Films

How great can a movie from 1980 be in 2026? Pretty decent when it’s the directorial debut of Johnnie To. The plot is somewhat lacking any modern complexity and pretty straightforward. The camera angles, special effects, and yes - direction is pretty decent overall for a debut.

Enjoyed this way more than I probably should have because even now the inefficiencies of modern medical care that this film is critiquing are still present. Funny and lighthearted, Ekin being too cool for the scene and Cecilia Chung as the love triangle interest is a cute but cliche role for her. The supporting cast makes this even better with a few Milkyway mainstays giving great acting and performances.

Watched on Saturday April 25, 2026.

Watched on Saturday April 25, 2026.

Watched on Friday April 24, 2026.

More fight scenes than some “action” movies! That said the felt the script was way too all over the place. First he’s an investigative journalist that somehow gets involved with a rich woman… okay I’m following where this is probably going. Until halfway through he gives up his job to be a regular worker to win the girl - okay I’m following. But now the rich woman is the one doing the investigating and the male lead is completely oblivious to the scam even though his whole deal was investigating scammers for his show?

I feel obligated to leave a review since I don’t see any yet. This was… okay. At least the actors tried their best? The plot revolves around modern day ninja assassins but that part is only a background info as they’re not very “ninja-y” besides their outfits. This isn’t “Under Ninja” but leans more realistic. There’s a one take fight near the end which was decent, to offset some of the earlier fight choreography which was a bit lackluster.

I have to hope that the director's later works are much better than this, and this being an independent short film, I can see the potential that was here. It does try to be a bit art house with its storytelling style, maybe copying some western directors and the plot doesn't really hold, but I think that's par for the course for an independent film project like this. The positives are that I enjoyed the setting being a non-typical rural Northern city for film and the quirky characters did grow on me by the end.

Part of my ongoing and never-ending watch/rewatch of Johnny To movies. This was a new one for me! I had not watched Three before and I quite enjoyed it! While playing with some of the typical Johnny To tropes of cops and criminals, but now with a hospital setting firmly in this mix. I thought some of the camera work and cinematography was definitely fun, the extended slo-mo shootout at the end - woohoo! A very action packed hospital drama, and again I liked the title theme referring to the three way "battle" you could say of the main characters: the cop, the suspect, and the doctor. I think it was a fun dynamic to have all three of them with their own motives and motivations as well as a rich cast of secondary supporting characters. So overall this is an actually pretty decent turnout from Johnny To and the Milky Way team.

It might be just me because it has been a while since I read the original source manga - and it's definitely been a while since I watched the Tom Cruise remake. I feel, while closer to the manga, All You Need is Kill 2025 still not 100% adaptation, but much more closer than the American remake. I enjoyed the slower pace and structure of this compared to Edge of Tomorrow. I loved Rita's character, of course, but the film does slow down once we're introduced to the second character and I wish we could have just stayed with Rita more. Along with an amazing ending, overall the art/animation is gorgeous. I enjoyed this movie.

This was cute and I was rooting for Daniel Wu (and frog, justice for frog!) the entire time. When he shows up at her doorstep in Suzhou towards the end I almost shed a tear (despite being a hardened rom-com fan). Louis Koo’s character grated me which was maybe the point to have the audience have someone to keep yelling at Gao Yuanyuan to stop falling for! BlackBerry had a bit too much product placement but hey glad Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai got paid.

Had to finally check out the Johnnie To musical and it was a mixed bag. I loved the set design of the office and surrounding city, a vastly different take for the usual To film which showcases the city as a character. The musical itself didn’t work for me but I’m not a huge musical fan to begin with, so this is a personal preference. I didn’t feel the plot was strong showing the “hidden princess” storyline and her relationships with her colleagues and parents.

Visually impressive. Would have loved for it to be a little longer to flesh out the plot. Hope to see more from the crew that made this.

Was the book better? Yes. Was the movie still a lot of fun? Yes.

A lot of fun, I didn’t expect so much comedy from a time travel movie. The logic of the loop was a bit difficult to understand so you just had to roll with it. The film itself being one long take was pretty impressive especially with all the time looping wackiness.

For once I’ll be the low reviewer, as someone who generally scores most movies higher than the averages on here (eg. a 3.2 on here is a 4+ for me). However this just didn’t land, even though I liked the “typical” Wai Ka-Fai twist to end the film on a different than expected ending with the movie about the movie. Even then, Michael (Koo) was promoting his movie as his lived experience - but isn’t it Sue (Chang) and Tian’s story? Sammi’s character was the highlight (as usual) as the grieving widow holding out hope, but overall a mediocre showing from the Milkyway combo To/Wai.

4 star for enjoyment, I’m siding with the audience score and not the critics score. Yes the plot was barely there… but but the nostalgia! Looks great and I loved all the references EVERYWHERE from sound snippets to parts of the dialogue to of course the visuals.

Rewatch for the Nth time but it has been years before landing on this as a casual watch when it popped up on Netflix. The practical effects still hold up with only slight awkwardness for the clearly CGI ship scenes here and there. Only thing not as believable 30 years later is the entire "love at first sight" plot which seems dated nowadays, but still super fun comfort movie.