Review of Shinjuku Incident (2009) by Tze-Win L — 23 Apr 2009

As always, Derek Yee delivers and lives up to his reputation as one of the promising directors in Hong Kong who produces realistic and serious movies. Like "One Night in Mongkok" which dwells into the Chinese immigrant issue in Hong Kong, and later on "Protege" on drug cartel business, "Shinjuku Incident" now sets its focus on the Chinese illegal immigrant who flooded Japan in the 90s.

The plot is actually fine, especially when climax builds up into the end of the film. The scene where Jackie Chan's character confronted his comrades for trading drugs is especially unforgettable for it portrays the ugly side of human when conflict of interest arises.

However, film editing may be the weakest part as the continuation of scenes is flawed, and the film ends abruptly, without telling the fate of certain key people. I would speculate that film editing was compromised to shorten the film to just 2 hours.

If this is really the case, the produces could have made quite a big mistake as I suppose most of the viewers won't mind watching the longer (and more complete) version on the screen.