Most of the time, Hk movies that are financed elsewhere has a two dimensional problem. They look good, damn good. And with big stars. International stars at that.
But that's it. In this case, a possibly 12 hr miNi series cut to 2.5 hrs. So editing chops the story to bits and pieces. Feels like shot by 2-3 2nd unit directors and then multi edited. The plot is too sprawling, ambitious, yet also too condensed for its own good.
The dancing attributes are just tailor made for Aaron.
Dancing doesn't make sense to this kind of story. Mixed genre here doesn't jive. The rhythm to the speeches, dialogue, monologue scenes for Tony seemed very off, rushed, one take-ish, had no drama, no underlying thoughts.
The camera wants to be romantic and stays between 85mm to 180mm. Very distracting, some obviously can be seen as homage/copying old Tony Leung's movies.
All body, not content. All show and no depth. Walked off around 45min mark.