Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Cazekiel I'm compelled to write a review on this flick, seeing as it's gotten such a bad name here on IMDb. CONTAINS SERIOUS SPOILERS.If you walked into this movie to watch a psycho-thriller or get a heaping dose of crime drama, you got it in spades. But if you hadn't expected that Chinese mob activities involved serious, brutal violence, or that a serial-killer like Hasford didn't do 'improper things' with his victims and that offended you, then you need to do some reading on ANY mob-activities and EVERY serial-killer profile--without pictures, saving your delicate sensibilities.If you walked into this movie knowing that it involved a serial killer that made art out of his victim's bodies in a grotesque, terrifying manner, and that Kline's too-personal involvement over two years with the case had him go entirely mad, again, you got it in spades. But if you hadn't expected the blood (which is really quite ignorant, considering the first stills released showcased Hartnett covered from head-to-toe in blood) or couldn't see past what you'd call "OMG gratuitous nudity!" for what it really was: Kline's difficulty and outright inability to view any human form, especially women, as normal (after all, at no point does he engage sexual activity with any woman in the film, even the one he rented?)? Then you've got serious issues with that very human body. Considering the fact that there are only two scenes in which breasts are displayed, it doesn't EARN gratuity. The point of the nudity goes well beyond objectifying; the nudity, to Kline, is back at Hasford's, where he got the chance to see a bulging, unnatural sculpture made out of a pair of breasts.Defenses made aside, this movie is more a sound and light production, created to stimulate the viewer's movie-watching experience. The music goes from ethereal and hypnotizing to jarring in all appropriateness, capturing the mood from scene-to-scene. And when it comes to characters, we're not listening to stilted conversation between Affleck and J-Lo, with drab backgrounds and meaningless characters wandering in and out. Everyone has their place, from Kline's trying to redeem himself for his killing and mutilating Hasford... well, a la Hasford, to the psychotic Hasford himself, to Shitao's constant self-sacrifices to the point of serious injury in order to save others from death. Onto Meng Zi, a good friend to Kline but an easily-frustrated, ruthless cop, then Dongpo's extreme indifference to his violent ways to the point where his beloved Lili falls headfirst into them.If you're actually paying attention, it's not hard at all to follow. Each person has a story; even with the gory violence that Dongpo puts out, there are times when you feel for him. Despite Shitao's mutilated, torn-up body, as Lili tells him, he's 'beautiful'. And watching Kline's descent back into obsessive, over-detailing behavior, going so far as to make 'sculptures' out of the many police pictures documenting Shitao's injuries in a strange, maddening method of 'getting to know him' is overwhelmingly compelling. As a whole, the story is about Kline's mind and how it's trying to work everything out, his desperation to steer clear of insanity when really, he should quit the detective act and take up basket-weaving to save his sanity. Despite the "happy ending", one can hope he does just that. It's not that he's failed, it's that he's seen too much. So to assume that the film is too jumpy or confusing is to say that you didn't understand where it was coming from in the first place.There ARE, however, some confusing bits. We can assume that the woman that Meng Zi gets with is a prostitute, but it's never explicitly explained. He's appeared as a relatively with-it guy, with the usual flaws, but--a prostitute? Who is she? We never get told. The black eye he shows up with not long after his time with her, again, a WTF? While one can understand that Lili is romantically tied to Dongpo, I can say that no matter how much I love my husband, I'd be a titch peeved if he killed a close friend of mine. Instead, she goes back with him instead of shunning him--another odd occurrence.I give this movie 9 out of 10, which would've been a 10 were it not for the things listed in the above paragraph. Otherwise, it's a fantastic, stimulating film which depicts terrible monsters that are still, deep down, human. If you've seen this and didn't like it, either watch it more carefully next time or rent 'Pearl Harbor'. Though I'm sure Hartnett himself would advise you to do the former.

a4447304 This is one of the best film I have watched. In fact, I watched it twice, and the second time on, I gave it a standing ovation. This film is a piece of art, just like a canvas to Tran Anh Hung ready to paint his imagination for the world to see. It may leave audience baffled after watching it, but you need to watch the details to know the story. This movie is Tran Anh Hung's interpretation of the Life of Christ, it is a fusion of mafia, rock, detective all roll into one. You can call it a misinterpretation of the Bible, but hey, this is art, he has the freedom to express himself. To me, this rocks more than The Passion of Christ, because it got substance.

platothelapdog Everything about this movie screamed for me to despise it. Yet this movie is like meeting a person whose appearance is ugly, yet whose inner beauty is unseen unless given a chance to shine. Dark.... nasty work with cuts of beauty. It just flows out in both directions, this movie got a 9 out of 10 from me. Basically an ex-cop (Josh H.)named Kline who has seen and been overtaken by evil( a serial killer drives him insane over his investigation into this 24 mutilation killings then tortures Kline during a meeting,) is given the task of finding a lost son of a billionaire who turns out to be a new Christ figure, a saint. Which of these two meetings will have the most impact on Kline? Deep, slow and gory but oh so beautiful in a very disturbing way.

mananana2006 The dialog is very few, and the scene of the account for by the dialog is expressed by the image if usual. Radiohead's music piles up the atmosphere of the image instead of the dialog. I think that I can't understand painfully for the person who is not accustomed to such a movie because there are considerably a lot of flashbacks of the image of the Kline and Shitao. As for the Kline and Su Dongpo, there are a lot of nakedness in the scene that didn't feel the necessity. I think that the Anh Hung Tran director director uses and expressed its bloody body through this movie to talk about the pain in the mind and the pain of pain in the body. When the religion outlook on the Christianity is strong, and it knows the Bible, it's easy to understand, and individual meaning of few dialogs is made a mind more deeply and this work is seen. However, up to now, I have thought that it's the world that can't be understood in the person who has seen only the entertainment movie. I think that I run for frenzy because Su Dongpo as Hong Kong Mafia that plays Byung-hun Lee is love, there was terrible, and played it well. I think that acting of Takuya Kimura of this movie was very wonderful, and has evolved further. I think that the character that the post of the TV drama in recent years looks like though Takuya Kimura originally has the acting ability is a negative image. I think that the evaluation divides because it is a movie that the spectator receives by the sensibility. However, I like this movie very much.