I have not had good experiences watching movies coming out of the PRC but after reading the description and reviews, I decided to give this one a shot. I must say, half way thru the movie, I had to turn it off. I took a few days off and was determined to finish what I started but there were a few more times where I was tempted to shut this off for good. I'm not sure how people can rate this above a 4. The story, dialogue, overall direction makes no sense to me.
The main character is Mr. Six, portrayed as an ex-gangster, rough around the edges, but deep down a decent person with strong principles, or as the CCP put it - "a regular citizen". I wanted to like this guy until he started acting in the dumbest, most illogical manner- eg. Running out of the hospital after realizing he has to be treated for a life threatening malady and running away from the woman who's trying to save his life.
There are moments, when you think/hope that Mr. Six will say something lucid and deep, but it always turns out to be irrelevant, at times, intolerable, completely destroying any rhythm that was built up up to that point. This continues throughout the movie and I just didn't care for any of the characters, old or young.
There is definitely cultural incongruity at play here but I'm not sure the root cause. The choreography of the last battle scene is ridiculous, not in a good way. FYI, there are no actual fighting sequences, just long drawn out frames of Mr. Six slowly walking across the icy pond, and the two opposing sides watching him, until he finally collapses in the middle. Conceptually, the ending is strong (gets 1 star) but the way it is expressed on screen is straight trash.
The main character is Mr. Six, portrayed as an ex-gangster, rough around the edges, but deep down a decent person with strong principles, or as the CCP put it - "a regular citizen". I wanted to like this guy until he started acting in the dumbest, most illogical manner- eg. Running out of the hospital after realizing he has to be treated for a life threatening malady and running away from the woman who's trying to save his life.
There are moments, when you think/hope that Mr. Six will say something lucid and deep, but it always turns out to be irrelevant, at times, intolerable, completely destroying any rhythm that was built up up to that point. This continues throughout the movie and I just didn't care for any of the characters, old or young.
There is definitely cultural incongruity at play here but I'm not sure the root cause. The choreography of the last battle scene is ridiculous, not in a good way. FYI, there are no actual fighting sequences, just long drawn out frames of Mr. Six slowly walking across the icy pond, and the two opposing sides watching him, until he finally collapses in the middle. Conceptually, the ending is strong (gets 1 star) but the way it is expressed on screen is straight trash.