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Wild City (2015) - Ringo Lam, Louis Koo


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I wonder if they used HD cameras to film this. It does have that HD look to it. Not complaining though as it looks good. Hope the movie is good. Like the part where the van goes through the bus (at least that is what it looks like.)

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Yes, please! I've always been more of a Woo fan, but I've got more faith in Ringo. I hope Woo's going to deliver with Manhunt. I have absolutely no doubt that Ringo will.

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It will be released on July 31st in HK & China.

Well Go USA have acquired the North American rights and is planning for a North American release to coincide the the July 31st release date.

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Lam is really bringing it all to the table. Car chases, shoot-outs, gang fights, explosions (hopefully, minimal use of CGI). Also, according to Lam, a crucial car chase in the film was done with the government assisting on certain road blocks to produce impactful realism to it.

http://hktopten.blogspot.se/2015/05/20150522-ringo-lam-receives-lifetime.html

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In this era of Hong Kong crimers where so much of current movies of the genre have changed in terms of quality and individual style --- in my case in a bad way because I feel many HK crime movies look the same now (Firestorm, Z Storm, Cold War, whatever) --- there's only few talent left that can stand out and still impress with their visual filming techniques and overall statements they choose to convey. Johnnie To is still going strong whenever he's into it, but now I feel the genre is heading somewhere positive with the addition of veteran Ringo Lam returning to directing. I have to tip my hat to him for bringing back that gritty, edgy, emotional, and altogether straightforward approach I feel has been missing in favor of stylized and complex storytelling. Lam's trademarks of depicting daily real-life through his movies are pretty apparent and once you've gone through his filmography, you'll know it. Greed, survival, honor, friendship etc. However, I think the overall statement Lam gives with this movie is actually a bigger picture of the aforementioned themes but placed in today's society and the affection they can have on people of different status and cultural upbringing. Pretty fascinating for being an update of these old-fashioned themes.

Thanks to Lam's cast he's able to convey what he wants us to understand. Louis Koo, Shawn Yue, Yuen Qiu (great to see her in a serious role beyond her Kung Fu Hustle success), Joseph Chang (his villain role reminded me alot of those antagonistic roles Roy Cheung played in Lam's On Fire trilogy), Simon Yam (at last, a role where he doesn't get to play in his usual subdued and calm self he's known for), Jack Kao, Michael Tse, Sam Lee. Spot on and naturally delivered performances under Lam's direction. The lead actress however wasn't rightfully layered, maybe Li Bingbing or some other capable Mainland actress would've done that role justice. Chinese movie politics involved I guess, still it was a bad choice.

Lam's use of the technical department was well done in some aspects and terrible in others. Lensing is one reason as it the captured look through cinematography/lighting/coloring is good but from time to time shifts to looking cheap and ugly. But worst thing --- like most of Hong Kong movies today --- is the use of CGI. It doesn't complement well with eye-catching cinematography. The same goes for overdoing it in correlation to action scenes that aims for realism (the car chase in particular). Thankfully the CGI is used minimally in favor of Lam's authentic portrayal of violence --- which beside vehicle stunts consists of brawls, stabbing weapons, guns --- throughout the story.

Altogether, I'm really impressed. Ringo Lam's return was good and much needed so I hope to see him more active in the industry.

Rating: 7.5/10

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I thought the movie was average. It started pretty good, but after a while just lost it's drive. The things picked up a little in the last 20 minutes, but it couldn't save the movie as a whole.

It looked pretty  good though, with  some beautiful HK scenery and decent acting, except , maybe, for the lead actress. I thought she was too "teeny pop" for the role .   There's a couple of decent action scenes, both are car chases, but they're just slightly above the average, IMO

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It was a pretty solid action movie, I thought but mostly due to Lam's directing, the plot was pretty standard but Lam managed to inject some interesting commentary on the length's people will go to for greed. 

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