01. Endless Journey (2023): 4/5
Such a heart-breaking film that beautifully crafts many aspects that follow one's life - loyalty, friendship, tenacity, perserverance, and above all absurd obsessiveness to one's raison d'être. I understand that many details and sequences in this film are deliberately manipulative to bring the tears out of the audience. But at the same time, the film still feels very sincere, thanks to a very well-paced script that seems to be very repetitive (as in "endless journey") but actually very diverse and carefully thought-out in settings, characters, and details, as well as excellent performance by the "3rd squad" cast, especially the leading Cheng Bing (played by Zhang Yi). A rare memorable film of this genre that I love very much.
02. The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025): 3/5
A much better film that I thought it was. Still with a very weak Marvel-style supervillain, the nonexistence of "stakes" (those who die will resurrect), but the idiosyncratic settings and quite decent performance by the fantastic four and the Silver Surfer are enough to bring this film out of mediocricity. Could be better, of course, but this film is no disaster as many other Marvel films in recent years.
03. Are You Lonesome Tonight? (2021): 3.5/5
This arthouse neo-noir action film is quite heavy and dragging at parts, but is nonetheless entertaining, well put together (despite its non-linear storytelling), and well acted, especially thanks to another memorable performance by Sylvia Chang - one of my favourite Asian actresses ever, who, despite her quite advanced age, still steals every single scene she is on thanks to her graceful beauty, elegance, and unmatched sensibility that I have loved since watching "Eat Drink Man Woman".
04. The Shadow's Edge (2025): 2/5
How in the world could this hectic and pretentious film receive so many praises and even awards (!) for its mediocre quality? This film feels like a abomination of a combination between the equally pretentious "New Police Story", that also featured a young cast of unlikeable characters but still at least capable to act instead of being moody and forgettable like those in this film, and the much more competent "Eye in the Sky". Even the ever-dependable Tony Leung Ka-fai is not enough to save this film (Jackie Chan has never been an actor with depth, but the action part - once mighty enough to cover any weaknesses in his performance now already faded away as he already enters the 70-year mark) - and yet somehow still won the Best Actor Award from HKFA. Am I too strict with my review or does the Hong Kong film industry already passed the point-of-no-return to mediocricity?
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