IMDb RATING
6.8/10
5.4K
YOUR RATING
Hong Kong police are hunting a counterfeiting gang led by a mastermind code-named "Painter". In order to crack this true identity, the police recruit gang member Lee Man to unmask "Painter's... Read allHong Kong police are hunting a counterfeiting gang led by a mastermind code-named "Painter". In order to crack this true identity, the police recruit gang member Lee Man to unmask "Painter's" secret identity.Hong Kong police are hunting a counterfeiting gang led by a mastermind code-named "Painter". In order to crack this true identity, the police recruit gang member Lee Man to unmask "Painter's" secret identity.
- Awards
- 27 wins & 34 nominations total
Wenjuan Feng
- Ng Sau Ching
- (as Joyce Wenjuan Feng)
David Yaoqing Wang
- Lee Wing Chit
- (as Yao-Ching Wang)
Paulyn Sun
- Ms. Wah
- (as Sun Jiajun)
Chung-Chi Cheung
- Bobby
- (as Deon Cheung)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
The plot is copied from the 1995 thriller The Usual Suspects, which though I don't think is a good movie. The pace, screenplay and execution are actually worse than those in The Usual Suspects, which make the film even more problematic.
It is ironic that a movie about counterfeiters is itself a replica of an American film. The plot is different, but the idea is basically the same. If you want to be surprised (even though I've seen where it was going since the very start) stop reading reviews now, because some people did not refrain themselves from naming the film I am talking about and then the only pleasure is the rundown of film which, frankly, is too long and bland. You might say it's a character piece, with two very good Chinese actors doing their best in a what is a pretty banal movie. If you are looking for the great visuals of Crouching Tiger or the heavy action in The Corruptor you are going to be disappointed. It's an entertaining film, though, without being anything over average.
8dw35
A nice Hong Kong movie. Impressed !! Chow Yen Fa is the best celebrity ever !! How can he be still so cool and handsome in his age ?!! The story is very interesting. There are many threads talking about who is the real " Painter ". I doubt anyone will figure it out, because it might be none of the stories from different point of views is true. We will never know. So many details in this movie, and the actors were doing a great job too. They nicely performed different characters in different versions of stories. Would love to watch this again.
Obviously, the basic structure of the whole story comes from Bryan Singer's "The Usual Suspects" in 1995, but the focus of the former is the shock when the puzzle was revealed. The focus of this film is to expose the characters.
Therefore, if the audience does not overstate the specific behavior of the scriptwriter in the process of writing the script, the two films actually have their own wonderful points.
In addition, the surface story of the Hong Kong-style crime film really maintains the entertainment effect in the first half of the film, and Chow Yun-fat's highly romantic performance is actually a kind of figurative externalization of the character, which can be understood as an extension of the theme of the story.
Not being prejudiced but since I don't know many of good Chinese movies this one is for once a good action movie with an excellent cast. The story might be déjà-vu but nonetheless it's an entertaining movie with a fair amount of twists and turns, some good action scenes, and for a movie of this length never boring moments. In China they counterfeit about anything they want and watching them counterfeiting the American dollar is an interesting story to watch. Chow Yen Fa is the most famous actor of the cast, at least to us occidentals, but the rest of the cast did also a good job with their characters. For once a Hong Kong production that felt right, without any overacting like we're sometimes used to when it's an Asian movie.
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- Release date
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- Project Gutenberg
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $188,116,796
- Runtime2 hours 10 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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