Ji ri qi cheng

"Set Off" (aka "Ji ri qi cheng") started off as being interesting and it definitely had potential to be a good comedy from writers Muchun Cha and Li Wang. So I believed that I was in for a treat here with this 2008 crime comedy from director Jiang Liu.

And while "Set Off" was off to an entertaining and enjoyable start, the movie lost its momentum almost entirely about halfway through, and at that point onwards the movie just settled into a very monotonous pace where very little fun stuff happened really. It felt sort of like the movie shed its comedy skin and turned into an almost full-fledged crime movie.

I wasn't familiar with the cast in this 2008 movie, but I will say that Wei Fan (playing Lao Cui) and Wenpei Ju (playing Xiao Xia) definitely put on good enough performances and carried the movie. It was just a shame that they were restricted in their performances, given the limitations of the mundane script.

For a crime comedy then "Set Off" just fell short and veered completely off course. I think it was a shame, because the movie definitely started off quite nicely. If you enjoy Chinese comedies, then there are far better choices readily available out there.

My rating of "Set Off" settles on a mediocre five out of ten stars. This is hardly a movie that I will recommend you rushing out to get a hold of, much less actually sitting down to watch - unless you are a fan of someone on the cast list or something.