Dog bite Dog

[doug maverick]

this movie is edison chens best work to date(he has very few really good roles) the singer turned rapper shines big time in this movie. that plot is simple

a cambodian assasin goes on the run from the police in hong kong after a hit job goes wrong. resulting in a stand off fued between edison's character and sam lee's culminating in a bloody knife battle in a ruined temple in cambodia(really thailand)

i really enjoyed this movie, once again szeto kam yuen(flashpoint, spl) shows that he is that guy when it comes to writing dark moody scripts. but this film had more then just szeto it also had an amzing dp(director of photography) named yuen man fung(nephew of yuen biao) who made this film fantastic in his composition. the best part about this film is that it doesn;t feel like a Hk film(at least nopt the first 90 min or so) it feels more like a korean or japanese film(in fact the film was financed by a japanese company)both sam and ed bring it both in terms of acting and action, and it really raised the level of filmmaking. there are very few good directors in hong kong you got wong kar wai, johnnie to, andrew lau and now soi chueng, who also did a fantastic job in handling these actors and let them push themselves to the limit. this film is def. worth a look see get the dragon dynasty version to hear the commentary by edison(who has the worst southern accent in the world. i thought he was canadian?i guess he's trying to sound hood it failed)and bey logan.

[Jimbo]

I'm thinking of getting this one fairly soon. Sounds like one of the good new ones.

If you've seen Johnny To's Throw Down, that film also has a VERY strong Japanese flavor to it. Well, it's a tribute to Akira Kurosawa and seems to have some inspiration from Kurosawa's Judo Saga. But it just does not have a Hong Kong feel to it, though that's where it takes place. Some people feel it's a very sloooow movie, but IMO it's a good, well-made movie.

[doug maverick]

i loved throw down it wasn'tslow at all people just have low attention spans. yeah dog bite dog is awesome don't watch the trailer thou cause it'll have you thinking this is like unleashed and its not

[Jimbo]

I got this one yesterday and watched it.
This was a very well-made film that gives a whole new look and feel to HK films. In fact, in his commentary, Edison Chen admits that HK films' box-office is very low at this time, so IMO, it couldn't have hurt anyone to try something completely different for HK cinema.

Yup, it does feel much more like a Japanese or Korean film, as you said. Sam Lee and Edison Chen played off each other very well, often difficult to determine who is the hero and who's the villain; or if there's even a hero at all. There are parts that attempt to be sympathetic to Chen's character, but in the end he's still a cold-blooded murderer. Chen claims in his interview that he didn't like the "softer" parts filmed in Thailand, and wanted his character to be the same hard guy throughout. But the director knew what he was doing. It created a contrast in the movie, which until then showed almost a monotone ugliness in the world. In the same manner that small bits of humor thrown into horror or suspense films helps add variation and dimension to them, so too did the brief interlude from the violence and grunting add more character to this film.

I fully expected it to end in the way it did. In that way, the final confrontation was not particularly surprising, but the rawness and grittiness of it were an achievement. Also interesting was the fact that the fights were not truly choreographed, but worked out almost spontaneously by the stars.

I'm not sure I noticed Edison Chen using a southern accent; I thought he looked like he was trying to gesture like and sound "hood" as you say, but detected a slight Chinese accent underlying it all. One thing that had me wondering, though, was he spoke almost as if his work was better than any old-school stuff. I suppose to each his own, but he seemed dismissive of others' work without directly naming anyone (i.e., Jackie Chan or any m.a. films that came before). Or perhaps it's just the way he shows his confidence.

[doug maverick]

I'm not sure I noticed Edison Chen using a southern accent; I thought he looked like he was trying to gesture like and sound "hood" as you say, but detected a slight Chinese accent underlying it all. One thing that had me wondering, though, was he spoke almost as if his work was better than any old-school stuff. I suppose to each his own, but he seemed dismissive of others' work without directly naming anyone (i.e., Jackie Chan or any m.a. films that came before). Or perhaps it's just the way he shows his confidence.

i didn;t think he thought his stuff was better just defferent, you didn;t he sounded spouthern come on did you here how he said chicken wing. but i guess it can be a slight accent he's been in hk for like seven year so i guees he could develop a slight accent.

but yeah the film was great but i still think it should have eneded with edison on the boat going back to "cambodia"