Oddly enough then I have actually never heard about the 1989 Hong Kong war drama "Ai ren tong zhi" (aka "Stars and Roses") before now in 2022, as I had the opportunity to sit down and watch it. So writer Chun-Wai Ko and director Taylor Wong had every opportunity to impress and bedazzle me.
And I figured that since "Ai ren tong zhi" had Andy Lau in the leading role, then I would be in for a sure win in terms of an entertaining movie.
Well, let's just say that I managed to sit through the movie, but I wasn't impressed. The storyline here was a bit too mundane. Writer Chun-Wai Ko just didn't really fully manage to put together a storyline that had all that much to offer. Sure, the movie was watchable, but the storyline felt somewhat shallow and didn't really ever fully manage to capture my undivded attention.
The acting performances in the movie were adequate, though it was obvious that the performers didn't have the best of well-written script, dialogue or characters to work with.
The pacing of the narrative in the movie was a bit tedious, and while the movie ran for 1 hour and 40 minutes, the slow nature of the story made it feel closer to 2 hours and 30 minutes.
This was not a hidden gem in the Hong Kong cinema, at least not for me.
My rating of "Ai ren tong zhi" lands on a four out of ten stars.
