Watches
August 02, 2020
Like many Hong Kong directors in the late 80s/early 90s, Ronny Yu traded in the Hong Kong backdrop for a European one. For China White, he landed on Amsterdam (also Paris and Rotterdam) to unfold his little crime/action epic. The result is pretty poor though, with only a few above average action scenes to save it from complete disaster.
Expect a plethora of horrible accents, some misplaced drama and romance and a very generic plot that deals with several gangs wrapped up in a bloody turf wars. Yu brought in some famous actors (Andy Lau among others), but they only show up in smaller secondary parts, so their impact is limited.
The rest of the cast is pretty terrible, including cult icon Billy Drago. I'm not quite sure what Yu was trying to do with this film, but his talents lie elsewhere (fantasy and horror are his thing) and this weak attempt to follow in the footsteps of John Woo and Ringo Lam feels like a big misstep.