Plot:
Malaya, August 1945: In the final days of World War II, scientists at a Japanese prison camp conduct biological experiments on prisoners in an attempt to create super-fighters. When one of the prisoners is given a double dose, he turns into a humanoid beast and begins to kill his fellow inmates, but at that moment the camp is destroyed by bombing.
Malaysia, present day: Li Fei, stage name Sunny (Aaron Kwok), works as a clown in Uncle Da's circus (Yuen Wah), who raised him after his father died. Sunny always dreamed of becoming a knife thrower like Zhang Dachu (Colin Chow) and his wife Yao Li (Karen Cheung), but Uncle Yes always forbade him, considering him a simpleton.
One night, Sunny noticed Zhang, Yao and three other circus performers secretly exploring an underground cave where, according to rumors, Japanese gold was supposed to be stored. He was forced to go with the others. They found gold, but were poisoned by gas from canisters left behind from experiments during World War II, and this process caused a mutation. While escaping to Hong Kong, Sunny is thrown overboard, but he survives: he is carried by a wave to the shore of a fishing village, and from there, with the help of CSS News channel reporter Angel Chan (Shu Qi), he ends up in Hong Kong.
The city is subject to a series of robberies, and this is the work of Zhang and his gang, who have super powers. Two experts in such criminal cases, Song Hao (Jackie Wu) and his fiancee Cheng Xiuhua (Zhang Jingchu), come from China to help the local police. When Chan quits her job after being threatened with demotion due to a lawsuit, she accidentally witnesses Sunny using her superpowers to rescue a hostage, and decides to take revenge on her former employer by making Sunny a screen star. When Zhang and company learn about Sunny, they decide to track him down to find out how he managed to maintain his normal appearance, since they themselves, as their powers grow, turn into ugly mutants.
Review:
“City under siege” (City Under Siege) superior “Chinese Time Patrol” (Future X-Cops) in the action sequences and effects, despite the excessive use of wires, but is inferior in the script, which is written to an acceptable standard but fails when it comes to developing characters or emotions. Taiwanese actress Shu Qi, as the only sane person among the main characters, “lightens” the film with her usual laid-back lightheartedness, but once her character Angel starts taking love and relationships seriously, she becomes a victim of the writers. Aaron Kwok, who has played both simpletons and heroes in the past, plays his role convincingly here, but the clever idea of him becoming a media darling halfway through the film was unfortunately never fully developed. Taiwanese fighter Colin Chow (Fearless, Flashpoint) is as good as ever as a villain, but the Chinese Jackie Wu и Zhang Jingchu do not fit into the Hong Kong sci-fi action movie, despite the fact that the writers tried to fit the roles to them.
The fact that the film doesn't explain how Woo и Jingchu have acquired partial superpowers is just one of the plot holes that, given the varied career Benny Chan, closer in level to the duology “Future Police” (Gen-X Cops) rather than a more thoughtful film "Connection" (Connected). When the fighting starts - especially the fun fight in Angel's apartment and the ending on the highway - “City under siege” represents a decent piece of filmmaking, with acceptable mechanical and visual special effects. As for the rest, this is a step back for a director with 20 years of experience, who has previously proven that he can do much better (Misconformity, Connection). Besides, there is no point in either city under siege (English version of the name), neither from emergency alarm (Chinese version).
Derek Alley's score: 4/10
Author: Derek Alley
Source: filmbiz.asia
Translation: EvilDollaR
Home » Reviews » Translated reviews »
Tags: City Under Siege, Aaron Kwok, Benny Chan, Jackie Wu, Colin Chow, Zhang Jingchu, Shu Qi, Yuen Wa
Tags: City Under Siege, Aaron Kwok, Benny Chan, Jackie Wu, Colin Chow, Zhang Jingchu, Shu Qi, Yuen Wa
yeah, it's some kind of crap...