Bui doi Cho Lon

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

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

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.

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

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.