Reviews:Cold War
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ALTERNATE SYNOPSIS:
SIMON YAM stars in this stylish, noir-like action thriller directed by acclaimed actor Leung Ka Yan (THE VICTIM). Greg (Yam) is a hit man sent by his organization to Seoul for his latest mission. But he soon realizes that the target is himself, as the organization has decided to put Greg away to eliminate all evidence of his past killings. His only savior is Urea (Christy Chung), his connection in Korea. As Greg tries to escape from both the police and other mercenaries, he begins to suspect that Urea is the one assigned to take his life.
-Tai Seng
This movie is a bit of a mixed bag -- there's some stylish gunplay and Simon Yam gives a good performance. On the other hand, we've seen this "killer becomes a target by his former employers" many times before and this movie adds really nothing to it. Things might have been helped if the movie moved at a faster pace. The whole second act (about the middle hour of the movie) just drags and almost kills the film until the finale rescues things somewhat.
-HK Film (see my profile)
http://www.hkfilm.net
| Simon Yam gets to look cool in a role as a righteous hit man in this stylish and fairly interesting thriller. The main selling point for me though was to see Christy Cheung in a movie again. Simon plays Ka Chue living in Seoul and drawn into a life as a killer in return for information as to the identities of his wife's murderers. While he believes that all of his hits are evil villains who deserve to die he is actually being manipulated by his employer's to wipe out all of their rivals. Christy Cheung plays Maria, Ka Chue's only contact with his employers, who has promised to help him in his search for revenge.
When Ka Chue finally discovers the truth and realises he has been double crossed he goes on the run with the help of Kinko, a nightclub hostess whom he rescued. Unfortunately Ka Chue now knows too much and the decision is made to get rid of him. Meanwhile the police are also on his tail for the various hits that he has carried out during his time in Korea. While Simon Yam always does a good job of such a role, Christy Cheung's character is more interesting as you are never quite sure who's side she is actually on and there is obviously some kind of inner conflict thing going on. While her part in this is over a bit too quickly its great to see her acting again especially in a role that requires her to be more than simply a love interest. There's a lot of good ideas in this film but it doesn't all quite gel effectively. The relevance of the opening scene, a flashback to a military operation going wrong with Simon and a platoon of soldiers under serious fire, is never explored further or even explained and the film's climax is happening while there are still plenty of loose ends. The action of the final scene is well handled with Simon taking on a small army of gun toting baddies. |
| Simon Yam gets to look cool in a role as a righteous hitman in this stylish and fairly interesting thriller. The main selling point for me though was to see Christy Cheung in a movie again. Simon plays Ka Chue living in Seoul and drawn into a life as a killer in return for information as to the identities of his wife's murderers. While he believes that all of his hits are evil villains who deserve to die he is actually being manipulated by his employer's to wipe out all of their rivals. Christy Cheung plays Maria, Ka Chue's only contact with his employers, who has promised to help him in his search for revenge.
When Ka Chue finally discovers the truth and realises he has been double crossed he goes on the run with the help of Kinko, a nightclub hostess whom he rescued. Unfortunately Ka Chue now knows too much and the decision is made to get rid of him. Meanwhile the police are also on his tail for the various hits that he has carried out during his time in Korea. While Simon Yam always does a good job of such a role, this didn't actually seem to require much in the way of acting from him. He hardly says anything during the whole movie but instead spends most of his time just looking cool (which is ok). Christy Cheung's character is far more interesting as you are never quite sure who's side she is actually on and there is obviously some kind of inner conflict thing going on. While her part in this is over a bit too quickly its great to see her acting again especially in a role that requires her to be more than simply a love interest. There's a lot of good ideas in this film but it doesn't all quite gel effectively. The relevance of the opening scene, a flashback to a military operation going wrong with Simon and a platoon of soldiers under serious fire, is never explored further or even explained and the film's climax is happening while there are still plenty of loose ends. The action of the final scene is well handled with Simon taking on a small army of gun toting baddies but the film could easily have done with more just to lift it that bit extra in the first hour. |
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