Well, I shouldn't say I didn't like it, completely. I enjoyed the movie for most of the way until it took a serious nose-dive.

The concept of the movie plays out well. The directing team of Johnnie To and Wa Ka Fai, who gave us "Mad Detective" and "Full Time Killer", put together a very solid production. Visually, everything flows nicely.

Performances are solid. The tongue-in-cheek nature of the whole film is very well executed. Seeing Andy Lau run around in a full-body muscle suit is great. It just adds to the kitsch factor of the whole film. For over an hour, the film plays out like a quirky romance with a very fresh perspective.

The characters were sweet, in their own, very flawed, ways. The message of the film regarding Karma was well-constructed and intelligent. It didn't feel wandering and aimless like some of the Philosophy 101 that the Wachowskis forced us to sit through. I was thoroughly enjoying my ride through this fun little parallel universe. That was. . .until. . .

. . . the movie took one of the harshest turns I've ever seen a movie take. It was like the film just instantly changed genres in the most incompatible of ways. The change was so jarring that it instantly took me out of the film. During the big finale I was spending more time trying to figure it if what I saw was real or not, or if it could be undone, or if it was symbolic. This is a film that will challenge perceptions; so it's not always apparent that what you're seeing it for real.

To be sure, it wasn't what happened, by itself, that lost me. We've all seen it before in many movies--not a big deal in an of itself. But it was how it was integrated and the effect it had on the overall story and tone that made me shake my head. Imagine if Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill from "Silence of the Lambs" were introduced into a Woody Allen film. They just wouldn't fit so well. You get the idea.

By the time the supposedly sweet and lesson-filled ending came, I simply didn't care that much. I had become so disinvested in the film that it didn't really matter much to me what had happened.

Now, let me say that I understand why they made this choice. To bring home the idea of Karma and how it functions throughout time and space and mankind they needed to make a strong statement. I just think they did it in the wrong way. Since the set-up for the story and the way it plays it is anything but traditional, they could have gone with a more subtle or more obvious ending and achieved a more consistent overall tone and a more emotionally satisfying (and enjoyable) film.

I think that they did such a good job investing me in the stories and the characters that I felt cheated for it to go the way it did. Effective in making their point? Yes. Enjoyable? Not at all.

As a Johnnie To fanboy it took some time for me to realize that I just don't really ever want to watch this movie again.

Definitely for fans of arthouse fare and quirky, dark (very dark) comedies. And if you can find me, you can have my copy.