cyguration
Joined Feb 2010
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cyguration's rating
Louis Koo gave an award worthy-performance in the original 2012 outing of Johnnie To's Drug War. The film was brilliant, and was a real wild ride. However, it's wild ride stayed consistent from start to finish, and it ended with a real bang... literally.
Believer maintains a bit of the intrigue, drama, and crime elements, but it's not quite as gritty as the original. To's Drug War was unflinching, uncompromising, and the ending showdown felt like a big payoff that came straight out of a late 1980s John Woo film.
Believer strips away a lot of the Hollywood-style veneer and goes for a slightly more realistic, more methodical, and more grounded approach. There are still some bombastic elements, but they are are far and few between and a lot more sensible within the context of the film (in many ways, Drug War was constructed to lead up to that massive shootout whereas Believer focused more on the outcomes that seemed more logical based on the situational events).
In this regard, the bombast from Drug War is missing. The drama is not.
Ryu Jun-yeol does a decent enough job as Rak, but he lacks the desperation and absolutely diabolical charm that Louis Koo exhibited to get his way in Drug War. Plus, Louis Koo seemed a lot more believable as a sociopath utilizing sycophancy and skullduggery to get what he wanted, while also being old and experienced enough to manipulate people in the way that he did.
Ryu just seemed too young to try to be a manipulator -- it's something you gain with age, unless you're taught very, very, very young. So that aspect of the film felt a bit contrived.
However, where Believer really shines is in its structure. It's logically sound, and while Cho Jin-Woong gives a far more subdued and less cut-throat performance than Sun Honglei, he still manages to capture a very real and very endearing detective that wants to do the right thing but seems way over his head. Sun Honglei never came across as being over-his-head and gave a far more commanding performance, which is what helped make the ending feel that much more explosive.
However, here, the ending is a complete 180 from the original movie. It's not big and bombastic. It's mellow and somber; putting a melancholic bow on a more steady-paced crime thriller than its progenitor. And in this regard, Believer shines brightly.
The thing is, you couldn't take Believer's ending and put it into Drug War; the two films are just vastly incompatible that way, and this is mostly due to the two leads giving vastly different performances. I did really like the original dichotomy of the duo in To's film, where they had a much more antagonistic and distrusting relationship. Whereas here, the lead duo have more of a father-son chemistry, which makes the way events play out feel more personal and somewhat sentimental rather than the enmity that was shared in Drug War.
Even still, both films good in their own right and well worth watching. This is a competently made remake that stands out with its own merits. It's not a direct copycat like some remakes, and the changes make it standard apart from its predecessor in significant ways. I still love the original for its bombast, but I also appreciate the more relaxed pacing and some of the gorgeous cinematography that helps round out the film in a way that feels more dramatic, even though it doesn't have the heart-racing moments from the original.
Believer maintains a bit of the intrigue, drama, and crime elements, but it's not quite as gritty as the original. To's Drug War was unflinching, uncompromising, and the ending showdown felt like a big payoff that came straight out of a late 1980s John Woo film.
Believer strips away a lot of the Hollywood-style veneer and goes for a slightly more realistic, more methodical, and more grounded approach. There are still some bombastic elements, but they are are far and few between and a lot more sensible within the context of the film (in many ways, Drug War was constructed to lead up to that massive shootout whereas Believer focused more on the outcomes that seemed more logical based on the situational events).
In this regard, the bombast from Drug War is missing. The drama is not.
Ryu Jun-yeol does a decent enough job as Rak, but he lacks the desperation and absolutely diabolical charm that Louis Koo exhibited to get his way in Drug War. Plus, Louis Koo seemed a lot more believable as a sociopath utilizing sycophancy and skullduggery to get what he wanted, while also being old and experienced enough to manipulate people in the way that he did.
Ryu just seemed too young to try to be a manipulator -- it's something you gain with age, unless you're taught very, very, very young. So that aspect of the film felt a bit contrived.
However, where Believer really shines is in its structure. It's logically sound, and while Cho Jin-Woong gives a far more subdued and less cut-throat performance than Sun Honglei, he still manages to capture a very real and very endearing detective that wants to do the right thing but seems way over his head. Sun Honglei never came across as being over-his-head and gave a far more commanding performance, which is what helped make the ending feel that much more explosive.
However, here, the ending is a complete 180 from the original movie. It's not big and bombastic. It's mellow and somber; putting a melancholic bow on a more steady-paced crime thriller than its progenitor. And in this regard, Believer shines brightly.
The thing is, you couldn't take Believer's ending and put it into Drug War; the two films are just vastly incompatible that way, and this is mostly due to the two leads giving vastly different performances. I did really like the original dichotomy of the duo in To's film, where they had a much more antagonistic and distrusting relationship. Whereas here, the lead duo have more of a father-son chemistry, which makes the way events play out feel more personal and somewhat sentimental rather than the enmity that was shared in Drug War.
Even still, both films good in their own right and well worth watching. This is a competently made remake that stands out with its own merits. It's not a direct copycat like some remakes, and the changes make it standard apart from its predecessor in significant ways. I still love the original for its bombast, but I also appreciate the more relaxed pacing and some of the gorgeous cinematography that helps round out the film in a way that feels more dramatic, even though it doesn't have the heart-racing moments from the original.
You can tell this was made on a tight budget, but it uses it superbly. This isn't a film for everyone, but what it does manage to accomplish and how it gets there is fantastic.
One of the biggest problems with a lot of AI-focused films is that they always make the artificial intelligence too human. They forget that the robots have no emotions, no care, and no reason to feel anything. Too often they always write robots from the perspective of humans, rather than as logic driven machines.
Terminator 1 really set the tone for how actual machines would behave. They would deliberate only based on the best calculated route for success of their given parameters. RoboCop also did a great job of capturing this as well, while also exploring that there was still a man inside the machine working against the programming.
Ex Machina showcased that when programmed to complete a task by any means necessary, robots will feign compassion, emotion, and sensibilities to achieve a designated goal. And I Am Mother continues that trend.
The robots here make calculated decisions based on parameters, and feign human emotions such as compassion, care, and empathy for the purpose of achieving specific goals. That is how robots should be written, and the twists and turns this movie takes to reach its endgoals make a ton of sense and fits in line with what we're allowed to understand of the motivations and purpose of the their objectives.
While this is a slow burn film, I like how it reaches its end goal, and how it doesn't shy away from the fact that robots are cold, calculated, objective driven machines. Way too many other shows and movies tend to forget this, and way too often write the machines with human sensibilities (like Terminator Zero). Here, this film plays it straight as far as logic is concerned, and it wraps up its plot points nicely, though I do think most people will likely need to view it a couple of times to really grasp the gist.
One of the biggest problems with a lot of AI-focused films is that they always make the artificial intelligence too human. They forget that the robots have no emotions, no care, and no reason to feel anything. Too often they always write robots from the perspective of humans, rather than as logic driven machines.
Terminator 1 really set the tone for how actual machines would behave. They would deliberate only based on the best calculated route for success of their given parameters. RoboCop also did a great job of capturing this as well, while also exploring that there was still a man inside the machine working against the programming.
Ex Machina showcased that when programmed to complete a task by any means necessary, robots will feign compassion, emotion, and sensibilities to achieve a designated goal. And I Am Mother continues that trend.
The robots here make calculated decisions based on parameters, and feign human emotions such as compassion, care, and empathy for the purpose of achieving specific goals. That is how robots should be written, and the twists and turns this movie takes to reach its endgoals make a ton of sense and fits in line with what we're allowed to understand of the motivations and purpose of the their objectives.
While this is a slow burn film, I like how it reaches its end goal, and how it doesn't shy away from the fact that robots are cold, calculated, objective driven machines. Way too many other shows and movies tend to forget this, and way too often write the machines with human sensibilities (like Terminator Zero). Here, this film plays it straight as far as logic is concerned, and it wraps up its plot points nicely, though I do think most people will likely need to view it a couple of times to really grasp the gist.
This movie gets off to an interesting start, but then slows way down.... way down. It becomes a slow burn crime thriller, focusing more on the mystery aspects of whether or not Ugo Piazza really did what everyone believes he did.
The mystery aspect of the story doesn't really go anywhere, for the longest, and instead there is this very slow, almost excruciatingly slow build toward the fallout of what people claim Ugo did.
The brunt of the film focuses on the "who dun it?" aspects, while police meander about in the bureaucracy of how to go about deconstructing the growing criminal empire in Milan that also threatens Italy's economic stability. There are some interesting discussions that take place in a subplot that goes nowhere about the politics of criminality, and that in itself could have been a great film if it were further explored, but alas, it goes nowhere.
However, the story involving Ugo does take some twists and turns, and while I was originally going to give this a 5 out of 10, the third act really pulls everything together finally and some big revelations finally come to a head in a great way, resulting in a fairly impressive finale. I don't know if you will actually want to sit through the first two thirds to get to that third act and appreciate it, but it is there for those who want a slow-burn Italian crime-drama that unfolds with layered intent.
The mystery aspect of the story doesn't really go anywhere, for the longest, and instead there is this very slow, almost excruciatingly slow build toward the fallout of what people claim Ugo did.
The brunt of the film focuses on the "who dun it?" aspects, while police meander about in the bureaucracy of how to go about deconstructing the growing criminal empire in Milan that also threatens Italy's economic stability. There are some interesting discussions that take place in a subplot that goes nowhere about the politics of criminality, and that in itself could have been a great film if it were further explored, but alas, it goes nowhere.
However, the story involving Ugo does take some twists and turns, and while I was originally going to give this a 5 out of 10, the third act really pulls everything together finally and some big revelations finally come to a head in a great way, resulting in a fairly impressive finale. I don't know if you will actually want to sit through the first two thirds to get to that third act and appreciate it, but it is there for those who want a slow-burn Italian crime-drama that unfolds with layered intent.