One Last Dance

With its quirky text, flamboyant characters, gaudy outbursts of comic book violence, Makowski's glib, neo-Noirish, prodigiously hip gangster thriller is a worthy watch for lovers of stylised, off-beat Asian thrill-spillage. The notably fine cast includes, Francis Ng and HK icon, Ti lung, supported by a no less credible ensemble of engagingly energetic younger actors. While, Makowski clearly has a flair for eye-popping visuals I found the directors aggressive 'style' a little jarring at first, but it wasn't long before I became wholly engrossed in this eccentric existential hitman thriller. The flavoursome dialogue occasionally had a vividly Jim Jarmusch quality that provided additional interest, and I believe that another viewing will, perhaps, prove more seamless than the first. On a personal level, I didn't feel that, Harvey Keitel's conspicuous cameo did much more than draw attention to itself, but, the witheringly cool, Francis Ng delivers a fascinatingly nuenced performance as cerebral contract killer T.

Ever since I saw the movie poster many months ago, I was highly enthused to watch this local Raintree Pictures production given the accreditation and hype accompanying its release. Having seen it now, I felt it was a real disappointment and a movie I would love to forget, especially since 'One Last Dance' was the first movie I saw in 2007.

My disappointment began right from the start with the Introductory sequence totally eliminating any hopes I had for an intelligent, serious, suspense, crime thriller. 'One Last Dance' really got it all mixed up, genre wise. I strongly feel the director/producers really should make a stand on what they wish to offer the audience ie.thriller,action,romance,comedy??? Random inclusion of cheap and ill-advised humour that may not be easily understood by all is for me the major flaw that killed this movie. This along with certain highly annoying characters in the movie such as Joseph Quek's "Ko" which only commendable 'on screen task' is to bring out the best in the actor himself for he really did annoy me quite a bit. The assembled cast as a whole did a decent job, with the leading guys, Francis Ng, Ti Lung, Vivian Hsu holding their roles well. It was also good to see quite a selection of local actors involved. However, it was interesting to hear certain members' of the audience commenting that "perhaps Harvey Keitel was on vacation in the region when he was approached, and roped in to do a cameo out of goodwill" I would not mind that speculation for I believe his character in the movie could be played by almost anyone else.

Overall, I do applaud the 'Memento' like concept of story telling, and the anonymity of the setting (We have no idea where & when the story was set, could hardly even tell it was filmed in Singapore), this I believe is pretty encouraging for Raintree Pictures. However, the CGI and other effects could really be better, and with a concept hinting at sophistication, 'One Last Dance' could really do without the badly executed on screen humour which probably took 3 to 4 marks off the movie. I would forget this and look forward to better movies in the long year ahead...

The first local production for this year, it's a movie made with an international cast and crew, most notably, Asian film stars in Francis Ng, Ti Lung and Vivian Hsu, with a guest appearance by Harvey Keitel as an Italian mobster. It's no surprise that Raintree Pictures, in a bid to go regional and international, is holding nothing back to attract local and foreign talent to get them involved in locally produced movies. And I guess One Last Dance is such a fine example, helmed by upcoming Brazilian director Max Makowski.

I would liked to have loved this movie wholeheartedly, but it's not an easy movie to follow, especially when it keeps to its tagline that it's a story made up of different jigsaw pieces, each telling a story of its own. There are many seemingly disparate scenes glued together thinly, and it'll be easy for the ordinary viewer, especially one with little patience, to get lost within the plot. The dialogue too seemed stifled, and sometimes you wonder just what the characters are driving at.

The draw of this movie no doubt is Francis Ng. He's the "mental" guy who's truly deft in playing crazed characters, be they good or evil. Here, he's the calm, collected, and uber ruthless hit-man with a penchant for chess and never walks around with a loaded gun. He accepts deals anonymously via red "angpaos" dropped into a mailbox, containing just names of the prey (though you wonder how he actually gets paid). His opposite number is film legend Ti Lung, with whom he spars verbally, and on the chessboard.

Forget about the other stars, as they are mostly bit parts, and the beautiful Vivian Hsu reduced to a pedestrian in a role that could have been played by any mediocre local actress. However, do keep a lookout for Joseph Quek. I'm surprised that he managed to snag a meaty role, and this will mark his second big screen outing after The High Cost of Living. Surely, an actor to keep tabs on, if he stars in subsequent movies.

And I love the music, especially the theme song Broken Orange. It's now my earworm, and it constantly gets played over and over again in my head. The movie opens with the song, though I was perturbed that what was sung totally was out of sync with the English subtitles shown on screen, in an attempt to explain the meaning. Another pity too is that we got to watch the movie in the dubbed Mandarin track instead of its original Cantonese glory. I still rue for the day when HK movies are allowed to be shown in its native tongue, and get classified as a "foreign" movie, as do the French, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean, etc which do not get dubbed at all here.

To make up for a relatively simple plot (when all is finally revealed), the movie relies heavily on its slick editing techniques to splice the narrative together. However, the CGI blood splatterfest seemed too artificial, as I thought the good ol' blood pack will suffice and still maintain certain visual beauty to it all.

It almost lived up to its hype, but if you're a fan of Francis Ng, then my recommendation is to watch it. And don't be a dumb dork - stay until the end of the credits for THE GEM OF A SCENE. Many people during the gala didn't bother, what a pity!

I have seen the 2006 Singaporean movie "One Last Dance" once before. But to be honest, I had entirely forgotten about the movie, aside from the title and the fact that the movie had Francis Ng and Harvey Keitel on the cast list.

So as I had the opportunity to sit down in 2023 and watch writer and director Max Makowski's 2006 movie again, of course I did so.

Well, the movie wasn't really outstanding in terms of entertainment and a properly enjoyable storyline. I suppose that is why the movie had entirely faded from my memory from the first time I watched it. The storyline written by Max Makowski was a bit weak and somewhat all over the place.

The acting performance in the movie were fair enough, but nothing outstanding here. And this movie is far from the best work of the likes of Francis Ng and Harvey Keitel. The movie also had some other familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Lung Ti and Vivian Hsu.

All in all then "One Last Dance" was not a particularly enjoyable movie, and it is one that will slowly, but surely fade back into oblivion and I doubt I will ever return to it a third time, because I was far from impressed the second time around.

My rating of "One Last Dance" lands on a four out of ten stars.

One Last Dance is the story of T, a mysterious hit-man contracted by a local mob boss to kill the people responsible for the recent kidnapping and murder of said mob boss' son. However, things don't quite go according to plan, and as the bodies piles up, T finds himself questioning just how close to home his next target will be...

Can you say cliché? Good, because that's what One Last Dance is almost exclusively made of. The characters are exaggerated types and the ordinary plot has delusions of grandeur. While the dialogue does have its moments, such as a particularly informative conversation on the finer points of making a cup of tea, most of it is faux-cool and decidedly average.

The movie isn't helped by director Max Makowski either, with his unnecessary just-out-of-film-school camera tricks and gratuitous use of CGI for the smallest of things.

Its saving grace is the performance of Francis Ng, who plays T with the right balance of world-weariness and romanticism essential for any hired killer, and when he's off-screen, you certainly notice his absence. Ng's T keeps holds your interest when the plot fails and keeps the film afloat.

Good hit-man movies are stylish, smart, and cool, but for all its glossy trickery and pop-culture references, One Last Dance is not.