Double Vision (2002)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

DOUBLE VISION is a weird little serial killer film from Taiwan with some surrealistic touches and some memorably gruesome set-pieces. The clear influence here is SEVEN, which comes as no surprise during this era, although I was also more than reminded of THE X-FILES as DOUBLE VISION has the same kind of spirit of investigation as it charts the two cops going after a serial killer who employs a very unusual method.This is a slick, glossy production which works well and keeps you watching just because the plot elements are so unusual and bizarre. It's not the type of film that you'd describe as a classic and it's not really one that sticks in the mind either, but it works well enough and keeps you watching throughout. Tony Leung is expectedly good as the lead but the real stand-out is imported American star David Morse, one of the most underrated character actors working today, and of course he's excellent here.

This trashy Taiwanese-American cooperation tries to mix all stereotypes of U.S. police buddy-movies/serial-killer thrillers and Asian supernatural horror films into one brew... unfortunately, its taste is revolting.Mind me, the technical aspects and even some of the otherwise typically hammy acting is okay, but the convoluted plot kills it all, particularly after confusing Taoist prophecies, silly modern killer monks and, most annoyingly, lofty melodramatics are introduced. And I won't even speak about the ridiculous finale.I seldom cared less about a thriller's outcome.2 out of 10 lethal air conditioners

Hrmm, I don't know about this one. An American criminal investigator from the FBI is sent to assist a Taiwanese police group to figure out a bunch of creepy murders. How and why this guy is assisting them is sorta unexplained, but okay. The first half of the movie builds up the suspense pretty well, but the rest of it gets kind of clunky and includes a lot of CG clipshows and gore, segway that relies on music, unnecessary (and yet somehow predictable) plot twists full of tepid villains or lazy pacing.I do like the Taoist mysticism they try to throw into the whole thing, but it ends up being a lot less cool or scary than "Ghostbusters" by the end. The mysticism isn't explained in very much detail, which I suspect is to deliberately cover up its lack of depth. There are a few points where the movie is a launchpad for typical conversations about mysticism/religious belief vs. science. *snore* Tony Leung's main role is pretty cliché'd, at least as far as western cop dramas go. Some event from his past haunts him, isolates him from colleagues, his family, blah blah blah. David Morse is okay, but there's no real point to him being there. We also get almost zero character development out of him. And the script's attempts to get one-liners or sarcastic quips from his character are pretty poor.Seriously, if you hadn't seen these characters already a million times before in better movies, you'd be pretty damn confused by their stories and motivations. The flashbacks and home movies and whatever else you see here, they're so random, they're given almost no introduction so you have no idea what you're seeing or why it's relevant to the story.So it's a typical cross-cultural cop-drama, which mixes with light mysticism and horror instead of comedy or martial arts, and with somewhat choppy editing and pacing. Don't get me wrong, I really loved getting to see Taiwan and all the Taoist symbolism and what-have-you. It just wasn't implemented that well. It's like the movie couldn't decide on what to be. Oh, and the ending is poorly thought out too.The '80s flick "Black Rain" with Michael Douglas does the serious cross-cultural cop-drama thing much better. That one has finer ambiance, a cheesy soundtrack with charming characters as well as a better look into the customs of Japanese law enforcement and organized crime.

This flick is worth seeing simply becase the plot stays pretty unpretentious throughout the whole movie. The two main characters, Huo-tu and Kevin, are living, breathing humans, a refreshing change than those of most East-Meets-West stereotypes, where the local cop is a kung-fu god and the FBI agent/US cop cares only about the mission and nothing else. Here, every character has human problems, even the inhuman enemy behind it all. Even in the mind-trip ending, the actor manages to retain that human touch to what would otherwise be a melodramatic performance. Check it out if you want to see some interesting and original character dynamics.