Vengeance

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.

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.

Like most To's flicks, Vengeance's imagery is full of his traditionally remarkable sequences -- the hotel shooting where Costello meets the trio, the dinner in which the chef reveals himself as a man who can deal with guns, the entire shooting (under the moonlight) at the park, the confrontation with blocks of trash --, but not just that: this operates mostly as a colorful noir-western exercise. The balance between red and blue, recreating both US's and France's flag, is really cool.

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.

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".

The thing I loved about this movie was not the acting which was decent or the action scene which ranged from fair to good but the little interactions between the characters and small extras added to the scenes. As a bonus I got to watch two Johnnie To regulars Suet Lam and the great Anthony Wong in another movie which is always something I look forward to. The last 20 minutes or so were a bit of a miss but hey I enjoyed the movie anyway so who cares.

even minor johnnie to fucking kicks ass.

To does what he does best; shooting some highly styled action in a crime movie. This time starring the French rockstar legend Johnny Hallyday. While his casting might come across as stunt casting, it somehow works because Hallyday dressed in a raincoat with glasses and a hat gives it a noirish touch. While this isn't among To's best works in the genre, it's a recom for any To or action fans out there.

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.

"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.

Good Movie

Redundant Johnnie To is still fucking awesome.

I loved Hallyday in *Man on a Train*, but his acting and presence just isn't happening in this. And so, the chemistry between him and the other actors fall flat; the badass persona that would have helped just isn't there, either. To has some nice twists (but one feels tacked on) (psi: 63)