Bat sei ching mai

Although it uses the same hokey elements typical of HK films, Bullets of Love cooks them up to somewhat tastier effect. Maybe it's just the advantage of a bigger budget than usual, but the music, the cinematography, even the acting seemed above average for what we normally find in Hong Kong action movies. Or it could be the Japanese actress, Asaka Seto -- although she hasn't been in a lot of films, she has a genuine screen presence and plays her role with a charm and delicacy one does not usually find in pictures of this ilk. Compare, for example, the ridiculous overacting of The Stewardess' Seina Kasugai and it becomes clear that Ms. Seto saved this picture from being a mess.

Don't get me wrong. This film wasn't exactly high art, more like "high trash." The storyline was hackneyed, totally predictable, but perhaps a better description would be "classic." The ending would not have been out of place in a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy, and so, as a whole, the film receives a strong recommendation from me.

PS: I haven't given it a full listen, but apparently the DVD comes with a director's commentary of some kind on the fifth audio track. Go figure.

Typical HK movies are bad!! However, this movie is not so typical. There is an extra element in this movie that makes it glow from the rest. Seto Asaka, the Japanese actress, helped save this movie from being another typical, bad HK flick. Asaka has the ability to light up the screen and she's why I decided to see this movie. Indeed, Asaka shined even in the not so perfect world of HK films.

"Bullets of Love" is a mindless action/drama out of Hong Kong which tells a convoluted story about a cop who falls in love with a woman who looks like the fiancee he lost in a violent assassination. A clean and stylish shoot, the film fails on story which is a far fetched conglomeration with some action at both ends and a lot of unnecessarily tedious melodrama and silly humor in the middle. The DVD I watched was 70% spoken Chinese with subtitles and 30% English. Hokey stuff with more loose ends than a barbershop floor. Extreme nonsense for Chinese couch potatoes only. (C)

Solid, violent thriller starring Leon Lai, who plays a cop whose wife is assassinated in retaliation for his arresting ‘Night', a dangerous mob boss. He quits and starts a quiet life on a scenic island, but when a mysterious Japanese girl who resembles his dead missus appears on the scene he finds love again. His peace is shattered when Night is released from jail and seeks revenge! Cue a bloody and tragic finale.

OK, it's a touch melodramatic, and you can tell there isn't going to be a fairytale ending, but this is an enjoyable romantic thriller that looks great and is well worth watching. Lai is always good value and Asaka Seto is a beautiful and enigmatic actress. Recommended.

A classic Asian romance story where the most beautiful love relationships, just as flowers who were on the brink of blooming, can never fully open up and prosper peacefully. Even though I saw the plot twist coming from miles away, I couldn't bring myself to believe it; this movie is very intense and the emotion maelstrom continuously raging throughout the film finally explodes in the end into one of the most powerful moments since books I've read from Hugo. I might still be under the movie's spell, but I really did find the main characters extremely well developed and I really felt for each of them; I recommend this movie to fans of 'true' romantic love stories with some punches and a few gun shots. Movies like these prove to me that the best movies often don't come out of Hollywood.