消失的她

At the start, this is quite an intriguing drama. "He Fei" (Yilong Zhu) and his wife "Li Muzi" seem to be getting along nicely until she disappears. He is in despair until a woman appears asserting that she is the missing woman - and he is certain that she is not his wife. This lady (Janice Man) is adamant, and when he seeks police assistance she is able to prove her identity with videos, photos and friends who corroborate her story. Is he just losing the plot, or might something more sinister be afoot? Fortunately for our increasingly hapless hero, a local lawyer/investigator "Chen Mai" (Ni Ni) decides that she is going to help him out and the more they dig, the more confusion they discover. To be fair, the plot is anything but simple - it has plenty of twists and turns, but I rather lost interest in him as a character and the plot gradually became a bit too convoluted. There just aren't enough clues for us to follow, we learn at the same rate as them and that left me in limbo for too much of this two hour drama. The ending has a quirkiness to it, but the characterisations are too weak and the story too thin to make it worth the wait. It's a sort of grudge/retribution story - but for way too long I didn't know why or whom by. It is watchable, and the acting is OK, but I doubt I will recall much about this next week.

This movie surprised me in so many ways.

The plot was initially reminiscent of Gone Girl but boy was I fooled.

The more you watch, the more it draws you in and I would highly recommend a second viewing. Everything was so thought out and no plot hole overlooked. Even the seemingly minor things can be explained by this or that.

It was visually stunning and the acting was superb across all members of the cast. Seriously, major kudos to the leads. I wasn't familiar with any of them going into this but I will definitely keep an eye out now for their future work.

Overall, a wonderful, intense film that, I'm not kidding, had me on the edge of my seat a vast majority of the time.

Such a recent hit in mainland, and I guess it's more of a trendy success more than anything else. The general framework seems to be inspired by The Invisible Guest, yet the mystery not as intricate and the story not as convincing. The former issue being some of the events, scenes, and shots overly dramatized by the sound effect or cinematography, while the latter due to the overall mediocre performances. Also, the ending is stacked with a superfluous amount of twists and twines, which simply reflects some of the logical errors prior. It seems that the intention of the movie is quite clear: to tell a convoluted mystery from an intriguing perspective with a justified moral.

As a lover of thrillers, suspense, and mind puzzles in general, I usually see the surprises coming. It was an extreme pleasure and delight to find that this film kept me guessing, kept me rapt with attention, and made the experience thrilling from start to finish.

A note regarding the casting, which was stellar: Zhu Yilong is an actor with tremendous range who I would watch do anything, anytime, under any condition, and his development as He Fei is mesmerizing, and Ni Ni as lawyer Chen Mai, who had not been on my radar previously, subtly guiles you as she gets pulled into her client's case.

This is absolutely the definition of summer blockbuster and I'll be seeing it again.

No pun intended - and not really connected with Gone Girl (if you've seen the movie or read the book - there is a book, right? There has to be). This quite twisty movie has you guessing what is right and what is wrong. Who and where characters are trying to lead us. There may be some traps along the way (again no pun intended) and I am not sure what you may think of the ending ... but the movie dares to go places that ... well you may not expect.

That said, it doesn't mean you won't be able to guess where the movie wants you to go. Interestingly enough, the movie seems to hit a spot - at least in London. About 10 screenings - all sold out! So they must be doing something right ... well told and all that ... if you are into that sort of stuff.