There's an interesting juxtaposition in the IMDb ratings for this movie; it merits only a 5.2 from the general population who rated it (as of 6/1/16), but five out of the six reviewers here before me gave it a ten. That's kind of interesting because I find myself in the company of those who offered comments on it. I wouldn't give it a ten necessarily, but it's an above average Western with a story line that's a bit different from your run of the mill sagebrush yarn.
That's not to say there aren't some confusing elements in the story, along with credibility issues with some of the situations. However I find them outweighed by the raw beauty of the cinematography and the gritty aspects of the characters. Perhaps the biggest twist coming out of the story was how much of a schemer Kun Hua (Gwendoline Yeo) turned out to be. Once she revealed to Saul (Andrew Simpson) how her husband Zhen (Boyuen) rescued her from a life of prostitution in San Francisco, but didn't love him, my radar immediately triggered, wondering if anything she said prior or going forward had any ring of truth to it at all.
I think that's why the movie was so fascinating. Many of the characters had hidden motives or were downright mysterious. For example Moses Burke (Michael Robert Brandon) - after hearing him claim he was a U.S Marshal, and after Kun Hua related a tale of knowing him as a Marshal, when all was said and done I couldn't tell with any certainty if he actually was a lawman or not. The only certainty it seems, was that every single one of the interlopers at the 'Gallagher' Ranch was after a stolen cache of gold, but even there, the story leaves it a mystery as to whether the gold was legally obtained or not.
As far as confusing elements, there was Saul shooting at his partner Bill (Richard Doyle) riding away from the ranch the first night, Bronco (Jesse James Youngblood) emptying the chamber of his firearm and then getting shot by the same gun, and Saul shooting Paco (John A. Lorenz) during the same scene, seemingly dead but showing up again in the story. Maybe the thing to do is watch this film a second time and see if any of the confusion clears up. But in the meantime, I'd have to go with my first gut reaction that this was an entertaining Western with a distinctively different story line, and if your tastes lie in the direction of nasty shootouts, it's got it's share of that too.
That's not to say there aren't some confusing elements in the story, along with credibility issues with some of the situations. However I find them outweighed by the raw beauty of the cinematography and the gritty aspects of the characters. Perhaps the biggest twist coming out of the story was how much of a schemer Kun Hua (Gwendoline Yeo) turned out to be. Once she revealed to Saul (Andrew Simpson) how her husband Zhen (Boyuen) rescued her from a life of prostitution in San Francisco, but didn't love him, my radar immediately triggered, wondering if anything she said prior or going forward had any ring of truth to it at all.
I think that's why the movie was so fascinating. Many of the characters had hidden motives or were downright mysterious. For example Moses Burke (Michael Robert Brandon) - after hearing him claim he was a U.S Marshal, and after Kun Hua related a tale of knowing him as a Marshal, when all was said and done I couldn't tell with any certainty if he actually was a lawman or not. The only certainty it seems, was that every single one of the interlopers at the 'Gallagher' Ranch was after a stolen cache of gold, but even there, the story leaves it a mystery as to whether the gold was legally obtained or not.
As far as confusing elements, there was Saul shooting at his partner Bill (Richard Doyle) riding away from the ranch the first night, Bronco (Jesse James Youngblood) emptying the chamber of his firearm and then getting shot by the same gun, and Saul shooting Paco (John A. Lorenz) during the same scene, seemingly dead but showing up again in the story. Maybe the thing to do is watch this film a second time and see if any of the confusion clears up. But in the meantime, I'd have to go with my first gut reaction that this was an entertaining Western with a distinctively different story line, and if your tastes lie in the direction of nasty shootouts, it's got it's share of that too.