{"id":1191,"date":"2010-06-01T13:15:01","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T12:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=1191"},"modified":"2013-12-02T06:52:10","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T05:52:10","slug":"vengeance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2010\/06\/01\/vengeance\/","title":{"rendered":"Vengeance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Vengeance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> DVD + Blu-ray

\nRelease date:<\/B> 28 June 2010

\nDistributor:<\/B> Optimum

\nDirector:<\/B> Johnnie To

\nWriter:<\/B> Ka-Fai Wai

\nOriginal title:<\/B> Fuk sau<\/I>

\nCast:<\/B> Johnny Hallyday, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Gordon Lam, Lam Suet, Simon Yam

\nHong Kong\/France 2009

\n108 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In his recent movies, Hong Kong director Johnnie To has been pushing the crime genre in strange new directions. Mad Detective<\/I><\/A> blended a police procedural with barmy surrealism, while Sparrow<\/I> was much more light-hearted, a hip caper with plenty of nods to 60s French cinema. But Vengeance<\/I> marks a return to what To does best - stripped down gangster stories with a hard-boiled edge and slickly executed stand-offs. With this film, he has gone back to the action of Exiled<\/I><\/A> and the detachment of his crime saga Election<\/I>.<\/p>\n

The plot is simple - a woman barely survives the assassination of her family and demands that her father Costello (Hallyday), a French chef, take revenge on those responsible. Costello employs a trio of hitmen (played by To favourites Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Gordon Lam and Lam Suet) to track them down, but there are a number of twists and turns as the group make their way to Simon Yam’s unrepentant crime lord.<\/p>\n

The main stumbling block is Costello’s own memory, which is slowly failing him. He takes pictures of people to remember their names and faces and his condition worsens to the point where he can forget where he actually is. While this all sounds a bit Memento<\/I>, To keeps this theme very much in the background, playing out the shoot-outs and double crosses as you’d expect but leaving Costello’s degrading motivation as a nagging question for the audience - can he take revenge if he cannot even remember why he’s doing it?<\/p>\n

Revenge in cinema often falls into two camps; either it is a moment of glorious catharsis or it transforms the protagonist into the sort of person who wronged him in the first place. Vengeance<\/I> is less clear-cut. Here, revenge becomes a commodity, bought and sold by the various parties involved in the criminal world, so much so that Costello is almost completely removed from proceedings and his original goal ceases to matter. But To isn’t one to hammer these points home, and Costello’s condition is played subtly at first while To wallows in the seedily lit Macau location, showing that he is still very much about style and visuals.<\/p>\n

As usual, To provides some memorable set-pieces that are both playful and fraught with tension. One is the climactic shootout that sees Costello’s hired assassins surrounded by gangsters who roll out huge bales of paper ahead of them as protection. The other is the final face-off in which Costello’s enemy is plastered with stickers so that the Frenchman can remember who he’s hunting, and once his target works that out he starts sticking the flags on other people to confuse him. It’s this simple poetry that gives To’s films a distinctive mark, this touch of the bizarre and the humorous that sets his work out from the crowd.<\/p>\n

Vengeance<\/I> might be a little Westernised for some die-hard To fans. It goes at a slower pace and the inclusion of French singer\/actor Hallyday might seem like To is pandering to European audiences, but the director proves himself once again to be a master of the crime film. With each new film he manages to approach the genre from a fresh, unexpected angle and Vengeance<\/I> takes revenge into dark, compelling territory.<\/p>\n

Richard Badley<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

Vengeance<\/I> screened at the Terracotta Festival of Far East Film in May 2010. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vengeance<\/I> marks a return to what To does best &#45 stripped down gangster stories with a hard-boiled edge and slickly executed stand-offs.
\nReview by Richard Badley<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[103,104],"class_list":["post-1191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-check-it-out","category-dvds-and-blu-rays","tag-hong-kong-cinema","tag-johnnie-to"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/purUP-jd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":415,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2008\/09\/01\/triangle\/","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":0},"title":"TRIANGLE","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"September 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To - three heavy-weights of the Hong Kong film industry, who respectively gave us Once Upon a Time in China, City on Fire and Exiled - got together to make a film, it unsurprisingly became one of the most hotly anticipated titles. Review\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cinema releases"","block_context":{"text":"Cinema releases","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/cinema-releases\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":151,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2007\/08\/01\/ptu\/","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":1},"title":"PTU","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"August 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Famed for his stylish virtuosity, To certainly does not disappoint in PTU. His Hong Kong is all slick urban spaces and metallic surfaces, entirely deserted but for the police and the gangsters, so sanitised as to be slightly unreal. Review by Virginie S\u00e9lavy","rel":"","context":"In "Home entertainment"","block_context":{"text":"Home entertainment","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/dvds-and-blu-rays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3870,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2013\/12\/02\/drug-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":2},"title":"Drug War","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"December 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Johnnie To has crafted something bleak yet compelling, and proves he can do mainstream crime tales just as well as edgier ones. Review by Richard Badley","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Drug War","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Drug-War-594x395.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Drug-War-594x395.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Drug-War-594x395.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":482,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2008\/11\/05\/mad-detective\/","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":3},"title":"MAD DETECTIVE","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"November 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Notoriously off-the-wall Hong Kong directors Johnny To and Ka-Fai Wai reteam for a surreal swipe at police procedural movies. Review by Richard Badley","rel":"","context":"In "Home entertainment"","block_context":{"text":"Home entertainment","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/dvds-and-blu-rays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1609,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2011\/04\/06\/sparrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":4},"title":"Sparrow","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"April 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Sparrow is all about lightness of touch and easy charm. Review by Richard Badley","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/review_Sparrow-594x396.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/review_Sparrow-594x396.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/review_Sparrow-594x396.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2689,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2013\/04\/14\/vulgaria\/","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":5},"title":"Vulgaria","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"April 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Pang Ho-Cheung\u2019s follow-up to Dream Home is an entertaining satire about the Hong Kong film industry. Review by Sarah Cronin","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Vulgaria","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Vulgaria1-594x396.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Vulgaria1-594x396.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Vulgaria1-594x396.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1191"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3875,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191\/revisions\/3875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}