Movie Review: Seoul Raiders

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Ah, to keep this blog alive and also in the spirit of the Chinese New Year, let me put forth a review of a Chinese movie... sort of. Seoul Raiders. How do you make a HongKong movie doesn't feel like a HongKong movie? By casting actors who speaks Cantonese badly. I think in the entire movie, there are only about 4 characters who speaks fluent Cantonese... and that includes 3 extras.

The movie starts off with JJ (Shu Qi) bumping into Lam (Tony Leung) as he is about to pull off a heist of some plates for printing counterfeit US dollar notes. Lam managed to outwit JJ as he escaped with the plates. Lam then handovers the plates to a representative of the US consular, Owen (Richie Jen) expecting a reward of USD 20 million, only to be tricked and relieved of the plates by Owen, who plans to sell the plates himself to a mob boss in Korea. To restore his reputation and to get even, Lam flies to Seoul and put together his team of hot assistants to help him track down Owen and retrieve the stolen plates.

The movie started off with little promise, almost doesn't make sense. But I didn't mind too much as I was just enjoying the sights of 3 hot Korean babes (although only 1 really caught my eyes). Even Shu Qi doesn't really looks as hot in this movie. Half way through though, the pace picks up and more funny jokes were cracked. Thus overall, it is still an enjoyable watch. Many tried to compared this to Tokyo Raiders, and said the first movie is better. Well, I think both movies have different parts that excelled.

Ratings: 3 of 5