[Review] Project Gutenberg (6/10)

Title - Project Gutenberg
Studio -
Starring - Chow Yun Fat, Aaron Kwok, Zhang Jing Chu, Catherine Chau, Liu Kai Chi, Alex Fong, Jack Kao, Felix Lok, Dominic Lam
Writer - Felix Chong
Director - Felix Chong
Release - 5 October 2018

This movie has won big at the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Director, Best Film and Best Screenplay.

While I would say it was directed well, the movie and its screenplay were weak.

Felix Chong could have stuck to what the main plot was, which was counterfeiting the new US dollar bill. That first half of the movie was done brilliantly.

Not just that, Aaron Kwok and Chow Yun Fat gave some of the best performances I have ever seen from them. They had palpable chemistry and they played off each other so brilliantly. Kwok's portrayal of a struggling artist was, dare I say, renaissance worthy.

But somewhere in the second act, Chong decided he also wanted to make a Rambo movie; which at the end of it, it just wasn't necessary and seemed more gratuitous than adding value. Also, why would a crew of counterfeiters be adept at gun war?! It made no sense.

(SPOILER ALERT) Moreover, by the end of it, we found out everything we have watched was fake. And it's tough to convince an audience to watch something that really didn't happen. You have to make those scenes that actually happened count, because those that were fake would be obsolete. And this was where Chong failed. Because if you watch the movie again, so many things we had to sit through, did not happen. I'm sorry to have to say this, but this was a cheap imitation of Fight Club and The Usual Suspects.

And if you watch the movie a second time, you will realize that many of the scenes presented actually did not happen and was only Kwok's character creating fiction within this fiction.

There was so much potential here that had Chong made it a straight-laced heist thriller, it would have been a better movie. But he chose the convoluted and complicated route, and it turned out to be a mess and upset me for investing my time in all the fake scenes.