| jeffy | 3.75  |
|
| François | 3.25 | |
| Alain | 3 | |
| Ordell Robbie | 2.75 | |
| Archibald | 2 | Pedantic and totally unachieved attempt of an "arty" incursion in HK thriller |
Is it me or Zodiac Killers does depict throughout all the film a Japan where everyone is rotten, where young chinese students fall into prostitution, where hard porn movies are shot all over the streets, where stripteases and others sexual games are the only entertainment for japoneses, where Yakuzas don't have the merest shred of honor...
You really get the feeling that Ann Hui On-Wah gives us a portrayal of japanese society quite critical, crossed with a study on emigration whose moral seems to be : "There're is no use leaving for another country if it's to wind up as pathetic, maybe even worse".
Is it still me or speaking of actors playing is just ridiculous here...
Indeed, Andy Lau Tak-Wah, who weren't anymore in the period he was dubbed already, is here, and that, alone, wouldn't change much from a lots of his movies and from dozens of Hong-Kong films (in the 70's/80's, actors were so dubbed, that they used to shoot without sound, even on Jet Li's films and others....), but what's bothersome here is that the scene takes place in the midst of Shinjuku district in Tokyo, that there's a lot of japoneses and that even the chinese protagonists have dialogues in japanese language which must have been terribly played or maybe it's just that the general mess coming out from
those "multilanguages" scenes which led anyway Ann Hui to, well, dub everyone, yup ! 
Which implies that the appreciation of actors performances can only be done based upon physical standing, which is only a part of playing, indivisible from the rest, here cut. This isn't something new in HK, certainly, however for a so-called "art film" director, the fault is hardly forgivable, mostly when you know that her "colleague" Wong Kar-Wai, directed the previous year Days Of Being Wild, also with Andy Lau and where the voices where actors's voices....at least !
Someone has to explain me why it is said that Ann Hui is a director of genius, at least visually speaking, because some joins between shots are actually crappy, the music (which's by the way totally lousy) is extremely bad edited, and stops abruptly out of rythm at the end of a shot. 
You can even see a shot where Cherie Chung Cho-Hung running away, desguised as a female procurer (traditionnal dress), and on the very following shot, you can see her wearing....a jacket Andy buy her only three scenes later !...
And eventually, three scenes after that, the same shot is used again, re-yup !
Narrative transitions are really poorly staged, you follow Cherie fleeing from her "cultural house", and on the following shot , we find her in the middle of her romance with Asano (who is Asano ?...well, this is my point) without any further explainations...
Likewise, some powerless scenes just needed a music better used and two adding shots, which would have give much more impact.
Here, you're shocked, but not moved nor touched even in some scenes though very tough however filmed too much in retreat to involve the audience.
In Brief, this Ann Hui's film is a big disapointment. I've always showed tolerance and softness toward cheap budget or poor actors (if it weren't so, I wouldn't be watching HK movies, anyway...) but when the film gets pretentious, nothing is forgivable anymore. Therefore, I'm much more indulgent toward a crappy 80's Andy-starring romance, than toward this pseudo-art essay, this incursion from a director more pedantic than talented in the action thriller of which every codes are broken but from which nothing really achieved comes out. Zodiac Killers, a movie without great interest.
