Limbo

This is a dark Chinese black and white film noir which is vicious. I would put it in a category with both Seven and Kalifornia. Two detectives, a rookie and a salty veteran investigate the murders of junkie prostitutes. The killer has cut off their hands and the police are stumped by the crimes. The cinematography is excellent and the two leads credible. A completely unpredictable ending make this a must watch film.

A very dark and grim thriller filmed in black & white, mostly in the slums of Hong Kong. This movie is so atmospheric with a soundtrack that compliments it to perfection.

This really is one of the best thrillers I have ever seen. Emotions run high in this true masterpiece of a movie!

Two dim-witted, bad-tempered, violent cops - one of them with a toothache - run around the rubbish-strewn back alleys of Kwun Tong looking for a violent killer with some serious mental health issues. Some triads run up some stairs. Then they run down again. Among all this silliness, two street-tough young women are put through some deeply harrowing experiences. Yase Liu as Wong To gives by some distance the best performance in a story that provides very limited context or background to the characters. It all just about makes sense despite each character acting inexplicably to help move the plot along. But, hey, it all looks absolutely stunning. No HK film I've seen has looked this magnificent since Wong Kar Wai's heyday. 10/10 for the production design, 4/10 for everything else. Let's call it a 5.

Black and white picture completely increases the beauty and darkness of hong kong environment. Although action scene feel a bit messy, awesome acting.

Limbo is probably of one of the boldest attempt to put HK well-known crime drama along with the film noir genre. There were in the past many fine example of local production of gruesome and gritty crime stories and yet, Limbo pushes the envelope even further. The movie seems to actively asking audience not only looking at the stunning yet very harsh black and white visuals, but to sense the desperation of the characters, the smell of non-stop rain from trashy industrial buildings, as well as the out casts of our society but also the very places that they had to put up with. It is as if the movie theatre can release a fragrant of the movie, it would be, as what the main protagonist described, the smell of rubbish. Then perhaps, it could have also been the smell of real Hong Kong. Gone are the glorious and glamour of high rises and luxury apartments, replaced the harsh realty of daily grinning in an industrial, often chaotic mix of poor areas with out casts who had long been neglected.

The set design of film alone would have worth the trip to the theatre but oddly enough it was the characters' development which feel a bit of a let down. The English title does it justice to prescribe the state of mind of characters, whether it is Liu who mentally broke down because of his injured wife or Wang Tao, the young poor girl who is literally crying for her redemption, or the new smart looking Ren Kai who suffer from physical pain from his wisdom teeth (hence the Chinese title). We would want to know a bit more of their past to gain even more sympathy on their pain. The build up of the antagonist is probably one of the weaker point since all the suspense and industrial garbage land setting, leading up to the finale, could have been more meaningful if only the audience can know more about his origin and back story. Indeed, the "hand" motif could have been further explored and drill for deeper sub text through out the film. This is also why the antagonist felt a bit underdeveloped, especially through earlier scenes that he would have been a very suspenseful character. Then again, the slow developments of characters can be almost forgiven by one of the most gritty fight scenes in HK cinema in the finale and the sadness and suffering from each of the main casts can be finally released and cleansed through the heavy rain and blood.