Yi ge zi tou de dan sheng (1997)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Ka-Fai Wai

Writers:

Matt Chow (writer)
Kam-Yuen Szeto (writer)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime

Plot Keywords:

Scheme | Grief | Gunfire Wound | Scapegoat | Gang

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Ching Wan Lau	...	Kau
Francis Ng	...	Matt
Tat-Ming Cheung	...	Bo
Matt Chow
Elvis Tsui
Joe Cheng
Carman Lee	...	Prostitute
Boon Chung Sung
Ruby Wong
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Turbo Kong	...	Spa Customer

Also Known As:

Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

New Zealand:R18 | Hong Kong:III

Company:

Golden Harvest Company

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the van robbery shootout, at least one shot is reversed. The "Accord" in "Honda Accord" is shown backwards.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Liang ge zhi neng huo yi ge (1997)

A Waste of Two Great Actors

I have no idea why everyone loves this movie so much. It's just bad. Really bad.

And I'm not just talking about the camera-work either. That's the least of this movie's problems. Everything is just way too schizophrenic. Characters (and references to characters) just pop out of absolutely nowhere, only to then be dropped like a bad habit only minutes later. As such, the viewer is given nothing to work with in terms of understanding character motivation for anything that they do. Who the heck was that? Why the heck did they do that? The scriptwriter apparently didn't care, so why should I? The comedy always feels forced because there's no setup time for any of the scenarios; they do this, then they immediately do something completely different, then they instantly do something else, etc. ad infinitum. The script can be summarized as follows: a bunch of stuff happens. Hardly compelling film-making.

Lau and Francis will just start talking about events and people out of the blue as if those references have already been fully developed. Who are you talking about? When did that happen? Again, the scriptwriter apparently didn't care, so why should I? This movie is the posterchild for underdeveloped concepts. Virtually everything here is wafer thin, as expected when you throw in dozens of superficial elements that are given a few minutes of screen time each. The structure and light-speed cadence is so irritating that it grates on the nerves within the opening 5 minutes. Someone should have given the director some depressants and taken away the cameraman's Red Bull.

This was a huge disappointment. I feel like I just witnessed a trainwreck. A truly terrible film, and a waste of two great actors.