Color of Pain HK DVD (My Opinion)
02-28-02, 09:32 AM
#1
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 2,604
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Color of Pain HK DVD (My Opinion)
Man, I was placing an order from DDDHouse, and I saw that they had a new title "Color of Pain". I did a search on IMDB, and it's not even listed, but the cover intrigued me:
I like gun related movies. So, for $8 I said what the heck. I watched it last night, and man this was like when I rented "Boondock Saints" because I liked the cover, and it is now one of my favorite movies. Color of Pain is now up there.
I'm not very good at reviews, but if you like Johnnie To's gun flix, I say give it a shot. The story is awesome. I haven’t seen the main actor before, but thought he was excellent.
Sorry I can't tell you more, but since I have heard nothing about this movie anywhere, I thought I would let you know. Maybe if Trigger gives this one a shot, he can give a better review.
Overview from HKFlix:
Starring: Cast: Kenya Sawada, Raymond Wong Ho-Yin, Terence Yin Chi-Wai, Sam Lee Chan-Sam, Tony Ho (Wah Chiu), Josie Ho Chiu-Yee, Gwok Chuen Chun, Lam Suet. .
I like gun related movies. So, for $8 I said what the heck. I watched it last night, and man this was like when I rented "Boondock Saints" because I liked the cover, and it is now one of my favorite movies. Color of Pain is now up there.
I'm not very good at reviews, but if you like Johnnie To's gun flix, I say give it a shot. The story is awesome. I haven’t seen the main actor before, but thought he was excellent.
Sorry I can't tell you more, but since I have heard nothing about this movie anywhere, I thought I would let you know. Maybe if Trigger gives this one a shot, he can give a better review.
Overview from HKFlix:
We see guns, guns, and more guns – but what does it mean for those on the receiving end of the bullets?
The interlocking stories compare and contrast the physical pain being experienced by a hired assassin who suffers from an inoperable bullet in his brain and the mental anguish suffered by a police officer who killed the wrong man. Their reactions are not the same, and neither are the results.
The cast includes the increasingly busy Terence Yin (strong impressions in supporting roles in Final Romance and especially Bullets of Love), Sam Lee (a favorite from Gen-X Cops and Final Romance, among many others), Josie Ho (Purple Storm, Horror Hotline…Big Head Monster), and Lam Suet (a dependable character actor).
Neophyte writer, director, and producer Samuel Leung Tak Sam (his only previous film was Maniacal Night from 2001) here teams with action director Adam Chan Chung-Tai (Cheap Killers, Bullets of Summer).
The interlocking stories compare and contrast the physical pain being experienced by a hired assassin who suffers from an inoperable bullet in his brain and the mental anguish suffered by a police officer who killed the wrong man. Their reactions are not the same, and neither are the results.
The cast includes the increasingly busy Terence Yin (strong impressions in supporting roles in Final Romance and especially Bullets of Love), Sam Lee (a favorite from Gen-X Cops and Final Romance, among many others), Josie Ho (Purple Storm, Horror Hotline…Big Head Monster), and Lam Suet (a dependable character actor).
Neophyte writer, director, and producer Samuel Leung Tak Sam (his only previous film was Maniacal Night from 2001) here teams with action director Adam Chan Chung-Tai (Cheap Killers, Bullets of Summer).
02-28-02, 12:15 PM
#3
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 2,604
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally posted by gabegarwick
Cool! Thanks for the comments. (Goes on my next order list).
Cheers,
Gabe
Cool! Thanks for the comments. (Goes on my next order list).
Cheers,
Gabe
03-25-02, 06:35 AM
#4
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 852
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I picked this up last week and gave it a viewing over the weekend. Overall I thought it was a decent flick.
General Plot:
Its basically a story involving a hitman who gets shot in the head during a job and has a bullet lodged in his head. After this he becomes very reckless and doesn't really care if he lives or dies, and decides to join a group of bank robbers. Not for the cash but just for the natural rush he gets when doing a robbery. He befriends a cop who has lost confidence in himself and the world after he accidentally shot and killed his partner. If I told you anymore I would basically be giving away the whole movie.
Overall, I would say htis movie is a drama more than an action. It is kind of like the exact oppossite of movies like Beast Cops and Time and Tide. Movies like Beast Cops, and Time and Tide had very slick and polished actin sequences. However, the plots, pacing and poor scripts basically ruined them as an overall produc. I rarely sit down and watch those movies from beginning to end. More than likely I'll stick one of them on and get so fed up with the painfully boring first half and just skip to the nicely executing action sequences. Color of Pain is the oppossite of such films because the action sequences were very short and very rough and unpolished. We have couple of brief gun fights and one very brief hand-to-hand fight. Instead the movie focuses more on the story and less on the action. I am usually more of a hardcore action fan than a drama person myself, so I found Color of Pain a little of a let down in the action department. However I still did enjoy it, and you could do much worse.
General Plot:
Its basically a story involving a hitman who gets shot in the head during a job and has a bullet lodged in his head. After this he becomes very reckless and doesn't really care if he lives or dies, and decides to join a group of bank robbers. Not for the cash but just for the natural rush he gets when doing a robbery. He befriends a cop who has lost confidence in himself and the world after he accidentally shot and killed his partner. If I told you anymore I would basically be giving away the whole movie.
Overall, I would say htis movie is a drama more than an action. It is kind of like the exact oppossite of movies like Beast Cops and Time and Tide. Movies like Beast Cops, and Time and Tide had very slick and polished actin sequences. However, the plots, pacing and poor scripts basically ruined them as an overall produc. I rarely sit down and watch those movies from beginning to end. More than likely I'll stick one of them on and get so fed up with the painfully boring first half and just skip to the nicely executing action sequences. Color of Pain is the oppossite of such films because the action sequences were very short and very rough and unpolished. We have couple of brief gun fights and one very brief hand-to-hand fight. Instead the movie focuses more on the story and less on the action. I am usually more of a hardcore action fan than a drama person myself, so I found Color of Pain a little of a let down in the action department. However I still did enjoy it, and you could do much worse.
03-27-02, 03:34 AM
#6
DVD Talk Legend
Ok - watched Color of Pain tonight... you guys are gonna be mad at me, but I thought it was pretty bad. My girlfriend didn't like it much either. We both found it pretty tedious and boring and we couldn't really give a rat's about any of the main characters. Some of the characters were just too silly to be in such a film and the rest were just too 'bad' to be likeable. The plot made little sense also... not that I couldn't understand what was going on, but it was just so convoluted that it was difficult to figure out what the point was and who the main characters were supposed to be or which group of people you were supposed to be interested in. It was like watching an episode of Eight Is Enough in which there are several different stories happening at once and none of them are really all that important. They also left alot of loose ends. They would set up an idea and never really use it. The assassin's colorblindness was never really explored in any capacity... beyond him being colorblind in one scene and then seeing the color of the bank robber's coat in the next scene... they just basically moved on from that one without even discussing it. Many of the ideas in this film were borrowed from other films - but they borrowed too many ideas from too many films and never really followed up on any of them enough.
I think the film had a few things going for it though... I liked a few of the ideas in it and some of the action was well done for a low-budget film. Some of the camerawork was great, but then most of it was overkill. Sweeping slow motion shots to elevate the tension during scenes about basically nothing. I think the cinematographer was wishing there was more script to support his need to add to the drama and tension. The DTS track was nice and the video was good. Certainly a solid Universe release. I probably won't be keeping it in my collection because it's something I won't need to see again, but I don't regret watching it.
I think the main hitman looked alot like Jackie Chan without a broken nose. I wasn't too impressed with the clothing ensembles of the bank robbers. One guy was wearing some crazy pink and purple outfit that made him so unmenacing I couldn't even stand it. While I usually like Sam Lee, he was kinda weak in this one (save for a few scenes). I didn't have really high expectations going in, so I don't think that's why I didn't like it as much as you guys did... I guess I had just seen all this before and done much better. It's okay for an afternoon gun flick, but I don't see this one getting repeat viewings.
4.5/10
We also watched Hot War and once again you're probably going to crucify me for this, but I really liked it. My girlfriend liked Hot War better than Color of Pain, but she thought Hot War started to lose her near the end and she started to drift off to sleep. I was fighting sleep during Color of Pain, but Hot War kept my interest. Many of the ideas in Hot War were even more unrealistic than the ones in Color of Pain, but the film worked better because they kept it simple. It was fairly formulaic, but it kept to a formula that I like. It reminded me of Purple Storm a little and I'd think that if you like Purple Storm that you'll probably like Hot War. It had alot of action and good fighting and gun scenes. The ending was a bit of a downer, but it was totally worth watching for me and it'll stay in my collection.
6.5/10
I think the film had a few things going for it though... I liked a few of the ideas in it and some of the action was well done for a low-budget film. Some of the camerawork was great, but then most of it was overkill. Sweeping slow motion shots to elevate the tension during scenes about basically nothing. I think the cinematographer was wishing there was more script to support his need to add to the drama and tension. The DTS track was nice and the video was good. Certainly a solid Universe release. I probably won't be keeping it in my collection because it's something I won't need to see again, but I don't regret watching it.
I think the main hitman looked alot like Jackie Chan without a broken nose. I wasn't too impressed with the clothing ensembles of the bank robbers. One guy was wearing some crazy pink and purple outfit that made him so unmenacing I couldn't even stand it. While I usually like Sam Lee, he was kinda weak in this one (save for a few scenes). I didn't have really high expectations going in, so I don't think that's why I didn't like it as much as you guys did... I guess I had just seen all this before and done much better. It's okay for an afternoon gun flick, but I don't see this one getting repeat viewings.
4.5/10
We also watched Hot War and once again you're probably going to crucify me for this, but I really liked it. My girlfriend liked Hot War better than Color of Pain, but she thought Hot War started to lose her near the end and she started to drift off to sleep. I was fighting sleep during Color of Pain, but Hot War kept my interest. Many of the ideas in Hot War were even more unrealistic than the ones in Color of Pain, but the film worked better because they kept it simple. It was fairly formulaic, but it kept to a formula that I like. It reminded me of Purple Storm a little and I'd think that if you like Purple Storm that you'll probably like Hot War. It had alot of action and good fighting and gun scenes. The ending was a bit of a downer, but it was totally worth watching for me and it'll stay in my collection.
6.5/10
03-27-02, 10:01 AM
#7
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Iowa
Posts: 524
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
If I remember correctly I think I may have rated Hot War around a 6-6.5 also?? Had some cool stunts. Isn't that the movie where they took the paras between the Petronas towers?
Cheers,
Gabe
Cheers,
Gabe
