Luo man di ke xiao wang shi

There is not a shot out of place, not a word uttered or note of music that is not just right in this film. I admit I had to watch it twice to get all the nuances. You must listen for when they are speaking Shanghainese or Japanese and you must understand a bit about what was happening in china and shanghai in 1937. There are family ties, triad ties, Japanese secret society ties and love ties. There is betrayal of all these ties. Jumping back and forth in time makes the plot unravel slowly and like a game of mah-jong the final betrayal is revealed when all the tiles are exposed at the end. This is a great movie. It does not have any kung-fu or wire-work or epic slow motion gunfights and white doves - but it is a truly original masterpiece. I recommend it to anyone who wants to see a thoughtful movie and be challenged by what a great piece of cinema is.

The scenes were a bit jumbled in the first half of the film which could be confusing. It's almost like too many different plots going on and then doesn't continue until later on. There were some unnecessary introduction of minor characters that were kind of pointless. However you could understand what the director was trying to portray such as the theme of betrayal all throughout the film.

"Lu appears to be a merciless mastermind in the opening gambit, substantiated by a chopped hand and a summary execution of a dishonest Union organizer from north (for those who are cognizant of Chinese history of that time, a big chunk of the personages can be traced back to real-life figures, such as Lu is based on Du Yuesheng, a well-known mob boss and key supporter of Kuomintang, and by implication the unlucky northern guy can be linked to Wang Shouhua, a Communist cadre who was murdered by Du in 1927). Never abandons his urbanity, he seems to have everything under control, when facing the proposal from Japanese party for collaboration, his firm declination is final despite its polite elocution."

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This is one of the best gangster movies I've ever seen. It's streaming on Amazon and I've watched it twice, and I'll watch it again. I'll buy it. Complex, beautiful, horrific, and unforgettable. Everything about The Wasted Times is great. This film deserves far more interest and a much higher rating.

A violent war movie I would not have watched if not for Wallace Chung. He appeared for maybe 10 seconds in the movie, yet by then, I had already gotten intrigued by the unusual story and characters, I could not stop watching.

It's an interesting look at Chinese and Japanese relations in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in WWII.