Shinjuku Incident @ HKIFF

So I managed to catch Shinjuku Incident  - the opening film for HK International Film Festival @ the HKCEC on Sunday night. I was lucky enough to get a ticket since it was sold out quite early!

I was very excited to watch it coz it's actually my first HK film since moving to HK! Yes ironic I know... I watched more HK films when I was back in KL.

Anyways, yes, Daniel Wu is in it (another reason I got excited). BUT it wasn't him back from the days of Bishonen - though I wish it was - in Shinjuku he had those curls that feels almost like a brush - of course I was assuming it felt that coarse just by looking at it. And from what I've heard he had that hairstyle on for 6 months for the duration of the shoot! 

Back to the film, my first reaction was WOW! There's so much GORE in it! Well coming from Malaysia where all the films in the cinema are censored this came as a real shock! I've never seen such decapitated hands so BIG and so close to me! But it was well exciting - what a new and pleasant? experience!

Okay fine, let's go to the storyline. It started out really nice and sweet with a promising good after feeling. Half-way through everything started moving really fast - almost in fast-forward that I sometimes lose the plot. And I feel it doesn't give me enough time to fully understand the reasons why the characters did what they did. Maybe the characters weren't developed well enough - maybe it was done that way on purpose to create the feeling that no one - including the characters themselves - fully understood what was going on. Of course this was a chapter of confusion, chaos and backstabbing.

Another thing that I found myself doing was trying to move the frame lower or to the side - depending on the shot that I realise was missing. It's just that sometimes the characters seem to be doing something but I cannot see what exactly that they're holding/chopping/etc.

I do like how the characters seem very real - that unlucky things do keep happening to the same person. It's something that we hate to see happen to people but yea - life's a bitch and bad luck comes in 3s... or more. Some people choose to be naive, some people overcompensate their weaknesses by acting bigger than they really are, some people backstab to reach their goals, some reasons are never explained... and good people do die in the end. In real life there aren't many happy endings.

Overall I like the movie. It is kinda disturbing in a way but movies are meant to create feelings within you.

I only hope I can learn Cantonese overnight like how Jackie Chan managed to learn Japanese in this movie :)