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James Marsh

3/5 stars
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.


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.
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.

Kui-lin escapes and, four years later, learns he has terminal stage four lung cancer. He determines to turn himself in, but upon discovering that he ranks only third on Taiwan’s Most Wanted list, the arrogant hoodlum sets off to take out his rivals for the crown of Taiwan’s most notorious criminal.
From here, Wong’s film has something of a broken-back structure, unfolding in two very distinct and tonally different parts.
The slick swagger of the film’s first half has the undeniable whiff of polished Korean thrillers like Kim Jee-woon’s A Bittersweet Life, as Kui-lin zeroes in on “Hongkie” (Ben Yuen Fu-wah), a vicious gangster operating out of a hair salon.

This also sees him cross paths with Hsiao-mei (Gingle Wang Ching), a young woman being coerced into a relationship with the much older criminal.
The film’s second half feels closer in tone to the eccentric works of Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono, as Kui-lin tracks down public enemy number one, “Bullhead” (Chen Yi-wen), a mass murderer who has reinvented himself as the spiritual leader of a remote island community.
Kui-lin must infiltrate the close-knit cult and surrender his advantage if he is to accomplish his profoundly questionable mission.

For all its aesthetic flamboyance and Ruan’s undeniable charisma, the character of Kui-lin raises a plethora of unanswered, perhaps unanswerable, questions – not least, why is he doing this?
Other characters, particularly Hsiao-mei and Chen Hui, are left frustratingly underdeveloped, as Wong asks his audience simply to strap in and become increasingly complicit in Kui-lin’s escalating maelstrom of mayhem.
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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 as Chen Kui-lin in a still from “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon”.

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.

Chen Yi-wen as “Bullhead” in a still from “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon”.

Ben Yuen as “Hongkie” in a still from “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon”.

Gingle Wang as Hsiao-mei and Ethan Ruan as Chen Kui-lin in a still from “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon”.

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Crowd Lu in a still from “Kiss My Ass Boss”.

Crowd Lu in a still from “Kiss My Ass Boss” (category IIA;  Mandarin), a Taiwanese workplace comedy directed by Chu Yu-ning. Yellow Huang Hsuan co-stars.

Yellow Huang (left) in a still from “Kiss My Ass Boss”.

Victoria Chiang in a still from “Kiss My Ass Boss”.

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Kay Tse (left) and Rondi Chan in a still from from movie “Band Four” (category IIA, Cantonese), a Hong Kong family drama directed by Mo Lai Yan-chi. Teddy Robin co-stars.

Teddy Robin in a still from “Band Four”.

(From left) Teddy Robin, Rondi Chan, Kay Tse and Anna Hisbbur in a still from “Band Four”.

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Andy Lau (left) and Ning Hao in a still from “The Movie Emperor”.

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Andy Lau in a still from “The Movie Emperor”.

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Angel Lam in a still from “Lonely Eighteen” (category IIB,  Cantonese), directed by Tracy Choi. Renci Yeung and Irene Wan co-star.

Irene Wan in a still from “Lonely Eighteen”.

Renci Yeung (left) and Angel Lam in a still from “Lonely Eighteen”. 

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

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


In a slick crime drama, Ethan Ruan plays a hitman whose plan to turn himself in changes after he finds out he’s not the most wanted criminal in Taiwan. He decides to take out his rivals so he will be.


Chinese language cinema

Asian cinema

Film reviews

Cinema

Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Fame and celebrity

Golden Horse awards

An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

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

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