A Taiwanese crime film that echoes As Tears Go By or Joker in that it’s a psychological thriller following a bad man that we as viewers relate to, but fails due to a real bad pacing issue.
General plot, a hitman finds out he has terminal lung cancer but wants to be remembered for being the most wanted criminal in Taiwan. In order to be No.1, he has to take out two criminals (he’s No.3 most wanted.). There’s not a lot of Taiwanese produced movies so it was nice to see the relatively calm streets and shops in Taipei, and New Taipei.
Each successive act in the film is longer than the previous one. Act 1, being around 25 min, Act 2, around 40 min, and Act 3 around an hour. Additionally, Act 3 has no action until around the 40min mark. It got to a point where I was ready to turn it off due to a tonal shift. Unfortunate because otherwise was good until that point.
First screened September 2, 2024 on Netflix.
