The Viral Factor

There was a time not very long ago, when movies from Hong Kong meant one thing : "ACTION" sometimes an overdose of it. But regardless of the naysayers, they were quiet brilliant at it. But then they grew either too frivolous or too serious and sometimes too pretentious for their own good. Dante Lam (one of the better ones out there) in the face of this gradual change has earned himself a name for sticking to his "guns"; literally. & if the experience of his latest offer is anything to go by, the trend may just catch up again. I for one will not be complaining.

The GOOD : This potentially could be the most accomplished HK "action" movie in a contemporary sense of the word and setting. There have been a few masterclasses but most of them are either from the age of the Kings & Queens or of characters with super powers (yawn inducing). "The Viral Factor" does not have any gravity defying stunts nor does it have a single shot which is used to glamorise the protagonist or the antagonist. With all due respect to Donnie Yen, considered the best action man in town and my favourite too, there have been too many caricatured villains in his movies. Nothing like that in TVF. Its bare knuckles, blood splattered walls, rusty nails / water pipes, plenty of body bags, big guns in extended street chase sequences, car crashes, rocket launchers, helicopter chases and the list goes on. You absolutely have to give it to the director for his no holds barred approach from start to finish. He does not pretend its anything else. The leads Jay Chou & Nicholas Tse, have done a fantastic job and quite possibly have produced their best work yet. Chinese lads are not known for histrionics but some demanding & long single shots have brought out the best in them. Nicholas Tse in my book has grown to be in a different league compared to his "Dragon Tiger Gate" days and character.The story although not a pathbreaker has a sense of nobility in it with a platform for a large spectrum of emotions. The almost unseen city skyline that of KL (in a movie before this) is used as a backdrop and that adds on the rare but tingling after taste that the movie leaves. I was very curious to see how it'd turn up and its fair to say I am mighty impressed as I have lived right in the middle of almost all the places the story evolves through. The BAD : The screenplay does not do any huge favours to the story and is the biggest let down of the movie. It stands as the biggest deterrent to what it could have been. Mostly because, the 2nd n 3rd acts which is the glue that holds the end to the start tends to give a convoluted feel. There is nothing wrong in the story, but the sequence of events and there by its impact could have been spot on with some crisp writing. The editing leaves a little to be desired coz if that was snappy, TVF could have been an immortal piece of ACTION cinema. All these also mean that the runtime could do with some some chopping. Another sore point of the proceedings esp. for the non English speaking crowd, is the amount of English used in the script. Some of them were necessary and fits well. But I could not digest the main baddie delivering almost all his lines and most importantly the ones that mattered to the eventual development of the story, in English. And if it counts at all, I don't speak Cantonese or Mandarin nor understand 1 bit. Considering this is predominantly aimed at the Chinese with a more than liberal approach begging the westerners to pay a visit, the subtitles alone would have sufficed.

The FINAL WORD : Its recommended for the action fan. Go and have Yourself a great time at the theater. One of the best ways to kick off a new year.

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Sorry, but I cannot agree with all the rave reviews offered on this site. Here we have a Chinese Jason-Bourne-like character, who is on the trail of, and also abetting and saving a terrorist; a plot that involves possible use of biological weapons, corrupt agents, deadly gunfire and his mama. In short, it's something of a mess, but lots of gun-play, fistfights, and explosions will keep some folks happy.

I was inclined to leave this film early, but I find movies with Jay Zhou (or Chou as it's spelled here) amusing. Mr. Zhou has all the thespian skills of a turnip. He has his sullen face, his angry face, his sad face....in his last several films he does little talking. His shtick is to stare into the distance one way or another, and he plays this to a tee here. He can't act! Will someone please tell his paymaster! In this film a small portion of the dialog is in English, but I doubt anyone will understand Mr. Zhou's thick accent. Good thing there's subtitles! Suffice it to say, in this story the world will be doomed unless Jay Zhou succeeds.

In many scenes, the cops don't just seem helpless to stop the terrorists, they are helpless. The bad guys are near super-human, incredibly resourceful, and it's child's play for them to either gun down or escape from an army of machine-gun toting police. Several scenes definitely strain credulity; the action is not realistic, but clearly is comic-book fare.

An odd addition to the plot was the attempt to introduce sentimentality regarding one of the terrorists. This is a man who kills people, does kill many on screen, and somehow the director wants to show us his "human" side, (in this case with the introduction of a daughter that is little more than a prop in the movie), to induce pity or sympathy for him. Sorry, this guy is a killer (killers don't make good fathers, so the daughter is better off if he's not around), and he should die! John Woo did better at this sort of thing, because his Killer killed other criminals, but in this movie innocent people die. The director has connections and money, and Jay Zhou, but he has much to learn!

Having just sat down to watch the 2012 action thriller "Jik Zin" (aka "The Viral Factor") for the first time ever here in 2022, I will have to say that the narrative in the movie was somewhat confusing and chaotic. It felt like writers Dante Lam, Candy Leung and Wai Lun Ng were writing independently of one another and the end result was a mash of random scenes filmed and put together.

The storyline in "Jik Zin" was simplistic enough, but there simply were too many things being crammed into the storyline, which cluttered up the narrative flow unnecessarily. And the end result was a somewhat botched narrative that felt incomplete and in disarray. Running at 122 minutes, the movie is long, so very, very long to sit through, especially with all the things crammed into the storyline. When the movie was about to come to an end, I checked the run time, and I was only 55 minutes into the ordeal, but at that time it felt like I had been spoon-fed enough contents to fill up two movies.

There is a lot of action in "Jik Zin", and it is definitely that action that keeps the movie afloat and keeps it being a watchable movie. So if you enjoy fighting, chases, gun fights, etc. Then director Dante Lam doesn't disappoint with "Jik Zin". If you are looking for a properly enjoyable action thriller storyline, then "Jik Zin" is not the best of choices.

The movie has a good cast ensemble to help make the movie stay afloat as well, with the likes of Jay Chou, Nicholas Tse, Andy On and Kai-Chi Liu.

Sure, "Jik Zin" was watchable, but it was by no means an outstanding movie experience. I doubt that I will ever return to watch this movie a second time.

My rating of "Jik Zin" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars. If the movie had a more focused storyline and narrative, and they had trimmed out all the cluttering elements, the movie would have been a far more enjoyable one.

The plot is all over the place and you shouldn't worry about it, because it will pull the fun out of your viewing pleasure (if you can call it that). It doesn't make much sense most of the time too, so just try to get on that ride and enjoy it while it lasts. While I do like Asian action cinema in all its variety (be it from Hong Kong, South Korea or Japan), this one does not have the strength other movies do. It is too simple (though it tries to be complicated) and light for its own good most of the time.

The actors are actually good, but I can't shake the feeling that they weren't comfortable with the script either. But the action scenes do not disappoint, which is why I gave it that rating. Still with a bit of emotional power behind it, it could have been even better.

The film's plot revolves an International Security Affairs agent who is betrayed and shot in the head while transporting a valuable asset to another country. After recovery, he realizes he doesn't have much time left so sets out to find his estranged brother and also meets up with a doctor willing to look into treatment for his condition. When his brother attempts to kidnap the doctor, they are forced to work together to stop the criminals from unleashing a disease on the world.

This film has a good cast and a bit likable characters, the plotline tho is subpar, the beginning is promising but the focus of the story totally move from being about a chemical virus to a story about two estranged brothers. It also gets melodrama in some places and features questionable editing decisions that hurt the film's pacing and overall story consistency, as well as the viewer's emotional bond with the characters. However, majority of the film is action-packed, it features all kinds of action sequences, be it, foot chases, gun shootouts, hand-to-hand combats, you name it. While some of them are well-choreographed and intense, the others are so clumsy and unrealistic. Moreover, the shaky camera-work and fast-cutting editing makes them headache-inducing at times.

Overall, Viral factor could've been better, if it spends time developing the characters, then maybe it would have leave an impact on the audience. Nevertheless, it's entertaining, and the performances are good; Jay Chou and Nicholas did well in the lead roles. The visuals and overall production value is spot-on.