Mr. Long

I was lucky to catch this film at Berlinale Film Festival and when the film ended, there was a sudden eruption of applause that went on for about a minute. Half the crowd stayed behind until the credits rolled and again another round of applause when the final curtain came down. It was THAT good.

The film was shocking at times of the brutality, heart warming, some really laugh-out loud moments mixed with gut wrenching sadness. All 3 leads playing Long, Jun and Lily were excellent in their portrayal of the characters and you do feel for each of their struggles.

When a movie really touches you it stays in your mind and I'm still thinking about the film even now after I saw the movie several days ago.

Let's address the elephant in the room right away. Mr. Long is much too long for its own good, exaggeratedly plodding and frankly tedious throughout about two thirds of its running time. And yet, the opening twenty minutes and closing twenty minutes, the excellent actresses and actors and the unusual genre mixture make this movie still watchable. Sabu's greatest movie so far was intellectual horror movie Miss Zombie which was equally artistic, emotional and quiet as Mr. Long but the main difference was that Miss Zombie is only eighty-five minutes long while Mr. Long has a whopping running time of one hundred twenty-nine minutes. Less would have been so much more and if Mr. Long had been forty-five minutes shorter than it turns out to be, it would have deserved at least two extra points in the final rating.

Let's introduce the interesting plot. Our silent titular anti-hero is a professional Taiwanese hitman who is particularly handy with knives. He stabs six thugs in the first five minutes alone. He is then sent on a mission abroad in Japan which goes terribly wrong. He has to go into hiding and ends up in a filthy and poor neighbourhood. What started as an action-thriller now turns into an intellectual drama. The protagonist is nursed back to health by a young boy whose mother is a drug addict. The hitman feels obliged to help the boy but soon starts to befriend him and ultimately becomes his father figure. He cooks for him, helps his drug addict mother to come clean and even gives him baseball lessons. The neighbourhood also starts to accept, befriend and support the quiet stranger as people discover the hitman's talent as a cook. They help him start his own business with a food stand and the quiet anti-hero accepts in order to amass enough money to return to Taiwan before the thug he tried to kill might come back for revenge. The movie works like a circle in that regard as the final twenty minutes are as intense as the opening twenty minutes.

The greatest element about the movie are the stunning characters and the brilliant actresses and actors who play them. Chang Chen barely speaks in the movie and looks cool, indifferent and tough but he occasionally shows his affection for others in heart-warming ways. Yao Yi Ti plays a drug-addicted hooker who manages to turn her life around in an impressive way. Her character is emotionally fragile, meandering between timid joy and profound despair. One can't help but root for the unlucky outsider. The greatest performance however comes from child actor Bai Run-yin who is the element that links the other two protagonists. He plays a quiet child desiring to help his sick mother and the mysterious stranger in a selfless way. There are few films that include such a good-hearted, likable and pure character.

There are numerous little details that rate this movie up. The two main action scenes are quite iconic and make think of South Korean masterpiece Oldboy with the difference that a knife takes the place of a hammer. The camera work is calm and precise which is a rare treat in contemporary cinema. The locations are authentic and diverisfied. The soundtrack blends in perfectly and accentuates the emotivity of the different scenes. The movie avoids using flashy special effects which gives the movie a particularly realistic touch not a far cry from a documentary.

In the end, Mr. Long includes enough positive elements with outstanding actresses and actors portraying fascinating characters in a genre-bending plot to be watched at least once. The overlong story, slow pace and at times pointless slice of life elements prevent a good idea from coming to full fruition. Fans of action films should rather stay away as Mr. Long is rather a profound drama with some sudden brutal outbursts.

SABU is one of the most fearless and creative filmmakers these days. Most of his movies were comedies and this one is a bit more serious but his style is just as evident. Definitely of the most inspiring and emotional movies I have seen in a while. Absolutely recommended.

Maybe because I've watch a lot of chinese kungfu & other superb action movies like Raid, Man from Nowhere, JohnWick I found this movie's fight scene is so lacking it's laughable. The main actor & actress did well but the extras is too woody it's like a B-movie. Or is it though?

By taiwan standard maybe 7/10 is spot on but since I watch it because imdb give this rating that high I have my expectation high & now I'm disappointed. Oh & it's too long too with 2hrs, should've been 1hr30 or 1hr45.

As I was looking through the comments of this fantastic film I came across a comment which stated "Mr. Long" as being "John Wick" if directed by Kore-eda, to which I couldn't agree more! but then I realized this wasn't being stated as a complement, but it should, because it's exactly what this is in the best possible way.

I was hooked from the moment I read the synopsys, a trained assassin ready to leave his life behind and start over after a job gone wrong, but this was SO much more than I could ever expect, when this film needs to be ruthless it is without a shed of mercy, but when it needs to be tender, it is with all it's kindness, this is above all else a study on human emotion, whether it's rage or compassion, it's done with so many care you can't help but feel deeply connected to every single character, and you can feel that everyone envolved is giving everything they have.

The acting is suberb, for a film with minimal dialogue the acting team does a wonderful job at delivering every string of emotion to the screen, Mr. Long himself who doesn't speak a word of japanese spends most of the film completly mute and serious but you can still feel everything he's feeling, giving special props to the ending that gave these intense goosebumps.

Usually I don't like writing reviews for films liked as much as I did this one because I don't feel I can do them justice, or I can say anything that hasn't been said already, but I can't help but write one for "Mr. Long" because I feel it doesn't get enough praise as it should, it's a project filled with dedication and love, the director obviously thought about even the tiny details, small things you might not get at first but will definitly hit you days after you've seen this because trust me it's a film you will be thinking about days, if not weeks down the road, it doesn't go without it's flaws obviously, but it's damned worth it, if you're in the fence about watching this don't be, you will not waste your time!