Ying zi di ren

One year after her enjoyable lightweight actioner "Satin Steel", Jade Leung made this gloomy crime drama that seems to almost WANT to turn off the audience with its cheap look, nonsensical story, unpleasant characters (the two male leads are both cold-hearted mass killers) and pretentiously "arty" direction (seriously, how many neon lights and slow motion can one film contain?). There is one good foot chase sequence that ends with Jade jumping on the back of a running car (she is fearless when it comes to that sort of thing, as she had already proved in "Satin Steel"), and she looks great with a gun, but this is not a worthy vehicle for her. (*1/2)

I've heard a lot of negative comments about this film, and in particular Jade Leung's performance, but I found it to be an exciting and seductively dangerous portrait of a policewoman who's torn between her corrupt superior officer and a reckless criminal. Jade Leung's stoic and disconnected performance perfectly reflects the frail psychology of her character as she slips further into desperation and recklessness.

The film resembles an art flick in its structure, tone, and execution, but the gritty action sequences that are sprinkled throughout help keep the film from becoming overly pretentious (Ms. Leung actually got severely burned in a mis-timed explosion during filming). Of course, maybe you have to be a Jade Leung fan or a girls 'n' guns fan to appreciate what this film is trying to accomplish.

The beginning moments appear rather straightforward, but soon there are plenty of guns, explosions, bullets-in-the-head, and... artsy styling and voice-over poetry. Very interesting.

The camera loves Jade Leung, and with the affectionate lovey-dovey scenes it appeared that her co-star liked her very much as well. Jade Leung certainly is a looker.

The photography is top-notch. Blazing orange sunsets, splashes of color and plenty of intense close-ups.

I actually liked the shadow poetry, and I liked the use of shadows towards the the end of the movie. There is plenty of blood too. People are machine-gunned and are still ready to duke it out in a fast and furious fist fight. It is easy to lose count of how many times a character (still on his feet) has been shot.

Although the direction was all candy for the eye, what did not work was the story telling. The plot does not always come through so smooth.

Another weakness was that sometimes the action scenes were a bit overly predictable. Surely, the person holding a gun on the guy with only a knife is going to walk up close and... SLASH!

I say check this movie out for yourself.