Cliff Walkers

This slick but convoluted spy picture follows a group of Chinese spies on a secret mission. There are twists and turns, smart good guys and smart bad guys, some stylish cinematography, and an odd mix of realistic world building and unrealistic James Bond-style action.

Unfortunately, I found it increasingly difficult to follow the story. This was probably mainly because I have difficulty with faces (prosopagnosia) and everyone in this movie looks alike and dresses alike. There are all these men in suits and fedoras who seem to be in their 30s. And all these women in their 20s with ponytails who also wear fedoras. I would just get so confused by who the good guys and bad guys were. The only character I could always recognize was the main bad-guy boss, because he was older than anyone else. And I could usually recognize the pretty teenaged-or-just-past girl. Outside of that, I got more and more lost as more and more lookalike characters arrived and died.

Normally I have other ways to know who's who in a movie, like personality or clothing or voice. But no one in this movie has a distinct personality and they all sound and dress the same. It's as bad as those American sci-fi films where every astronaut is a square-jawed alpha male with a crewcut.

In spite of this, I enjoyed the movie. It's far from Yimou Zhang's best, but it's entertaining. But if you have face blindness be warned that this is going to be a particularly tough movie to make sense of.

"Zhang Yi leads the action in the first half, as his character is the traditional hero type who is decisive, vigilant and unflinchingly no-nonsense, an iron-wrought man who doesn't buckle under torture, so when Zhang crumples under his Achilles' heel (the attachment to his own offspring), it is Yu Hewei's Zhou, the surprising foe-to-friend undercover who takes up the gauntlet and resumes the endeavor. The secret mission takes a back seat, it is the "find the mole" game that propels the film to a satisfying if predictable finish in the homestretch. Great sacrifice is potently effectuated, mind game well played, earnest camaraderie emotively honored, the petticoat fighters are safe and waifs reunited with their parent, with the chief mission is accomplished en passant. Everything is well gauged to comply with China's ever-stringent censorship after Zhang Yimou's previous film ONE SECOND (2020), which also stars Zhang Yi and Liu Haocun, hits a bumpy road to get released."

read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.

China's official entry to 2022's Oscars is a very good atmospheric historical spy thriller. Although its story is not my cup of tea, I enjoyed it and was involved in it all the time. The story unfolds interestingly and storytelling is beautiful. Cinematography, production design and costume design are all nice. Some scenes are really thrilling and intense.

Before this, I always thought "The Message" was the best one of this type. But Cliff Walkers impressed me with its story-telling.

Back in 1940s, four of the specially-trained spies were sent to commit a mission--To protect an informant and send him out so he can tell the truth about the government to the world. However, there are moles among the four. So it's harsh for the real agents to do the task.

Firstly, the acting is quite satisfying. Zhangyi played a senior spy in the movie, and his performance of being tortured was quite impressive.

When too much information is weaved/stuffed into such a visual spectacle in just two hours, then some details must be missed out during the (first-time) viewing process. I really enjoyed the strain and the thrill that the movie offered in Act 2 , but it took me some time to realize who's who and I had to carefully follow up on everybody's lines and subtext in Act 1 (even if I speak Mandarin). It also feels a bit abrupt when we see things are all settled in the end. Clarity is inevitably compromised when the narrative sometimes requires the audience to connect dots by themselves , in a blink of an eye.