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Review | The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon movie review: Taiwanese crime thriller directed by Hong Kong’s Wong Ching-po is energetic if somewhat baffling

  • Ethan Ruan stars as a hitman who wants to turn himself in after being diagnosed with cancer, but finds out he isn’t public enemy number one
  • He decides to become Taiwan’s most wanted criminal by taking out his rivals for the role in this slick and stylish crime drama

Reading Time:2 minutes
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Ethan Ruan as Chen Kui-lin in a still from “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon” (category IIB, Mandarin), directed by Wong Ching-po. Chen Yi-wen co-stars.

3/5 stars

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In the nine years since his last feature film, Hong Kong director Wong Ching-po has lost none of his affection for visually stylish crime thrillers championing losers and outcasts existing on the fringes of society.

Nominated for seven prizes in the upcoming Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, The Pig, The Snake and the Pigeon is as slickly executed as anything in the director’s oeuvre, while presenting a sympathetic portrait of its narcissistic, morally reprehensible and gleefully homicidal protagonist.

The result is an energetic, unwieldy and ultimately somewhat baffling genre film likely to perplex audiences as readily as it entertains.

【周處除三害】10/6 上映 |正式預告|台灣影史最惡電影

Set in Taiwan, the film stars Ethan Ruan Ching-tien as Chen Kui-lin, also known as The Kuilin Kid, a notorious hitman responsible for assassinating a high-ranking Taichung gang boss.

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We first meet him at the funeral for the aforementioned gangster, where he brazenly guns down another senior mobster in front of a hall full of underworld mourners. Kui-lin is pursued by cop Chen Hui (Lee Lee-zen), who loses an eye in their scuffle.

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