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Review
by Kozo: |
Director Marco Mak attempts to resurrect his Colour
of the Truth glory with Set to Kill, a rare
2005 attempt at the Hong Kong crime film. Raymond Wong
is Nick, a tough bodyguard/triad assigned to protect
Connie (Ning Jing), who's being targeted for assassination
by some unknown person of nefarious disposition. There's
an embezzling scam going on at Connie's company, and
the person suffering happens to be a major crime lord.
Connie swears she didn't do it, but the only other likely
culprit is her fiancé Billy (Johnny Lu). Oddly,
nobody is targeting Billy for death. This can't make
for comfortable pillow talk.
Billy is concerned for Connie's
welfare, so he puts in a good word with Uncle Ghost
(Lau Siu-Ming) to get her a bodyguard unit, consisting
of Nick, Big Brother (Berg Ng), Fei (Marco Lok), and
Lisa (Isabel Chan). The quartet shadow Connie Mission-style,
though in a much more sloppy and uncharismatic manner
than the five ultra-cool guys from Johnnie To's 1999
classic. Complicating matters is the fact that Connie
and Nick were previously involved. Complicating matters
even more is the fact that Nick and Lisa were also once
involved. And to make the complexity absolutely unbearable,
there are numerous shadowy alliances, possible double-crosses,
and crappy intentions out there. Nobody is who they
seem to be, and everyone has their own agenda. This
obviously can't end well.
Set to Kill earns
points immediately because it's a crime thriller in
an age where crime thrillers are few and far between.
That said, the film is only average stuff, and likely
would have been swept under the rug back in 1998 or
1999, when Johnnie To was producing the best crime stuff
to come out of the region. Marco Mak can't manufacture
a classic out of his screenplay, which features clichéd
situations and uninteresting characters, all backed
up with routine, uncharismatic acting. The action itself
is staged in a sometimes sloppy manner, complete with
CGI squibs and actors brandishing guns unconvincingly.
Still, for a routine crime
thriller, Set to Kill does the job in a suitably
average way. Marco Mak keeps things moving quick enough
that the cheapness of the production never seems to
intrude. The twists and turns are diverting if not compelling,
and it's certainly nice to see people pointing guns
at one another in a Hong Kong movie. It used to be that
the Mexican Standoff was commonplace in Hong Kong Cinema.
That rarely happens anymore, so even a cheap knockoff
like Set to Kill can earn some minor genre cred
by employing that once overused cinema device. But the
key word here is definitely "minor". Compared
to previous Marco Mak efforts like Colour of the
Truth or even The Blood Rules, Set to
Kill can hardly compare. (Kozo 2006) |
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