Review of Shinjuku Incident (2009) by Vendy H — 06 Apr 2009

My rating on this movie started at 3.5 in the 0.5 hour, then gradually dropped 2.5 by the first half the movie, and rapidly hit the 2 stars line just when the movie attempted to build the finale in it's last 30 mins.

A too-obvious market-oriented casting plan caused the story to expand in too many subplots and to wrap with too many loose ends unsolved. Jackie Chan's character - steelhead, whose appearance dominates the screen most of the time, was portrayed as a typical tragic hero figure yet failed to deliver any subtlety along the character development. Male supporting roles (especially the Japanese), by contrast, achieved a much qualified job.

Though there are a number of flaws in the characters, in this particular movie, director and scriptwriter shall be the ones to blame on, instead of the cast.

The bloodbath at the end is more like a shortcut to bring all the parties together and solve all the issues at the same time, rather than a legitimate finale. Yes, the violence is very graphic and full-on but somehow it is comic at the same time.

At last, there is a hidden but strong sense of "to justify, to balance" across the movie which allegedly indicates the filmmaker's intention to 'keep every parties happy', story-wise but more market-wise. I sympathize, but sometime delivering a convincing story still requires a bit risk-taking.