Mu ji zhe

At the beginning, I just expect i will be watching an excited 'chase the murderer' movie. When it further develops, I am filled with many questions and find it harder to know the true until all fragments combine together. And it ends up reversing the plot, which is a bit like "The Invisible Guest". I am glad that other than Korea and Spain, we have that good Chinese director who can tell a dark side story in a decent way.

Hmmm... I wonder who's dogging all the reviews for this film? I just noticed before writing this that it seems like every review (all 6 of them at this time) have been almost comprehensively down-voted. Positive and negative ones. Odd...

Anyway... I just finished the movie, and I felt that it was very well put together. The pacing overall is rather slow considering it's almost 2 hour runtime, but if you follow everything and pay attention, it leads to a very powerful ending that you most likely will not expect... It is more of a Crime/Investigative Procedural rather than many of the more stylish Action films that come from there. The emphasis is more about the Slow-Burn Mystery than about flashy visuals. The acting across the board is quite strong. The atmosphere and cinematography, like the style of many of this type of film from the area, are nicely constructed and very effective. I particularly like the final montage during the last few lines.

Remember... Not everything is necessarily as it seems...

"ROBIN boasts a crackerjack cast, Kaiser Chuang bestirs himself strenuously as a leading material with sizable ranges, he has both panache and anguish to spare; Both Hsu Wei-Ning, who plays Wang's colleague and superior Maggie and Alice Ko impress with their Janus-faced ability of their characters, and Mason Lee, the second son of maestro Ang Lee, is the one who really takes audience aback, his A-wei is a savage beast who can chill you to the bone, but Lee does not make him camp or grotesque, A-wei's outward nondescriptness is in equal measure with his inner savagery."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks.

The style is definitely gripping and well paced that you want to know what happened at the end. Well put together that one should pay close attention to get the full story but I didn't expect it to be this dark.

The movie weaves the story of what happened 9 years ago with current day. Much of what happened lies heavily on coincidence. It is very gritty and dark. The element I wasn't prepared for is how very disturbing it is. So if you're curious about this movie, it's worth checking out but be warned that it is disturbing, can be very graphic--even though it doesn't at first appeared to be--not for the weak hearted.

The director gets mega points for moving the story around so it'll keep you on your toes and confused with it's never-ending twists. Unfortunately, in the ends, it simply adds up to a well-photographed and somewhat gory story with an in implausible narrative thread weaved throughout. I'd recommend this film if it wasn't so indulgent and proud of its twists. In the end, though, it leaves a lot to be desired. See it if you're a fan of Asian crime drama; skip if you're also into a good story well done.