ve-handojo

One of the most pretentious movies ever made. An Indonesian ballet dancer? A young violist who asked "can I help you?" in a waiter's manner? A doctor-by-noon and Tarot-reader-by-night with an over the top hair style and make-up? Come on! And above all .. a lame story with songs that are ear-breaking rather than heart-grabbing.

A super-holy solitary girl fell for a young violist (who magically, miraculously can play beautiful notes by using only a single string!) after his music could live up a disabled toddler under her care. These two silly lovebirds hug each other instead of hugging the kid after the miracle took place. Wow ... what a hyper-romantic characters!

Soon, the violist will discover the dark past of this Mother-Mary-wannabe ... which is no surprise to me, thanks for the annoying flashbacks!

Best time to go for this movie: you have a blind date, and he / she turns to be a total moron. Watch this movie as a warning to him / her that you are even more idiotic!

What a twist! What a cast! What a conflict!

This is one of the best Andrew Lau's pieces; a culmination of the whole "Young and Dangerous" series.

It's no bang-bang-bang flick, but think-think-think.

It's no look-at-me-I'm-handsome show, but look-at-me-I'm-in-dilemma.

Andy Lau's acting is surprisingly mature, while Tony Leung's as fantastic as usual. I love the idea to cast young stars Edison Chen and Shawn Yu as the juniors of the two mega-stars. With no doubt, they are the next big things in Hong Kong film industry.

Also, it's cool to cast the funny-faced Eric Tsang as the godfather, while bad guy Anthony Wong as the cop leader with a fatherly heart. This strengthen the concept of the whole movie, that is black-vs-white with the confusion which is black and which is white.

Big fans of Hong Kong action flicks will die rotten in hell if they miss this one!

The poor script doesn't focus in one certain thing ... is it a war movie? Or a love story? Or both of them? Nothing is convincing enough. The political background is not strong, and the love story has no compelling characters. What is Michael Caine doing in this film? And why, why, why Brendan Fraser?

Even Christopher Doyle doesn't delivery anything here. Is that really Ho Chi Minh or just a set? Please .... The location doesn't look good at all. So sad that Graham Greene's classic can end up like this on the big screen!