The Brink

Those sneaky Well Go guys fooled me again with another trailer that makes this ambitious but standard action film look better than it actually is. Max Zhang and Shawn Yue are great as a rogue cop and a fisherman/cold-blooded gangster after a buried underwater treasure. Yasuaki Kurata even shows up as a bigtime gangster and rival to Yue's character but something's missing. There's a boring subplot involving Zhang's daughter and another one about a young woman who loves Yue plus another one about Zhang's missing partner. Uggh! I personally wanted to see more of Zhang mowing down underlings before facing Yue. They battle but I was left wanting more. Maybe, I need to give it a second look but I was a little letdown. The Brink is watchable but basic. Max Zhang's movies are hit or miss at the moment.

Sure, Hong Kong action movies may not be what they used to be. In fact, it may be impossible for the old style of HK cinema to ever make a comeback, given the stuck-in-the-mud buzzkilling censorship rules from the chinese SARFT.But these types of movies certainly aren't dead either. This is honestly one of the better foreign action films I've seen in recent years. It's dripping with atmosphere and style, the cinematography is great, and there's some great fight choreography from Max Zhang.Yes, you can tell where they had to cut things back a bit. There are certain lines of dialog that the writers were forced to insert. There are also major themes on display here that are very "agreeable" to PRC government ideals. But it's still an entertaining movie, and I think the ability for chinese directors to work their way around government rules and still produce a gritty action flick such as this one is a feat in and of itself.5 stars. I look forward to any other future projects from this director.

And, just as I am with Donnie Yen, if I see Max Zhang is in a movie, I'll watch it. And this wasn't one of his better movies, but Max Zhang never disappoints with his martial arts fighting skills and that's good enough for me.

It is a decent movie. Not as many fight scenes as I hoped.

Not a Quality Movie

It’s a great movie even more for those who love martial arts like I do

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