Shock Wave

I had the chance to sit down and watch "Chai Dan Zhuan Jia" (aka "Shock Wave") and must admit that it was nice to be in the presence of the gracious Andy Lau once more. I had not even heard of the movie prior to finding it. But seeing that this was a Hong Kong movie and it had Andy Lau in the lead, I needed no encouragement to pick it up and watch it.

While the storyline in "Shock Wave" is nothing that haven't been seen already, then it was still a very enjoyable movie. Especially so since I used to live in Hong Kong, so it was particularly thrilling to see the Cross Harbour Tunnel being the focal point of the movie. However, the storyline was rather streamlined, and there were no shock moments or surprises along the way, well aside from the ending - which I am not going to give away. But it was a story that headed straight ahead at 200 mph without any turns or climbs.

The acting in the movie was good, but then again Andy Lau is such a skilled actor that he masters many different genres, and he is no stranger to action movies. So it was no surprise that he carried this movie quite well. The characters in the movie were nicely detailed, and brought to life by an ensemble of different talents that each brought their own touch to the movie.

There is a good amount of action in the movie, and that is supplemented by character build and interaction. So that made for a very wholesome movie experience.

The downside to "Shock Wave" was its predictability. You saw things coming a mile away. But being able to look past that, then the movie was good entertainment and definitely a movie I would recommend that you take the time to watch if you enjoy Asian cinema.

Andy Lau plays the head of the bomb dismantling division of the police who goes undercover to infiltrate a group of robbers who use bombs. This gang's careless actions when life is concern made this cop take drastic measures to bring them down. Because of this, the bad guy seeks revenge from this cop by taking his hostage negotiation to get his brother back very personal.

And the bad guy for this movie was really bad ass. Just that right touch of evil that only makes the good guy that is Andy Lau look better.

A very instance thriller that's very action packed, but there was also a sub story about Andy Lau's character finding love with a school teacher. It's rare that I've seen people kissing in Chinese Cinema. Maybe I'm watching the wrong movies, but I've seen Chinese action movies in which the lead star has girlfriends or wives, but they never touch each other, and even though I grew up in America were our action heroes go beyond touching the leading ladies, it was odd to watch Lau give so very long and romantic kisses to his leading lady.

But as interesting as that was, first and foremost,this was a great action movie from beginning to end. Worth seeing.

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Typical Hong Kong movie that didn't put much focus on story, it's flat throughout even though it has put in place conflicting characters and elements of brotherhood and father-and-son among the characters.

Beastly action movie. so many tense moments. likable lead character. i was into it throughout. so much intensity. good action and suspense. and had some powerful scenes. downsides are some unnecessary scenes and subplots, like the whole stock market thing. and also some of the english dialogue was really basic and doesn't really work from an american-english perspective. but that's something you have to accept with foreign films (1 viewing)

The only words I remember is " thanks God's I always chose the right one, thanks God's I can protect the civilians " Also Andy Lau still like to promute a good guy in his series movie . The pacing of the movie was amazing. The direction first use tunnnel to make the movie was quite New ideas and it save to the explosion:)