Si da ming bu

There is a tradition in Chinese martial arts movies where people strong in "qi" power can jump around light as a feather, fight in treetops, and do other superhuman feats. (Example: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.) There is plenty of that in this movie, and additionally some characters seem to have special powers that other qi masters don't have, making this in some ways like a Western superhero comic story.

My favorite character was the girl who is stuck in a wheelchair, but whose qi powers are strong enough that she is far from useless in a fight. Her name is Yayu but her nickname is "Emotionless". Like Jedi in Star Wars movies can detect each other, she can also detect other nearby qi masters. Another IMDb user review speculates that she is simply a ripoff of two characters from X-Men, but I don't agree.

The movie has a confusing start, but if you stick with it the characters and plot sort themselves out. There is a shifty criminal in a city, and it turns out that three different groups have their eye on him: the police of "Department 6", the undercover police of "The Divine Constabulary", and some mysterious assassins. Additionally a bounty hunter is after him. The initial action is confusing, as it's not clear who is who. But stick with it, and the end of the movie pays off pretty well.

This movie also has a bit of a "steampunk" vibe, with unreasonably advanced clockwork mechanisms that might be partly qi-powered. For no obvious reason there is a giant clockwork crane that Emotionless uses to reach scrolls on the high shelves of a bookcase! And mid-way through the movie, Emotionless gets a nifty upgraded wheelchair that proves useful at the end of the movie.

At nearly two hours it runs a bit longer than necessary; I can think of a few cuts that would not have hurt. Still, I give this a 7 on the 10 scale. If you like fantasy martial- arts you might want to add a point to that! Also, I really liked the music.

Note: some plot threads are left unresolved, setting up for possible sequels, but this movie has a pretty satisfying ending.

I was genuinely surprised with the movie and I hadn't expected it to turn out to be such an entertaining movie. If you try to imagine mixing movies such as "X-Men" and "Hero" together, then the end result come out to be "The Four" (aka "Si da ming bu"). This is a historical Kung Fu drama spiced up with mystical powers.

The storyline is interesting from the very beginning and just starts to work up in intensity and depth from the very beginning.

To shortly summarize the story; counterfeit bills appear in the capitol and two special government departments work hard to unravel the criminal activities.

This movie makes heavy use of wires, so if you dislike the Wire Fu genre, then chances are that you want to skip on the movie. However, if you enjoy this particular genre, then there is a lot of great wire action to see.

The fighting and action sequences are well-choreographed and equally well executed.

As a story-based movie, it is important to have outstanding and memorable characters. And "The Four" has that. Lots of layers to the characters, and the cast was well picked for the roles and characters. I will say that the cast in the movie was nothing short of impressive. I was particularly impressed with Anthony Chau-Sang Wong and Yifei Liu.

"The Four" is definitely a movie to watch if you enjoy Asian cinema.

there's no way to describe this god-awful crap originated from another pure junk of the original novel. so pretentious and so shamelessly shallow. there's no word to describe this childish and brainless adaptation from a bloody awful cow dung. why this film would have turned out so horrible? do you know how people describe 'junk food' and how it affects your digestion and your whole body system? 'garbage in, garbage out' that's what i find quite appropriate for this horrible movie. those guys who could jump so high and run so fast, yet when they ran on the roof, all the tiles were cracked by their nimble feet, when they jumped up by the help of cables, then jumped down to the ground with loud thumps, ran so heavily with thumping sound....what the $^@#?! then we got psychic, inhuman zombies, fiery kung fu, icing kung fu, werewolf....whatever you could throw into the pit, you got it. the absurdity has reached another new level. i am speechless, because i have turned into a huge jumbo couch potato after watched this amazing product of Chinese civilization.

Based loosely on the Chinese X-men-meets-wuxia comic, Four Constables, upon being impressed by their Capcom-style bar fight, the benevolent Professor X-type character recruits two CGI-enhanced fighters to join his team of ultra-top secret police as they hunt for the criminal mastermind behind a money-counterfeiting ring.

Maybe some of you had to read the above sentence twice. Unfortunately, the film isn't in any way as clear, as the jumbled mess of a plot isn't something that requires attention to comprehend, rather, it just skips along from part A to C and hopes that no-one will mind.

But that's not The Four's biggest problem.

Seemingly convinced that if Hollywood can get away with shallow, green-screened action turds, they can too, the producers blatantly insult viewers by compiling a film they obviously thought nobody would have anything to moan about as long as it looked good. And, to their credit, it did look good.

So, if you like soulless entertainment thinly veiled as a film (something which requires plot and character development components to really work), then you may just find this worthy of your time; if, however, you're looking for something that won't leave you scratching your head or wondering why there are a million characters when none of them have anything remotely interesting going on, you've been warned.

Thank God for Netflix because if I didn't have an account, I wouldn't have discovered an enjoyable movie. The negative reviews I read just make me roll my eyes and want to punch those users in the face with a bad of rice hahahaha.

Firstly, I'd like to say that it's obvious that different cultures have their own, unique way of telling stories through film. It's evident in America, Europe, Asia, India and more. I took the movie for what it was and enjoyed it very much. It was like X-Men meets Naruto Shippuden meets Dragon Ball Z. I personally love a light weight corny action film. No one watches for the story, we watch to see some dope fighters go at it and if they have superhuman abilities, it just adds more fuel to the fire.

I enjoyed the small twists and turns. The film kept me interested because I was constantly trying to figure out who was being loyal to whom. There were a lot of characters who appeared to be aligned with one side, then the next thing you know they are fighting for another side. It kept me wanting more. I especially loved seeing certain actors on the big screen again after seeing them give great performances in The Matrix and Forbidden Kingdom.

The set design was dope, the acting was cool. I doubt anyone expects an Oscar award winning acting performance in an action film. The costuming dope. Special effects dope and of course the action was amazing to watch from beginning to end.

Want my advice? Don't listen to the ridiculous and immature reviews below me. This movie embodies what the Asian film market enjoy and it works for them. I enjoyed it and would definitely watch it again.