The Missing Gun (2003)
Two notes of interest about this film: 1) Jiang Wen plays the lead character in this. His last film was Devils on the Doorstep, which he also directed and co-wrote. The Chinese government didn't much care for that masterwork of world cinema and Jiang subsequently became anathema in the country's cinema. What I mean to say is, damn it's nice to see this guy working again finally. 2) First-time director Lu Chuan probably has a very good film in him. It's just not this slight, overdirected, overlong trifle, which takes an unbeatable premise and proceeds to homogenize it until it resembles every other neo-noir genre plot.
Grade: C
Two notes of interest about this film: 1) Jiang Wen plays the lead character in this. His last film was Devils on the Doorstep, which he also directed and co-wrote. The Chinese government didn't much care for that masterwork of world cinema and Jiang subsequently became anathema in the country's cinema. What I mean to say is, damn it's nice to see this guy working again finally. 2) First-time director Lu Chuan probably has a very good film in him. It's just not this slight, overdirected, overlong trifle, which takes an unbeatable premise and proceeds to homogenize it until it resembles every other neo-noir genre plot.
Grade: C
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