Johnny To knows exactly what he's doing. To's obsessions are too obvious here, but only because he uses tradition and cliche to undermine the all the tradition and cliche he's built up to in the film's fascinating and infuriating third act. But its moments: a floating boomerang, rolling bales of trash, and endless umbrellas on a rainy day act like half-remembered moments of lonely souls, and serve to confirm Johnny To as a filmmaker with a singular vision.

"Resting firmly on this relentless pacing, Vengeance becomes obsessed with the lasting effect of vengeance on the traditional machinations of plot and character." - Glenn Heath Jr.

Some horrible acting and bad dialogue/writing, but it's still badass and fun. I liked it because I was always going to like it, but it isn't particularly good, I guess, apart from To's stylish direction. A good time, I liked the review that called it "cornball existentialism".

Messy and disjointed, composed of small brilliant fragments that are simply too disparate to stick together. If you approach this through the mindset of its own lead - communicating in a foreign language, forgetting every moment once it's passed - you'll note a very pure strain of To's resonant crafting. A massacre in a surgery, the great specificity of guns hidden throughout a junkyard, the alternate world of women and children, an endlessly floating flying disc, an army of rolling baled trash.

Good Movie

Bad. Revenge is always a great premise that pays off well if handled with reasonable care, care which is absent here. We have the uber-cool trio of chinese assassins paired, unfortunately, with the wonkiest Frenchman I've ever seen...real daft moron. If only the film hadn't taken itself so seriously. The director's unsuccessful fusion of stylized violence and Zen, improbable/dumb plot development and bad pacing turned this great idea into a turd. Avoid.

Typical ridiculous Hong Kong action fare. The shootouts are well staged and the humor keeps the movie flowing during non-action scenes. The film doesn't offer anything particularly outstanding in terms of performances or plot, but there is nothing really bad about it either. Let's just say it delivers on it's title.

While it does not always gel together well, this is nonetheless an exceptionally well made revenge drama, helped by the fact that, not only is Johnnie To clearly a skilled veteran in filmmaking, but he does have imagination which makes the events in the film, especially the gun battles, unique and different. Add to this his obsessions with comradely between men, eating and food, make-shift surgery and severed ears, and you have a genre movie that is clearly made by an auteur.

Redundant Johnnie To is still fucking awesome.