[Review] The Goldfinger (3.5/10)

 

Title - The Goldfinger
Production - 2898, Emperor Motion Pictures
Starring - Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Charlene Choi, Simon Yam, Michael Ning, Chin Kar Lok, Catherine Chau, Philip Keung, Alex Fong, Carlos Chan
Writer - Felix Chong
Director - Felix Chong 
Release - 30 December 2023

This movie is exactly why I've been staying away from Hong Kong movies. The very cliched direction and heavy-handed drama-inducing scenes still exist.

And how unfortunate because of the pairing, and reunion, of Andy Lau and Tony Leung in one movie; their names alone have made it irresistible.

Early on, the movie started very serious and somber; but there was a sudden jump into a comedic tone that was very abrupt. And it wasn't because of how the scene played out; but it was because the director Felix Chong decided that the only way the audience would get that this next scene was supposed to be humorous, was if I inserted a playful tune so that they would laugh.

And later on, when a car was trying to kill off Andy Lau's character's family (and I said "kill off" because that's the only way the scene could be interpreted), we saw Lau throwing his own body into the car. Yes, very dramatic, but again it came out of nowhere and felt very out of place.

Some scenes later, Lau confronted Leung's character about it, and Leung said Lau would have been dead had the driver wanted them dead - and to which I agree with Leung. But right above this, I said the only way to interpret that scene was a "kill". So to induce drama, the director had to make it look intense enough but then walked back on that very scene later as actually not that intense.

I think that sums up the state of Hong Kong directors' capabilities.

And then there was Charlene Choi's character. While I thought I would hate her performance, which I didn't; but her character was not written in well, and worst, wasn't executed off any better too.

As a screenplay I thought it was also overly complicated and not easy to follow. We can look at The Big Short as an example - a very complicated topic but made easy to follow. Here, I was waiting for the movie to end, which I did not as it dragged on and on.