Reviews & Ratings for
Where a Good Man Goes More at IMDbPro »Joi gin a long (original title)

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Odd romantic drama with some bursts of violence, 18 April 2002

Author: Mathias (experten) from Kista, Stockholm, Sweden

This is a movie from highly acclaimed Milkyway movie production company, made by the master director himself, Johnny To. Some consider Where A Good Man Goes to be an overlooked masterpiece but my personal opinion is that it is a good but not great movie.

I prefer some of Johnny To's other movies such as Running Out Of Time and especially A Hero Never Dies which is much more violent and also very stylistic with many very nice shootings with bloodsquibs. I can also recommend some of the movies produced by Johnny To; the exciting thriller The Intruder, the odd masterpiece The Odd Ones Die and the extremely violent and well written The Longest Nite.

Where A Good Man Goes is not very violent, but it has some sudden bursts of violence. It is more of a romantic drama about the relationship between a newly released ex-convict and an attractive widow hotel owner. If you are a little more mature movie lover who doesn't expect to see a heroic bloodshed gun ballet movie (there is no gun action here) but want to see a well directed well played drama, but still have the stomach too see some violence, some ugly beatings, then I think you will enjoy this movie.

The pacing is not high, but there are enough going on all the time to keep mature viewers entertained. The ex-convict Michael is played by Ching Wan Lau and he is one tough bastard and here he is good as always. Ruby Wong is attractive but also believable in her role as the hotel owner, she has a certain dignity with her. Lam Suet is also very good as the nasty policeman who wants to catch Michael.

Where A Good Man Goes is also interesting because the character Michael, although believable, is hard to understand. His point of view is that we live in a dog eat dog world and you better be mean because there are so many mean people out there that otherwise will take advantage of you. This is his philosophy and he lives like he preaches, he treats everybody bad including the widow hotel owner. It is interesting to watch the relationship between them develop despite the way he is treating her. Michael is a more multidimensional character than is common in Hollywood movies, To is not afraid to make him complicated, to show us his bad sides as well as his good qualities.

Rating: 7 / 10. Recommended for mature people only.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
"I am not scared of anything. I am only afraid of one thing.", 26 April 2009

Author: gorthu from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Wow, I thought I rambled, but Lau Ching wan takes it to another level! His character is so complex, and there's so many things that I pick up on in his performance when I rewatch this movie. I didn't really know how to fit these thoughts into my review, so I thought I would just point it out right away. That quote in the title of the review is classic rambling from Lau Ching Wan's character. I don't know how I didn't get annoyed of his character, but Lau Ching Wan just gives such a great performance. I kept wanting to hear what he had to say, because the more he rambles on, the more violent he gets with his words. Great stuff.

Lau Ching Wan stars as a gangster who just got out of jail, and right away he gets into a fight. After his brawl he decides to stay at a really cheap inn run by a poor widow played by Ruby Wong. They slowly begin a relationship, and I found it well done and touching. Lau Ching Wan's character is over the top with how rude he is, but he does a great job at it. I really found myself liking his character, even though his character is supposed to be almost completely unlikeable. One scene I liked was when Lau Ching Wan literally forces the owner of the inn and her son to go out and have a day of fun with him. It is quite an odd scene. So they go out for the day, and do all types of fun things. For instance Lau Ching Wan shows them what part of a wall he painted while he was in prison. But seriously, there are a lot of good things about this movie. There's one hilarious scene where Lau throws a big fit screaming at the inn owner that his room has been taken. He couldn't have been a bigger baby. She doesn't say a word, politely shows him to his room, and when the door opens, the drunken Lau Ching Wan figures out after a few seconds that he must have been in the wrong room before. Such a great scene. There's some more scenes like that, and that's the main reason the movie is worth watching. Plus you have those great small touches that Johnnie To is known for. Like when the inn owner is cleaning Lau's room, she sees a big pile of money in his drawer, and she shuts the drawer right away. Good scene with good character development for both actors. But then what Johnnie To does is expand on it. About 4 days pass, and she is cleaning his room, and once again sees his drawer open, but this time that big pile of money is nothing but a few bills. Like I said, it's just a small touch.

While this movie isn't that exciting, and it's anything but original, I loved the directing job, the acting, dialogue, the short action scenes, and I found myself laughing outloud at least a few times. Lau Ching Wan + Johnnie To. How can you go wrong with that? You can't. And you also have Lam Suet giving a great performance. This is back when he actually got good roles. Nowadays it seems like he just gets really small roles or cameos in Johnnie To movies. Don't expect a great thriller or something really exciting, just an enjoyable movie.

0 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Some problems, 20 April 2003

Author: Pro Jury

Visually, "Where A Good Man Goes" lacks the first-reel close-ups needed to connect each character with the audience. The film lacks the in-your-face close-ups needed to create a feeling of edgy intensity this director appears to be striving for.

From a distance, the viewer follows a buzz of activity. Unfortunately, most every line of English subtitling flashes on and off within the blink of an eye -- even when there is no dialog before or after. It is as if the subtitler was given a 500 second time limit for displaying subtitles but has 1800 lines of dialog. With these flashes of text, the viewer is able to perceive that something white has appeared when an actor speaks, but no one has no chance to begin reading it.

More than 10 years after the world class Wu/Yun-Fat Hong Kong masterpieces, the China's new province is still struggling to maintain any level of consistency.

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