风声 The Message

[Outofin]

Well done. Well done. Highly recommend 风声. See douban rating here.

This is a classic situation. Five odd people in a odd place, one is the spy. Who is it?

Don't worry. I won't tell. But still, I suggest you not read anything else, not talk to friends, just find the nearest theater and go watch it.

Here we have

the innocent cutie 周迅

the harmless fattie, at least seems harmless in his appearance. 英达, a talented actor.

the concerned lady, who is in a troubled relationship. Ops! her lover is a communist! Now she's in big trouble.

the proud and rude war hero

the gay

But it's not a classic detective story. What's not so typical is that the beast is losing its patience, and is set to devour anyone who looks slightly suspicious. No one is safe.

I have some problem with the explicit cruelty in the interrogating room. It's more intense than an average R movie. I'm surprised that China allows such movies. This brings up a louder question: should China establish a film rating system? I think so.

[gato]

It's still has too many 主旋律 elements for my taste, but it's a well-made movie.

[Outofin]

Does it? I didn't feel much 主旋律 except a few lines in the end. (Maybe I'm already too deaf to it.) Actually for a moment, I wasn't sure if they were from KMT or CCP.

[gato]

It still has heroes who have no flaws who happen to be Communists. I found most of the characters stereotypical and not that interesting. The hide-and-seek of the spy story is kind of interesting, but it's more of a 智力游戏, not something I was able to get emotionally involved in. But that's just me. I tend to like movies with interesting characters.

Edited November 21, 2009 at 03:57 AM by gato

[xianhua]

Slow Chinese also features a review of this film on a recent podcast. The podcast thoroughly recommends the film.

I'd love to see it, but can't see how to achieve this in my current location. Any suggestions?

[Outofin]

You can either download it on verycd.com, or watch it online. I always prefer download for better video quality.

When I started the thread, it wasn't available yet. Now it is.

[rob07]

Thanks for the recommendation and posting the link. This was a fun movie. Although as gato says, it doesn't have any particularly memorable characters, it is a mystery/whodunnit story with clear goodies and baddies at the final curtain.

I always prefer download for better video quality

Yes, I watched it online and the messages written on the screen were almost impossible to read (the subtitles were fine).