Si da ming bu

First, to get one of the major negative points out of the way. Whoever directed and had a hand at editing the very first big action sequence, deserves to get his or her head checked, and then shot at. The major misconception adopted was that fast-paced editing, with every shot lasting mere milliseconds, and flitting amongst countless of characters, even for a flash of the eye, does not get interpreted as fast paced. What this only achieves, is to irritate the audience, since everything's a blur, and nobody can see anything with everything whizzing by, and the camera work not helping. Perhaps it's to capture the adrenaline rush of the moment, but seriously, it just demonstrates amateur skills at play to mask poorly shot martial arts, or just plain incompetence on the filmmakers' part.

Thankfully, that was the only badly done fighting scene, with subsequent ones picking up in design, pace, and editing to provide a decent semblance of who's battling whom. The Four has a shaky start, but it improves from there, so between the two directors in Gordon Chan and Janet Chun, the latter having cut her teeth in comedies such as All's Well Ends Well 2011 and The Jade and the Pearl, one can only wonder who had more say. The story in this big screen installment deals with the proliferation of counterfeit coins, culminating in what many would have seen in trailers as a zombie-pocalypse, but what it truly is, was to take its time in the introduction of the titular characters, and then some, complete with politicking amongst factions, and individuals caught up in a web of deceit.

Essentially, it's a tale of two investigative functions, the Department Six Constabulary, and the Divine Constabulary, with the former now infiltrated by a shadowy group of six female inspectors, led by the ambitious Ji Yaohua (Jiang Yiyan), and the latter being that group with elite powers as granted by, and answering directly to the Emperor himself. Led by the evergreen Anthony Wong as Zhuge Zheng Wo, he is like the chaperon always on the lookout for gifted individuals with special prowess, whom he bands together under his investigations banner. Yes that's right, think of it like Professor X's School for Gifted Youngsters, with similarities in this version being quite like taking a leaf out of familiar Marvel heroes.

Which isn't really a bad point, given that this shares similar ambitions in wanting to tell a quality story, filled with intriguing, powerful characters who bicker more than they cooperate. It's a successful fusion of martial arts and special effects without going overboard with the latter, making this somewhat like a movie with oriental medieval mutants on display, out to help rid society of ills and those with evil intentions. And story aside, with its twists, turns and really extended fashion in going from point A to B, it's the characters that stand out, and make it fun to watch.

Liu Yifei headlines the quartet as Emotionless, a girl paralyzed from the waist down, but blessed with psychic abilities, a familiar looking wheelchair and having a penchant for hidden darts as deadly projectiles. Her movie outings of late has been period films from White Vengeance to The Forbidden Kingdom, but her character has to stay pretty serious looking for the most parts, despite romantic interest shown from Deng Chao's Cold Blood. A cross between the Incredible Hulk and Wolverine for being brought up by wolves, he finds an attraction toward Emotionless, and these two serve up, as best as they can, as the central emotional anchor for this film, which didn't play off too well.

Ronald Cheng, on the other hand and to great surprise, nails it as the comical loafer type as Life Snatcher, a new recruit whose fighting abilities resemble more like Storm Warrior's Cloud with focus on lower body limb attacks, contrasted against Collin Chou's Iron Hand, who is the team's blacksmith, and has ample opportunity to show off his bronzed abs. Their roles are pretty one-dimensional here, especially Chou's, and it's quite a long wait before these two get a chance to flex their muscles against enemy forces, forging a rivalry / partnership ala Gimli and Legolas in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, given their contrasting abilities.

Wu Xiubo also deserves mention as the chief villain here known as The God of Wealth, a conniving schemer who has no qualms at disposing allies once they serve no further purpose, and while he may not be the greatest martial arts villains out there, he's certainly one of the most memorable. The score by Henry Lai also stands out, especially its banjo sounding main theme that hints of an upcoming big fight each time it airs, though the film sometimes lapses into unnecessary posing for the sake of, atop watch towers, or lingering in bath waters to witness six female warriors letting their armour down.

As already reported, this film is now the first part of a trilogy, and that the sequels have already begun shooting. So far so good, as the story picked up as it went on, with the requisite finale with everything and everyone coming together for that last hurrah big battle, with enough twists and double crossings that lead the door wide open for follow up films. Hopefully by then, all the titular Four constables will be given screen time to build up characterization, and we should be in for quite a ride in this Chinese fantasy franchise!

there's no way to describe this god-awful crap originated from another pure junk of the original novel. so pretentious and so shamelessly shallow. there's no word to describe this childish and brainless adaptation from a bloody awful cow dung. why this film would have turned out so horrible? do you know how people describe 'junk food' and how it affects your digestion and your whole body system? 'garbage in, garbage out' that's what i find quite appropriate for this horrible movie. those guys who could jump so high and run so fast, yet when they ran on the roof, all the tiles were cracked by their nimble feet, when they jumped up by the help of cables, then jumped down to the ground with loud thumps, ran so heavily with thumping sound....what the $^@#?! then we got psychic, inhuman zombies, fiery kung fu, icing kung fu, werewolf....whatever you could throw into the pit, you got it. the absurdity has reached another new level. i am speechless, because i have turned into a huge jumbo couch potato after watched this amazing product of Chinese civilization.

There is a tradition in Chinese martial arts movies where people strong in "qi" power can jump around light as a feather, fight in treetops, and do other superhuman feats. (Example: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.) There is plenty of that in this movie, and additionally some characters seem to have special powers that other qi masters don't have, making this in some ways like a Western superhero comic story.

My favorite character was the girl who is stuck in a wheelchair, but whose qi powers are strong enough that she is far from useless in a fight. Her name is Yayu but her nickname is "Emotionless". Like Jedi in Star Wars movies can detect each other, she can also detect other nearby qi masters. Another IMDb user review speculates that she is simply a ripoff of two characters from X-Men, but I don't agree.

The movie has a confusing start, but if you stick with it the characters and plot sort themselves out. There is a shifty criminal in a city, and it turns out that three different groups have their eye on him: the police of "Department 6", the undercover police of "The Divine Constabulary", and some mysterious assassins. Additionally a bounty hunter is after him. The initial action is confusing, as it's not clear who is who. But stick with it, and the end of the movie pays off pretty well.

This movie also has a bit of a "steampunk" vibe, with unreasonably advanced clockwork mechanisms that might be partly qi-powered. For no obvious reason there is a giant clockwork crane that Emotionless uses to reach scrolls on the high shelves of a bookcase! And mid-way through the movie, Emotionless gets a nifty upgraded wheelchair that proves useful at the end of the movie.

At nearly two hours it runs a bit longer than necessary; I can think of a few cuts that would not have hurt. Still, I give this a 7 on the 10 scale. If you like fantasy martial- arts you might want to add a point to that! Also, I really liked the music.

Note: some plot threads are left unresolved, setting up for possible sequels, but this movie has a pretty satisfying ending.

I was genuinely surprised with the movie and I hadn't expected it to turn out to be such an entertaining movie. If you try to imagine mixing movies such as "X-Men" and "Hero" together, then the end result come out to be "The Four" (aka "Si da ming bu"). This is a historical Kung Fu drama spiced up with mystical powers.

The storyline is interesting from the very beginning and just starts to work up in intensity and depth from the very beginning.

To shortly summarize the story; counterfeit bills appear in the capitol and two special government departments work hard to unravel the criminal activities.

This movie makes heavy use of wires, so if you dislike the Wire Fu genre, then chances are that you want to skip on the movie. However, if you enjoy this particular genre, then there is a lot of great wire action to see.

The fighting and action sequences are well-choreographed and equally well executed.

As a story-based movie, it is important to have outstanding and memorable characters. And "The Four" has that. Lots of layers to the characters, and the cast was well picked for the roles and characters. I will say that the cast in the movie was nothing short of impressive. I was particularly impressed with Anthony Chau-Sang Wong and Yifei Liu.

"The Four" is definitely a movie to watch if you enjoy Asian cinema.

When it comes to blending martial arts and fantasy together during historical periods, China is easily notable for producing entertaining features of this caliber. Containing some outstanding choreography and camera work that really brings the exceptional fight scenes to life, during the initial stages of the feature, the martial-arts appear rather stale, providing little more of a rehash from similar films. With this in mind, viewers need patience when committing themselves to The Four, for it isn't until later that the fights, accompanied by some wicked special effects, really provides seriously new, eye-catching material, a similar statement requiring mentioning when it comes to the story. After almost an hour, the narrative remains vastly interpretative, and it is presumably difficult to ascertain its directionality, this mysterious quality, although potentially annoying for some viewers, adding to the feature's suspense. Though some could complain about lacking information when it comes to the plot and character arks, viewers should keep in mind this is the first of three films, the combined collection hopefully quenching any audience's thirst for information.

Despite the notable gaps in the narrative, the characterization provided to the audience is adequate in developing characters that are truly likable, while retaining an atmosphere that is, for the most part, hugely enjoyable, and fun. Emotionless (Liu Ye Fei), a disabled psychic, who, despite her name, is an emotionally sympathetic character, Iron Hands (Collin Chou), a man with incredibly powerful fists, and Life Snatcher (Ronald Cheng), a dangerous debt collector, who recently joins the outfit, are terrifically skilled martial artists under the command of Zhuge Zhermo (Anthony Wong), who form the Divine Constabulary, a group who answers only to the Emperor.

The Sheriff King (Cheng Tai Shen), who commands Department 6, a revered military police unit, has no trust in the mythical martial arts group, who are free to traverse where they please. Assigning one of his best operatives, Cold Blood (Deng Chao) - a man who can, upon losing his temper, transform himself into a powerful beast - with the responsibility to assimilate into the group to find out more about them, Cold Blood's allegiance to Department 6 begins to waver as he finds friendship amongst the Divine Constabulary, alongside romantic attraction towards Emotionless.

As both the Divine Constabulary and Department 6 investigate the same criminal activity, regarding not only fake currency, but a dangerously powerful magic, capable of bringing back the dead, the Sheriff King finds himself blinded by his beliefs that the Divine Constabulary are behind the attacks, while unable to realize that Ji Yaohua (Jiang Yi-Yan), a fellow Department 6 agent, may be working with the enemy. Harboring feelings for Cold Blood, she and Emotionless begin to play a dangerous game consisting of jealousy and spite in the hopes of winning Cold Blood's heart. All the while, lead antagonist An Shigeng (Wu Xiu Bo) threatens all with his plans, but is he really the head of the serpent, or are there more dangerous players involved?

The acrobatic stunts, involving law enforcement officers, assassins and undead alike, abseiling across buildings, requires substantial suspension of disbelief, though if one has previously viewed Legend of the Shadowless Sword, they might find themselves at home in this particular world. Unlike the aforementioned film however, which had much emotional depth applied to its narrative, this is not provided to The Four, though the familial feeling provided by the Divine Constabulary, not to mention the acting by Ms. Ye Fei, is certainly impressive, there being one scene in particular where the audience surely feels for Emotionless.

Although the undead are involved in this feature, viewers need not fear clichéd stereotypical genre tropes being applied, and despite the combination of eastern and western philosophies in the development of such beings, they are, thankfully, never depicted as zombies, but as supremely powerful foes in need of vanquishing. The fanciful costumes are typical of other Chinese genre films of the period, and look as glorious and superb as ever, while the visuals, from the headquarters of the Divine Constabulary, to the exotic man-made locations the film visits, feel so genuine and realistic, it is seldom hard to imagine such a group existing within China's history.

An accusation that could be made regarding the film is the lack of appearance other members of the Divine Constabulary exhibit during the feature, the previously annotated members of the organization being supplied with all the screen time, whilst the others, who randomly appear during some of the scenes, are largely unexplored. The banter that takes place between all of the members however is lively and playful, and adds to the fun.

In conclusion, The Four exhibits a number of similarities with other films from China that explore this particular historic period, however, it is the differences in the script, the characters, and the later fights, that really make this quite a captivating experience.