Hey folks, Valkor here. This next film I’m about to review comes all the way from Hong Kong, a land I’ve only visited once and I need to make a return visit ASAP. It’s an action/drama film entitled Sun Cheung Sau or “Sniper”, it’s got some nice action, but this film is missing something…
The story of Sniper revolves around three characters: Keming (Richie Ren), Ahjing (Xiaoming Huang), and OJ (OJ???? - Edison Chen); three guys who are apart of a special sniper’s unit known as the SDU. However Ahjing goes rogue, which we find out later he was arrested and thrown in jail for 4 years, but now is released. Why was he arrested? We don’t learn that till much later, but he actually joins up with some guys, who were a part of his arrest. But Keming wants to bring Ahjing to justice and OJ is caught in the middle. OJ’s goal is to be “top shooter”, which currently Keming and Ahjing hold the title as the two are equals in everyway but the film doesn’t really focus on him, but the focus is set mainly on Ahjing and Keming’s rivalry. Actually OJ learns from both and neither top shooters wants OJ to follow in the others footsteps, stating their techniques are better. Ultimately OJ gets caught in the middle and the ending, while predictable, feels about right.
Oh ya this film has a little scandal attached to it. But to make it brief, Edison Chen had some saucy photos of women, some of who are HK actors, some which includes Edison with the girls. Some 1300 photos were on the laptop and if you look around the internets you’ll find some.
Yea, that’s what this film was missing… BOOBS!
The Good
As an action film this one’s pretty good. It isn’t until mid film do you get to see some serious SDU action, as it starts with the flashback involving a bank heist and of course the end battle. The acting is pretty decent, I’m not to hip on Hong Kong acting style, so to me this is passable. My personal fav is Ahjing – Xioming Huang, as he looks so damn cool and devious.
The Bad
The pacing is really slow in this film; I mean you’ll be itchin for some action and you won’t get any. Plus the story is a bit of a mess in the beginning because you’ll wonder OJ is even a focus at all. But it does clean up nicely.
The Ugly
Ok I’m gonna spoil this a bit, but the ending while cool is a bit annoying. So Ahjing is finally cornered in an abandoned warehouse and a bunch of cops who went after him get picked off before they enter through the front door. So the SDU is sent in, and what do they do? They go right through the front door… in a pack! Nooooo, they’re not an easy target. Surprisingly enough Ahjing doesn’t pop them off one by one… at least not right away.
I liked Sniper, I really did. It’s not a bad film; even with the slow pacing it’s a decent action film with the added drama touch. Out of TOV 5 stars I five the film 3 stars. And it’s been Valkor tested and TOV approved.