A Lavish Chinese Gangster Melodrama: Operatic Grandeur, But Rather Thin Characterizations
Everything about the lush and beautiful gangster melodrama "The Last Tycoon" is done with visual panache and great style. An epic tale about the rise of a small town boy named Cheng Daiqi, the film has the sweep of a classic crime saga played out as an over-the-top and operatic historical set piece. Everything is big about this picture, a movie that seems to be in love with movies. Independent scenes can instantly reference other cinematic moments from a shoot-out reminiscent of "Bonnie and Clyde," to a romantic departure out of "Casablanca," to a street fight tinged with a "Singing in the Rain" vibe, to a church confrontation straight out of classic John Woo (but without the Woo doves). It is all put together with exquisite choreography, impressive effects, and a swelling soundtrack that compliments the escalating action. It's fair to say that director Wong Jing wasn't aiming for subtlety and understatement with "The Last Tycoon!" From the fight sequences, to the bombing of Shanghai,...
Real Movie News Blu-ray review
Jing Wong's The Last Tycoon is a reasonable entertaining film. There are more than a few engaging sequences, though they are buried enough amongst many forgettable and vaguely familiar moments to make The Last Tycoon feel like the echo of better films from recent past. Despite a jarring editing style which jerks the audience back and forth in time, there are few surprises to be found and little distinctly memorable. With that being said, The Last Tycoon is still a reasonably entertaining film.
Action star Chow Yun-Fat plays the seasoned older version of the film's main character, Cheng Daqi, and it almost feels as though the editing was a choice made in order to keep the film's largest star equally dispersed amongst the narrative. First played by Huang Xiaoming, Daqi is a young man working for a fruit stand owner in the early 1920s when he is framed for murder and forced to become the right hand to a triad boss, Hong Shouting (Sammo Hung).
He is forced to leave...
A playground for the adventurous
Wong Jing's Hong Kong film is labeled as a crime drama, which "The Last Tycoon" certainly lives up to being. But the film also features some extremely explosive action sequences and has a rather hardcore romance element at its core. The film is constantly jumping back and forth between what's happening in the present, which takes place between 1937 and 1940, and nearly 25 years in the past. Naturally, most of the main characters are portrayed by both a more distinguished actor and a younger one.
Huang Xiaoming plays the Cheng Daqi of the past while Chow Yun-Fat is the man he grows up to be. Xiaoming does an impeccable job of portraying a young man with the undying ambition to make a name for himself. The young Cheng Daqi is always trying to prove himself nearly every time he opens his mouth. Meanwhile, Chow Yun-Fat is a bit more relaxed. He has everything he's ever wanted except for Zhiqiu (Yuan Quan) who's just walked back into his life. As the Japanese begin their...
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