Ryu san

Mr. Long (Chen Chang) is a highly successful knife assassin working for a Taiwanese crime boss. A job in Japan goes sideways and he's forced to hide in the slums of the city to avoid capture by his would-be targets, psychotic criminals in their own right.

And from that we get one of the weirdest examples of the fact that it's not always a bad thing to straddle genre lines. Because this film goes from a straightforward Asian action blast to a nihilist drug drama to a sappy romantic comedy, and then all back again. And yes, it is jarring from time to time, but it's meant to be. Life goes from incredibly sappy to gut-wrenching sadness, and sometimes it does so with no warning whatsoever.

It also helps to have such a crew behind this genre hopping. SABU, the director, has a reputation as a storyteller of the bizarre, this film being a fine example of that. Chen Chang also shines as the silent main protagonist. Long is a man of few words, but this merely enhances his performance, affording him an aura of mystery, danger and solution.

Is the film for everyone? No, it's not. Is it a bit artsy? Kinda. Is it really good? Absolutely.