Prolific director Johnnie To is known best in the west as the guy who can craft one hell of an action/crime flick. His latest film, entitled Vengeance, doesn’t deviate at all from the formula which has resulted in his current, and most rightfully deserved, reputation.
Vengeance is about a French Chef, named Costello (Johnny Hallyday), whose daughter’s family is gunned down in Hong Kong, and upon visiting his daughter in the hospital, promises her revenge on the men who did this to her and her family. Due to his unfamiliarity with the area, Costello hires three local triad members to help him track down and murder the killers. One subtle reason, that becomes an important plot point, is the fact that Costello is losing his memory, due to a bullet in his brain, and hopes to find his killers before his time of remembrance runs out.
On the whole, Vengeance is just your run of the mill revenge movie which, personally, I usually enjoy despite its actual quality. In this instance, the movie reminded me a bit of John Woo’s Hard Boiled in the way the action scenes were shot, specifically how little the men seemed to reload during heightened battles (although they definitely reload). Although, from what I’m told, this ‘bullets flying’ style is one of To’s trademarks, which he masterfully displays throughout the film.
I believe this is the first time I’ve witnessed Jonnie To’s directing and, while I can see why people like him, this movie didn’t live up to my expectations. It feels like a movie that I’ve seen before, nothing necessarily original but somewhat exciting nonetheless. I will say he did make the film beautiful to watch; it’s visually a real treat and captures the differences between the East and the West very well.
My real issue with the film comes down to the dialogue. I found that the mix of French, English, and Cantonese took away some of the darkness that the film had going for it. The reason being, like in real life, most people who are bilingual have difficulty solidifying the second language so when you have two groups of people who don’t have the same native language and use English as their “common ground” language, you have a bit of unintentional comic relief because their accents sound a bit funny.
Additionally, the dialogue actually seemed too simple. It’s as if writer Ka-Fai Wa wanted to dumb down the film to a Michael Bay level so that it would be much easier to follow. This doesn’t deter the movie too much but I think it’s what makes it easily forgettable and much more average then it could have been. I have to give him credit though, I think the idea of having a lead who begins to lose his memory while on a revenge fueled mission is brilliant and could be explored a bit more in other films.
The film stars Johnny Hallyday as Costello, the triad members that are hired by Costello are known as Kwok, Chu and Fat Lok played by Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Ka Tung Lam, and Suet Lam respectively. Their former boss, George Fung, is played by the legendary Simon Yam. I actually think everyone did a great job despite the mediocrity of the script. Yam played this over the top crime boss, which surprisingly fit the character of the film, while Costello did a decent job transitioning from a confident badass to a senile Frenchie who seemed lost, but with a purpose, in a different world. While Halladay may have nailed this transition, he was simply a boring guy to watch on screen, there was charisma and no emotion to his performance, which eventually has a negative impact on the film’s soul. As for the three hit men, they did a fine job together. They each had their distinct personalities but also maintained a level of professionalism that one would expect from Triad gunman.
Overall, Vengeance is a movie that could have been great had it had a soul. You realize this flaw instantly when the leads are destroying people and, for some reason, you don’t get fired up like you normally would in a film of this caliber (think Taken). Its lack of emotion is what destroys its potential, thus making it an average revenge flick.
Rating: A revenge film that seems to be lacking its most important element-the fire that gets you pumped (5.8/10)
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