Customer Reviews

The Odd One Dies

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Odd One Dies" is a mesmerizing movie. The movie captures a few days in the life of a street urchin (of sorts). Takeshi Kaneshiro gives a stellar performance as a wandering thug, with nothing to lose--until he meets an equally lost soul. The resting love affair is quirky, heartbreaking and incredibly real. The two characters exist on the peripheries of society, in a world where love seems impossible, which makes the relationship between the two that much more powerful. If you enjoyed "Chungking Express" but crave something less sweet, this is the movie for you. Also, Takeshi Kaneshiro is in almost every scene. Enough said.

I have to beg you not to get the DVD distributed by Mei-Eh and it has the Tai Seng sticker on the front of it. The DVD cuts out at the 45 minute mark and I couldn't get it to play again. I tried a DVD player that I have only played a few times and ran into the same problem. Since no one else on here has had problems, I am guessing they got the Tai Seng version. So whatever you do DO NOT GET THE MEI-EH/TAI SENG VERSION!!!!!

Now it took me over 2 hours to watch this trying to get it to play but I did manage to see about 80 of the 90 minutes. Luckily I saw the beginning and the end. The story doesn't exactly explain itself that well at the start but you will proabably figure it out. Takeshi Kaneshiro is big time gambler who I thought was just a little bit off. While not the brightest guy, it makes for a VERY interesting character to study. I don't want to spoil the story because it is actually quite good. It gets a bit boring in the middle and I didn't like the disbelief part at the end. This movie is very good but has a hard time staying on track and wanders off pretty far some times.

So again, do not get the Mei-Eh version or if you have the Mei-Eh/Tai Seng version, please review how it plays.

I myself love Takeshi, and have seen alot of his movies so I know what kind of character he likes to play. His character in this movie can be so intense at one moment, yet child-like in the next, without saying one word. Carmen Lee's performance was down-played, but effective,and the extra characters gave comic relief to this picture that could otherwise have been a real depressing film. The music they use usually have the complete opposite feel as the scene before you, ex. an intense confrontation is accentuated with what sounds like music from a commercial geared for kids, yet it goes together so well. If your in the mood for something a little different, I would definately recommend seeing this movie for the laugh factor alone.

I bought this movie based on it's review in 'Hollywood East' by Stefan Hammond, expecting an off-kilter mix of genres, and I wasn't disappointed. Kaneshiro's glum, down on his luck character Mo is quite entertaining as he takes on a contract hit, then proceeds to gamble the money into a small fortune. He then seeks a way to farm out the actual hit, and meets his match in Carmen Lee's grunged out character. Stylishly shot, the film lingers on small details in the characters lives, giving us a good feeling for the depths of their despair, all the while building to the question of who will be forced to carry out the contract. Brief but gritty flashes of violence punctuate the film, as do several funny scenes, Mo's image-conscious use of an oversized mid-80's cell phone, for example. All set to a jazzy score, this film is a wonderful hybrid.

Although I LOVE Takeshi Kaneshiro in this, the movie itself wouldn't be worth watching without him in it. And if I hadn't read the plot summary prior to watching the film (that informed me of certain points), I wouldn't have known what was meant to be going on most of the time. I did laugh a couple of times during the movie. That elevator scene was very comical. Overall, it's not a movie I regret watching, but it's also not a movie I feel the need to watch again.

The Odd One Dies is another film from Hong Kong's "doom generation" of film making, the 5-7 uneasy years leading up to the hand over of power to communist Chinese control. It is a fresh and occasionally funny film about small-time criminals that oozes with hopelessness, a sentiment representative of many citizens who could not leave Hong Kong. However, what keeps The Odd One Dies from being a completely depressing film like Wong Kar Wai's brooding crime dramas As Tears Go By or Days of Being Wild is Takeshi Kaneshiro, who despite the somber material, has an amazing comic presence (and the film's running joke involving severed fingers doesn't hurt either). The one major fault with The Odd One Dies is the story, which has some neat ideas but tends to meander and lose focus on many occasions.