Popular reviews

• 

  Review by Adrian Oli ★★

  After extremely critically acclaimed hk film Port of call 2015 Philip Yung finally came back with an epic period film Where the Wind Blows which failed to fill up its massive expectations. Philip Yung got the budget, the dream cast and almost everything but he failed to make the most of it. How come it has Tony and Kwok in it but the best thing about this film is Michael Hui's excellent monologue.

  The production is gorgeous but felt way too made up and gave me a non cinematic experience. Looks like period isnt the most favorable genre of hk where Koreans are really good at making these. 2h 24m runtime is way too ambitious for a pretentious mess up shit like this. Dont bother watching it, ill recommend you to watch Trivisa, Lee Rock duology. These two are rather well made excellent period set up film's.

• 

  Review by Koen ★★

  IFFR 2023 #2

  So dramatic and for what? When you’re already 1.5 hours into the movie you don’t want multiple 10 minute black-and-white flashback scenes to explain the appearance of a new character.
  It’s mostly a mess which doesn’t really seem to know what story it wants to tell. So much happens, but it doesn’t amount to anything. It looks nice, though, and I like the use of (what looks like) studio sets. Tony Leung doesn’t really do anything besides smoking cigarettes in every scene and Du Juan might just be able to compete with Maggie Cheung for the Biggest Wardrobe of Cheongsams in a Single Movie Award.

  [note: prerecorded introduction by director Philip Yung]

• 

  Review by Jessica Yeung ★★★½

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  3 stars for the film, 1/2 star for Michael Hui's heartfelt 5 min speech, also, according to Philip Yung in his post-screening appearance, the summary of it is "The native Hongkongers born and live here in Hong Kong know best what Hong Kong needs" ––– also Michael Hui's wise words for the audience and giving this speech was the reason why Hui accepted this job. It actually feels like the elaborated, eloquent speech that Hui gave as a news reporter at the end of Front Page.

  Where the Wind Blows, although it is a China-HK coproduction film, according to Yung, he needs the budget to re-create old Hong Kong, which he thought would have no effects whatsoever on mainland Chinese…

• 

  Review by naruse 1

  -睇咗套王家衛+塔可夫斯基嘅情慾+心理創傷+emo版四大探長（其實得兩大）

  -五十年代走到七十年代得一片繁華同歌舞片vibe

  -睇住鋼琴燒果下，諗起塔可夫斯基嘅《Mirror》，當然仲有黑白記憶亂序穿插同凝視

  -升格close up加落樓梯加封閉空間嘅獨舞，王家衛上身，想塑造嗰種優雅同憂鬱嘅感覺（emo位

  -慢鏡加凌亂嘅快剪，仲有時不時彈出嚟嘅文縐縐字，仲以為睇緊某種luxury嘅廣告

  -當然filmmaking wise係冇咩挑剔，但係太過flex都係呢啲高成本大製作嘅弊端

  
  -點解成日都見到啲文青哀愁label嘅金魚缸反光

• 

  Review by cine_platoscave ★★★ 2

  1. 郭富城話套戲原本片長超過三個鐘，但係而家得返兩個幾。但係講真，我唔介意睇長嘅電影，但係我怕睇唔連貫嘅電影。

  2. 我好似從來無睇過四大探長啲戲，但似乎以前應該唔係咁拍。要拍雙雄史詩野心好大，兩條主線穿越三個十年，仲要有自己獨立感情線，但都仲係唔夠，成條時間線仲要前後 shuffle。其實你交代少啲嘢都唔得。但係偏偏仲要剪走咗四十分鐘。我希望係剪接手多剪走，但眼見舊年IFF 又臨門畀人抽起咗，睇怕都係審查累事。

  3. 其實以合拍片嚟講的確唔差，至少兩個大陸女演員嘅角色並唔兀突，香港戰後始終係文化鎔爐，佢哋都有用心代入角色，練習國語/廣東話/上海話/潮州話台詞。但係係剪接混亂嘅情況下，好多支線交代得唔清楚。上海千金（明明都係上海走難，吳耀漢明明都無口音，個女點解有呢可）點解會識得黑吃黑，梁朝偉點解會沉撚晒船，觀眾都唔知，學梁朝偉話齋，有啲無厘頭尻。

  4. Cinematography 已經唔係似王家衛咁簡單，啲fps/ 分鏡/樓梯shot旗袍行上行落/天台shot我覺得直情係跟住拍。好睇嘅，但係周慕雲二十年前已經有啦，我做咩唔睇返花樣年華同2046姐。彈琴跳踢踏舞 ok charm，但係氣氛劇變變做La La land就好搞唔掂。雨中Mexican Standoff ok，但係唔好要周慕雲識得開槍仲要打走個八卦鏡啦。隻CG黑豹又係唔知想點，你成套戲整咁多黑白/grainy/ 菲林效果，無啦啦加隻CG豹落去破壞晒。

  5. 許冠文個monologue 精彩嘅， 但係同電影其他部分無咩相干。

  6. 太保做向華炎好撚型，如果有得睇多啲就好。Elaine係加分位。

• 

  Review by anglek

  การที่หนังเรื่องนี้มีแต่รอบพากย์ไทยซับภาษาจีนคืออาชญากรรม

• 

  Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★

  Where the Wind Blows is a sprawling, at times nigh incoherent epic about the flow of time filtered through a familiar genre story. Like The Grandmaster, its shifts are impressionistic, following threads that are as much allegorical as they are the requirements of a plot.

  Review for subscribers only at The Chinese Cinema.

• 

  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★½

  Among the better of the crop of Hong Kong period crime films, probably because it establishes its British rule setting as often its main attraction, pushing its nostalgia factor into more of the forefront than many of those. It is very overlong at over 140 minutes and a little low on any kinetic interest fans of local crime movies might expect. There are lots of power struggles, which director Yung doesn't always animate. Tony Leung and Aaron Kwok are the expected aging leads those movies always have, and it is a fine showcase for them.

• 

  Review by Alison Wong ★★½ 5

  About halfway through ‘Where the Wind Blows’, Tony Leung’s character Nam Kong says, “Smart people know when to quit”, and I wish the film had taken his advice to heart. There are so many potentially good things here— Tony Leung, beautifully reconstructed old Hong Kong, an excellent cast who did their jobs beautifully, such a fascinating period of HK history. But in trying to stuff too much in the film, it felt bloated, unstructured, and meaningless.

  “It’s like they were scared to leave anything out in case they could not make another film again,” I said to my friend. “It’s quite moving?” He looked at me and laughed. “No,” he said, “it’s just bad”.

• 

  Review by LandyWong ★★★★

  在《風再起時》發現一個有趣的地方，不知翁子光是有心定無意，在片中的某些特定時刻會去「訪問」南江，而南江又會從他自身所處的位置抽離出來作出回應，彷彿有一種南江暫時從扮演「南江」中走出來，接受鏡頭問詢的奇異感，偉仔的演技精準傳遞出這種「時而沉浸時而游離」的情緒狀態。因此，假如說郭富城的磊樂是一個全身心投入角色、盡職盡責的說書人，那麼梁朝偉的南江則是以故意走神的聰明和圓滑於服從與質疑「規則」之間反覆橫跳。但亦正如南江在結局所說，自己（之於大時代）只是一個演員，他所做的也只能是「把戲演好」，因為無論如何抽離自身去懷疑或反思，香港的規矩終究不是由他、磊樂或香港人定的，那麼又該由誰去定奪呢？這恐怕是翁子光在通篇近乎情緒化浪漫化的刻劃與表述之外，留下來的、不能解也不敢解的謎團。

  •

  翁子光意圖透過一個糅合多類型多風格，有別於過往同類作品多在暴力與奇情之間來回折返，「非此即彼」的梟雄故事，重新回望、書寫英殖時期橫跨30年（40-70年代）的香港社會面貌，甚至有替觀眾解畫「是什麼造就了香港」的雄心壯志。翁的失敗看來是必然的，他提供的答案和誠心致敬的王家衛、許鞍華、 吳宇森等名導一樣，最後都只是對「我城」相當局部（片段）、相當私人的情感式影像；但在另一方面，影片各種顯而易見的混亂與失序似乎又恰巧證明了昔日包羅萬象的香港難以被簡單概括和定義（至少在現如今的現實環境裏確實沒辦法做到）。這樣看翁子光又是成功的，因為他向我們坦承了在面對浩瀚素材時的迷失，毫無保留，盡情享受其中，並把對香港飽含的深沉愛慕擢升至跳躍的、不受限的「造夢」層次，也許唯有在肆意揮灑浪漫想像的夢境裏，我們方可接觸到這麼一個立場曖昧，意識形態模糊的我城吧。

• 

  Review by Reinier_Zouw ★★

  This is how I find out there is more than one Hong Kong actress named Maggie Cheung.

• 

  Review by Sana ★★★

  หนังสร้างจากเรื่องจริง ช่วงฮ่องกงยุค 70 แหละ ควรหาข้อมูลนิดหน่อยก่อนจะไปดู แต่ความรู้สึกหลังดู คือนึกว่าดู In the mood for love อยู่อะ ฟีลมันได้ สอดแทรก ปัญหาการเมืองของฮ่องกง เข้าไปด้วย แนะนำให้ทุกคนดู Lee Rock Ver เฮียหลิว 1990