Wu ming zhi bei

This film stands out as one of the rare Chinese dark comedies featuring a remarkably well-cast ensemble. While it could be categorized into several genres such as drama, crime, and action, these elements seamlessly intertwine to create a distinctive cinematic experience. Ultimately, one can discern that beneath the veneer of absurd humor lies a poignant truth. The marginalized individuals at the lower echelons of society are relentlessly battered by fate, their aspirations and dignity shattered, and their innermost desires trampled upon without regard. In this bleak landscape, the yearnings of the heart hold little significance. Obscure individuals dwelling in the depths of despair strive to reach the illuminating surface of hope.

Although it may not be regarded as a masterpiece, it certainly merits attention and viewing.

The script is better, but there are good movies made in China. Garrich's multi-line narrative is still useful in comedy, especially in domestic comedy. As long as the plot is reasonable and the conflict points are delicate, the plot can be relieved. This film should be classified as the plot, the farce to female incontinence is basically over, the latter is more about the pursuit of the lower class of society and its realization of the hardship. Movies can be used to give a happy ending, but in reality life is not so simple. So, the drama is awkward, do not want to make a scene in the end but did not go deep.

Another rare dark comedy, this A Cool Fish has a really fantastic cast. In particular, the performances of Binlong Pan and Yu Zhang are just stunning and memorable. However, the screenplay and editing falls short compared to those of Crazy Stone. There are too many coincidences and the plot lacks credibility. The editing is also somehow artificial and contrived.

Well, sure I hadn't even heard about the 2018 movie titled "A Cool Fish" (aka "Wu ming zhi bei") prior to sitting down in 2021 to watch it. But with it being a Chinese movie that I hadn't already seen, I needed no persuasion to sit down to watch it.

And while "A Cool Fish" was watchable, it was by no means an outstanding movie. For me, the storyline was just too much of a scrambled and random mess, so I don't really grasp what writers Zhilong Lei and Xiaozhi Rao were trying to accomplish with the different storylines that they tried to tie together for a unified movie. It just felt out of sync with each other.

I will say, though, that the acting in the movie was good, despite of the storyline being such a scrambled mess. But the acting performances were definitely good throughout the course of the story, and I was in particularly impressed with actress Suxi Ren and her performance, especially since she virtually had no body language to use in her acting, given her role in the movie.

While I managed to sit through the entire course of the movie, I must admit that I was starting to drift off once or twice along the way. For me the movie was just not really delivering a wholehearted and coherent storyline. So I am not giving any praise to director Xiaozhi Rao for this 2018 movie.

My rating of "A Cool Fish" lands on a four out of ten stars. If you enjoy Chinese cinema, this is hardly a noteworthy movie, nor is it one that I will recommend that you rush out to watch. "A Cool Fish" was good enough for a single viewing, albeit not an overly impressive viewing, but it is hardly a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing.

I chose this movie to see only because I want to find some fun to kill time in a bored afternoon. At first, I really did laugh a lot. Then I couldn't help crying for many times while watching the rest of the movie. Every characters were funny. But I could not laugh at them. Instead, I felt deep sympathy about them. In Chinese, "wu ming zhi bei" means a person lives in the bottom of the society. Such a person isn't worthy a penny for his name. In this movie, the security guard, the two thieves, and the lady on the wheelchair, they were all small persons. But they still fought and struggled against the destiny. In addition, the episode song sang by the guitar player was very very fair-sounding. I chose this song as my cellphone's bell for a long time.