Luckily this movie did not make it to the theater in Viet Nam. I have no idea what they were thinking when making this film. They did invested a lot of money into this production and it came out really bad.

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!

first at all you have a huge Worldwide Superstar in the film .. with credits in (Mortal Kombat) .. and so other important Hollywood action movies ... respectful man ..who did an excellent job as usual ..before Tony J ..exists Mister Jhonny Nguyen ..in all his glory!! there's no other director to do this masterpiece , is like the superman of the Thailand movies .. is a gang criminal film .. based on the internal violent confrontation so forget the acting ..there's no acting good in action .. is easy as that ...they don't do a Lego DUMBASSES movie .. no no this is serious !! the REAL DEAL !! by the way no one in this world knows so much about martial marts ..like all these actors .. they got hard training before and supper massive moves also a little bit risky ..but great results .. pushing limits forwards

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