Sadly Over-hyped

Captivating movie !

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The main reason why I decided to see this is because it has Byung-hun Lee in it although he isn't the main character in this. I wanted to see more movies where he is in mainstream Hollywood movies. Besides him being a top actor in Korea, I enjoyed few of the movies he was in and few dramas as well. And thought the movie was at least going to be interesting because of Lee's charisma and coolness he portrays on screen. He just didn't stand out in this and his character is wasted, plus the direction of it all made it a disaster. This is far from one of the best thrillers I seen, but it's a explicit thriller with violence and nudity. It's basically a thriller with shock value, but it sort of lacks in that department to some degree as well. It isn't really a clever thriller or anything like that although it has symbolism, it just seemed a bit forced at times. It also isn't really all that psychological either, even if it tries to be. While also trying to get the female audiences attention by getting the main actors to take off their shirts constantly, which might have worked. But it takes away from the movie because it just seems like a they are at a photo-shoot or shooting a commercial. After the first hour the movie starts to really drag with nothing much happening and without the plot progressing all that much. I also disliked the girl that played Byung-hun Lee's character's lover in this, I didn't like her presence in this movie and her acting was terrible. It would have been nice if Thea Aquino got a bigger role in this although currently she is a unknown actress, but her presence in this seemed much better and it's not only because she takes her clothes off. I know it's trying to go for the artsy approach but it fails in that level, it just didn't seem all that artistic. The second half of the movie just didn't feel the same as the first half and not in a good way either. When I first saw the trailer to this I thought it was going to be at least a decent movie, but was left disappointed. It just tries too hard to be something it's not. It should have just went with the direction of the first half without the crap that is thrown in for the second half.3.8/10

I turned this movie off half way through, I was bored to death.It looks like a cross between a student film and a doco. The editing is terrible, and the story so boring you just don't care.There is just nothing there to keep you interested, at all.The only good thing I can say about the movie is that the blood/cuts etc fx were great, very realistic.The movie just cuts from one random scene to another, which makes it seem very amateur. There isn't a pinch of substance, the movie felt really hollow.I would not recommend wasting your time watching this movie at all.

I'm compelled to write a review on this flick, seeing as it's gotten such a bad name here on IMDb. CONTAINS SERIOUS SPOILERS.If you walked into this movie to watch a psycho-thriller or get a heaping dose of crime drama, you got it in spades. But if you hadn't expected that Chinese mob activities involved serious, brutal violence, or that a serial-killer like Hasford didn't do 'improper things' with his victims and that offended you, then you need to do some reading on ANY mob-activities and EVERY serial-killer profile--without pictures, saving your delicate sensibilities.If you walked into this movie knowing that it involved a serial killer that made art out of his victim's bodies in a grotesque, terrifying manner, and that Kline's too-personal involvement over two years with the case had him go entirely mad, again, you got it in spades. But if you hadn't expected the blood (which is really quite ignorant, considering the first stills released showcased Hartnett covered from head-to-toe in blood) or couldn't see past what you'd call "OMG gratuitous nudity!" for what it really was: Kline's difficulty and outright inability to view any human form, especially women, as normal (after all, at no point does he engage sexual activity with any woman in the film, even the one he rented?)? Then you've got serious issues with that very human body. Considering the fact that there are only two scenes in which breasts are displayed, it doesn't EARN gratuity. The point of the nudity goes well beyond objectifying; the nudity, to Kline, is back at Hasford's, where he got the chance to see a bulging, unnatural sculpture made out of a pair of breasts.Defenses made aside, this movie is more a sound and light production, created to stimulate the viewer's movie-watching experience. The music goes from ethereal and hypnotizing to jarring in all appropriateness, capturing the mood from scene-to-scene. And when it comes to characters, we're not listening to stilted conversation between Affleck and J-Lo, with drab backgrounds and meaningless characters wandering in and out. Everyone has their place, from Kline's trying to redeem himself for his killing and mutilating Hasford... well, a la Hasford, to the psychotic Hasford himself, to Shitao's constant self-sacrifices to the point of serious injury in order to save others from death. Onto Meng Zi, a good friend to Kline but an easily-frustrated, ruthless cop, then Dongpo's extreme indifference to his violent ways to the point where his beloved Lili falls headfirst into them.If you're actually paying attention, it's not hard at all to follow. Each person has a story; even with the gory violence that Dongpo puts out, there are times when you feel for him. Despite Shitao's mutilated, torn-up body, as Lili tells him, he's 'beautiful'. And watching Kline's descent back into obsessive, over-detailing behavior, going so far as to make 'sculptures' out of the many police pictures documenting Shitao's injuries in a strange, maddening method of 'getting to know him' is overwhelmingly compelling. As a whole, the story is about Kline's mind and how it's trying to work everything out, his desperation to steer clear of insanity when really, he should quit the detective act and take up basket-weaving to save his sanity. Despite the "happy ending", one can hope he does just that. It's not that he's failed, it's that he's seen too much. So to assume that the film is too jumpy or confusing is to say that you didn't understand where it was coming from in the first place.There ARE, however, some confusing bits. We can assume that the woman that Meng Zi gets with is a prostitute, but it's never explicitly explained. He's appeared as a relatively with-it guy, with the usual flaws, but--a prostitute? Who is she? We never get told. The black eye he shows up with not long after his time with her, again, a WTF? While one can understand that Lili is romantically tied to Dongpo, I can say that no matter how much I love my husband, I'd be a titch peeved if he killed a close friend of mine. Instead, she goes back with him instead of shunning him--another odd occurrence.I give this movie 9 out of 10, which would've been a 10 were it not for the things listed in the above paragraph. Otherwise, it's a fantastic, stimulating film which depicts terrible monsters that are still, deep down, human. If you've seen this and didn't like it, either watch it more carefully next time or rent 'Pearl Harbor'. Though I'm sure Hartnett himself would advise you to do the former.

The dialog is very few, and the scene of the account for by the dialog is expressed by the image if usual. Radiohead's music piles up the atmosphere of the image instead of the dialog. I think that I can't understand painfully for the person who is not accustomed to such a movie because there are considerably a lot of flashbacks of the image of the Kline and Shitao. As for the Kline and Su Dongpo, there are a lot of nakedness in the scene that didn't feel the necessity. I think that the Anh Hung Tran director director uses and expressed its bloody body through this movie to talk about the pain in the mind and the pain of pain in the body. When the religion outlook on the Christianity is strong, and it knows the Bible, it's easy to understand, and individual meaning of few dialogs is made a mind more deeply and this work is seen. However, up to now, I have thought that it's the world that can't be understood in the person who has seen only the entertainment movie. I think that I run for frenzy because Su Dongpo as Hong Kong Mafia that plays Byung-hun Lee is love, there was terrible, and played it well. I think that acting of Takuya Kimura of this movie was very wonderful, and has evolved further. I think that the character that the post of the TV drama in recent years looks like though Takuya Kimura originally has the acting ability is a negative image. I think that the evaluation divides because it is a movie that the spectator receives by the sensibility. However, I like this movie very much.