| Director | Leste Chen |
| Starring | Aaron Kwok, Tiffany Hsu, Duan Yihong, Zifeng Zhang |
| Alternative Names | 秘密访客 |
Lately, in-between Monkey King movies, Aaron Kwok has been starring in some great dramas and thrillers, like Project Gutenberg, Cold War 2 and I’m Livin It.
We’re still in-between Monkey King movies, with Part 4 due out shortly, so while we wait we get another Aaron Kwok thriller, something really different to his previous works.
What’s this movie about?
A mysterious man, living in the basement of a wealthy family, is slowly being pressured into turning himself in for a crime he’s having trouble remembering.
We follow the man, and the family, and witness a series of strange events that start to question everyone’s sanity.
My Thoughts on this Movie
This movie is another great example of a trailer completely overselling the movie it’s promoting. I sat in the cinema expecting a deep murder mystery film where the whole family will double cross each other in an attempt to remain free of prosecution, but what I got was a thriller that tried to be something it really wasn’t.
If you’re a mystery thriller genre lover, the first hour is some quality cinema. Moody scenes with muted colours, giving off a very cold and cautious vibe. A cast of character who speak in riddles, leaving little breadcrumbs of clues for the audience to piece together.
It’s just, when it comes the reveal at the end, we don’t seem to have enough breadcrumbs to create a whole slice of bread.
A movie like this is deliberately cautious in its approach to storytelling. Give too much away too quickly, and the audience will figure out what’s on and switch off, but don’t tell the audience enough and you end up doing what this film did, and that is spending the last 30 minutes playing catch-up to ensure the audience understood what was happening.
Some people might like that approach, but I found it frustrating.
The main problem with this approach is that the actual plot device of the story isn’t really that interesting to hold the whole film. There needed to be something else to make the audience aware who the real antagonist was. What we end up with is perhaps not what the filmmaker intended, where Stockholm Syndrome seemed to kick in with the characters and you’re left feeling that you’ve probably wasted 90 minutes investing in a film that circled back on itself.
What can’t be faulted is Aaron Kwok as the father, Duan Yihong as the mysterious man and Zifeng Zhang as the daughter. I love her, she’s awesome and I enjoy most films she is in, however I am not usually a fan of Tiffany Hsu, but her performance as the mother did win me over. Additionally, the sets, of particular the beautiful house they live in, and the very complex and layered music left a lasting impression with me on exit from the cinema. The brother/sister duet at the start on the piano being of particular note.
Overall
Such a shame, when a great cast, sets and music can combine together with a rather average story and not elevate it beyond a movie I’d only recommend if there was nothing else available. The real shame here is that first 60 minutes is so intriguing, I’d love it if the director announced he was going to recut the ending to give it a bit more punch.
But that’s not likely to happen, so this one gets a thumbs down.
If you’ve seen it, what did you think?
Author
The Arty Dans