Snakehead

The movie disappointed me a little bit. I expected it to be a lot better, because it really has a good and solid plot. For me the movie seems fast-paced and not at all polished. It seems that the director and the production team didn't have the patience, the budget, or both, to make something really good and interesting.

I expected it to have a lot more action and be less predictable. The main plot is interesting, but it also depends how do you make use of it, how you put into the light the events that are linked to that plot and "Snakehead" didn't really manage that. Even If the plot is interesting, the movie is nothing but basic, fast-paced and predictable. It had potential.

I don't know if I watched a botched edited version, but there were many scenes that felt pieces were missing, and/or came out of nowhere. This is writer and director Evan Jackson Leong's feature film debut - previously known for documentaries and short films. Overall he did a great job for a newb filmmaker; most of the cinematography and camera work was excellent, but the slow-mo scenes were annoying. It was a visually stylish story, but the cliched gangster narrative fell short on its own heavy ambitions. The short 89 min runtime felt much longer and dragged out with the slow pacing and dragged out and/or unnecessary scenes. Casting was decent, with the stand-out performances by Sung Kang and Jade Wu, but I wasn't impressed with Shuya Chang; her character was unconvincing and it felt like she didn't want to be there with her constant straight-faced look and demeanor. Overall not a bad film, watchable to the end, so it's a 6/10 from me.

Again I don't get what people didn't like about this movie. I must have a strange and different view of what an entertaining movie looks like. I thought Snakehead was highly entertaining, a good plot (I really don't get what some reviewers thought was confusing) and a more than decent cast. All the actors are unknown to me but they all delivered. I though the acting was actually quite good, much better than what I was expecting after seeing the score it gets on here. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the bad reviews, if you look for an entertaining movie this is one of them.

As the when film is shot in "dramatic" slow motion, at home one can just play at high speed and get this whole whatever you call this mumbo jumbo over in 20 minutes! And all the "plot" even starts to make sense! Try it.

Sister Tse is a survivor. After leaving China in a container ship she is arrested the moment she steps into New York. Her baby girl is taken from her there. Returning years later to try to find her daughter, Sister Tse first has a debt to pay to the snakeheads (smugglers). They push her to sell her body, she rebels, and is brutally punished. However, her survivor instincts and courageous spirit gain her the favor of Dai Mah, a crime boss and snakehead in Chinatown. Competition is fierce for Dai Mah's attention and Sister Tse is just an errand rat, but with Dai Mah's encouragement she begins to rise. There is a big difference between fear and respect, and unlike Dai Mah, Sister Tse is the respectful type. Her power lies in what she gives rather than what she takes, and herein is the path to redemption and a true home.

Snakehead is exhilarating and authentic. Narrated by the character of Sister Tse the film illuminates some of the true reasons that people immigrate. These reasons do not usually include money. The film is thrilling because it pulls back the curtain on the criminal underworld of smugglers and is based on real crime stories including that of Cheng Chui Ping (aka Sister Ping), who ran a long-standing snakehead operation in New York.

From law school I know that the great majority of people are convicted of crimes based on their own statements. People MUST talk about what they did, and this bites them in the butt. This is why the first words out of a lawyer's mouth are usually some version of "shut up and let me do the talking." Snakehead reveals this truth.

Seen at the Toronto international film festival.