Limbo

Limbo is a gritty stylized noir Hong Kong thriller from Soi Cheang, director of SPL 2 and Accident. Adapted from a Chinese crime novel by Lei Mi, the film features beautiful black-and-white cinematography, impressive production design, and solid performances from its three leads, especially from actress Yase Liu.

Will Ren, a rookie cop is assigned with Lau, a veteran cop, to investigate a series of brutal murders across east Kowloon.

Lau runs into Wong To, a down-and-out car thief on parole with whom he shares a dark past with, and recruits her to be an informant to search for the murderer.

Milkyway veteran Cheng Siu Keng's digital black and white cinematography is gorgeous and rich in contrast, creating a moody nihilistic atmosphere and transforms familiar Hong Kong locales into an unfamiliar Asian city where only bad things happen.

Kenneth Mak's production design is meticulous, sculpting the Hong Kong cityscape into a hyper-stylized setting that's something out of an adult graphic novel. For instance, the police station was fashioned out of a local Hong Kong market, creating an underground cavernous office, desks full of unsolved cases and cluttered with wornout cops.

There is so much garbage everywhere littered throughout the entire film. My first thought was, "That's some beautifully arranged garbage. Look at the contrast and texture!" Eventually, watching endless scenes of people rummaging through garbage makes it feel like the rubbish is on you. I took a shower before watching Limbo and wanted a second immediately after the end.

The grimness, while stylistically engaging, paints the film into a corner that does it a disservice. It is like Soi Cheang is squeezing out every last bit of the Grim brand toothpaste and there's no speck of hope in a literal garbage dump of a world. By the finale, all the grimness got tiring and I was yearning for another emotion to take over.

If there's no ray of hope for these characters, what's at stake then? The atmosphere is trying to choke them all to death.

What kept the film together was Yase Liu's performance, who steals the show as the film's unofficial protagonist. It is a well-written redemption arc that Liu plays with earnest and commitment, performing her own stunts in a lot of the film's chase scenes. Yase Liu becomes the ray of hope the film needs, despite all the surrounding nihilism trying hard to extinguish it.

Limbo is a heavy somber film and I could see it being hit-or-miss depending on whether your proverbial glass is half-empty or half-full. In the end, it was entertaining but I don't fully buy Soi Cheang thinks the world is utterly hopeless as he vehemently portrays.

For this reason, SPL 2 is still my favorite Soi Cheang film as it's where he kept both the grittiness and heart in better balance.

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

Hackneyed narrative that is mercifully saved by some visually inspired production design. The richly constructed look and feel of this film cannot be overstated. From the opening frame, One's senses are immediately assaulted, if not drowned, by the reek and penetrating decay of some saturated underbelly where these token, yet serviceable, characters aptly inhabit. The performances are as effective as the thin and woefully predictable writing will allow, but with as many highly-successful film-making paragons(Wilson Yip, Kin-ye Au, etc.) attached, one might expect a bit more. Nevertheless, the technical team and its bravura display of visual mastery more than successfully manage to compensate for the film's more than obvious weaknesses.

From the locations, to the camera work this film is a joy to look at. In Fact i say a big draw to this film is how it presents itself with the choice to make it black & white (even though it was filmed in color). A choice that really makes the location feel more filthy/chaotic and hard to find the finer details. The actors did a good job at playing their specific archetypes, with the woman serving the better performance.

The weaker parts are in the action and time. Some of the action feels goofy, especially when a gun is involved and not used or certain actions should be taken by the cops but they leave it unattended. Other scenes feel unneeded and could have been cut short and arrive at the same point at a concise time. Lucky the bad action bits are at the end and don't hurt it too much.

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!