No. The film was alright. I haven't seen a movie by To which did disappoint me, even this one. Except for mainland propaganda, good guys win situtation, glorifying death sentence and etc. It seems that China is going to dominate the good old HK. Soon we won't see any HK films, they will be labeled as HK China films not the usual Hong Kong way they used to be.
shareIts the new reality, unfortunately. After more than a decade, it seems clear that while the HK / China relationship is going to have its tensions, Hong Kong will remain under China's rule.
shareI'm always confused when I see this kind of comment. If good guy wins == propaganda/glorifying, then what kind of propaganda is Die Hard series trying to present? Not to mention superhero movies should be one hell of a propaganda genre then. Why are people still so into these "no one wins so the movie must be deep" cliches?
shareThe problem lies in that no matter what movie you are watching you will know the outcome from the beginning. It's nice to have movies with different outcomes, then you don't always know. It is true about the blockbuster movies you mentioned (which is why I laugh when people say hollywood is nothing but liberals). But yea, there are plenty that go the other way too. Can you imagine is they made a Chinese version of 'Enemy of the State' now? It'd never happen, at least not in the same way as the American version and probably in a literal sense of the title.
shareI suppose movies that have similar themes to Enemy of the State and White House Down, etc won't even be approved into production by authorities in China, which is definitely a shame. But it doesn't make every other film propagandist, right? And that is my point.
shareIn the case of Du Zhan, (SPOILERS ALERT) despite the fact that the bad guy does finally get caught, I serious had no idea what the ending would be like when I was in the cinema. The whole process presented a sense of unpredictability.
shareIts like 1960's movies you can be sure that the bad guy wont win.
In the original version of the italian job they did something funny:
An open end where the bus full of loot is half above a cliff and half not so you dont know if the bad guys will make it. This was a trick to get it past the censors.
"Except for mainland propaganda, good guys win situtation, glorifying death sentence and etc."
Is that really accurate? I've heard some refer to this movie as a subversive social-commentary attacking the Chinese government and law-enforcement. I don't know exactly what To's intentions were when he made this flick, but I don't doubt this theory. Observe how the cops are portrayed; simple-minded, one-dimensional, arrogant and cruel. Not exactly "hero" material. The death sentence didn't look too "glorious" either (in fact, one thing I did hear from Johnnie To is that he was surprised the mainland censers allowed it). Also, the drug-dealers are the only characters that generate any degree of sympathy or have any hints of humanity. It does seem as if the authorities were secretly meant to be the villains. Even if that is the case, the movie still doesn't quite work, but it's an interesting speculation.