Review of Chao suo xing jing

If this were a rough cut of a film, I'd say it had potential; unfortunately, this is the finished product. There could have been a good mix of drama and comedy with some care and polish, but there are constant reminders of its absence, with a phallic microphone drifting down into the frame like some kind of arousal meter, missing sound effects, generic music, and visual effects done in 2D rather than 3D that seem more like sticky notes that say "Insert this type of effect here" than actual effects. The leads, Sonija Kwok and Tiffany Lee, are both attractive and can act well--in fact, the acting is either good or funny all around--but it would be hard to make their roles seem more artificial or arbitrary if you tried. There's also little action and even less gun play, despite the misleading DVD cover.

Two different types of digital cameras are used: one really bad one with pixelation, artificial sharpening, and blown-out highlights, and the other pretty good but with artificial blurring. They look so different that whenever they switch between them it seems like they're either switching to a hazy flashback scene or a different time of day, as if hours have passed.

Perhaps they simply ran out of time to film some scenes and needed to add filler because between scenes they'll keep cutting back to the stars just dancing in the middle of a plaza for no apparent reason, having a good time as if they need frequent breaks from their difficult police work. The main character's friend gets shot and she goes to catch who did it, but not before some more dancing.

A 7 rating is surely more than this movie deserves on its own merits, but I got some good laughs out of its shortcomings and liked the leads. You might watch this if you've watched all their good movies and still want more.

7/10