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Storyline
An assassin is hired to kill the men responsible for kidnapping an important man's son. With every death, the killer gets closer to the last kidnapper's name.
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Details
Release Date:
11 January 2007 (Singapore)
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Company Credits
Technical Specs
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1
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Did You Know?
Trivia
Francis Ng was the director's first choice for the role of T.
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Quotes
Captain:
As a cop all I have to do is live by the rules of the law. What's right and what's wrong is all I need to know, and that's much easier than trying to figure out what's good and what's bad.
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Soundtracks
"Broken Orange"
Written by
John Swihart and
Pakk Hui and
Max Makowski
Performed by
Pakk Hui and
Heather Donaldson See more »
This was really the only movie at Sundance 2006 that I absolutely HAD to see. Many (American) audience members simply did not understand the humor in the more dramatic parts (very characteristic of Korean-style dramas) which simply is not seen much in American movies. Note: this movie is not Korean, but I draw from Korean movies as a reference.
T, an experienced hit-man (Francis Ng) is forced to work with a group of young bumbling gangsters. T is more or less a "strong silent" honorable man (the irony being that he kills for a living) who is contracted to kill via names written in lai si packets (little red packets - commonly associated with gifts given during Chinese New Year). You, as a viewer, piece together the past and the present regarding T, the woman he has a crush on (Vivian Hsu), the idiotic gangsters T works with, an old detective T plays chess with (who is working on the some cases involving dead gangsters), and the rest of the gangster underground. Ultimately, T must protect the woman he loves, retain his honor as a man and fulfill his responsibilities as a professional hit-man.
I am not big into HK/Singaporean movies, but my experience watching Korean dramas/comedies prepared me to understand much of the humor when it seemed to glaze over much of the rest of the American audience. I personally thought some moments were hysterical. The movie is more or less a crime-drama (I guess) but from my experience, Asian dramas don't like to restrain themselves to only one genre. I personally think that Max Makowski (writer/director) managed to minimize explanation of some parts, which gave the film a more adult/mature/lifelike quality (i.e. what was in the suitcase?).
I don't think I could recommend a similar movie (few have managed to put together a quality script with rich characters), but the garbled time-line is similar to Memento (or Pulp Fiction for you main-streamers) and the main character is vaguely like Old Boy. I can't wait for One Last Dance to make it to DVD because it is already starting to fade from my memory and I do believe that this is one of my top 10 movies.