I didn't know a single thing about this 2013 movie titled "Bends" from writer and director Flora Lau prior to getting a chance here in 2020 to sit down and watch it. Needless to say that I jumped at the chance, as I thoroughly enjoy the Hong Kong cinema, so I needed no persuasion to spend the time to watch "Bends".
Well, this was not your average drama to make it out of the Hong Kong cinema. In fact, there is something pseudo-artistic, if not avantgarde, about the way the storyline is concocted and presented by Flora Lau. For better or worse, this is a movie that I believe will not broadly appeal to just everyone in the audience, as it is something of a like-it-or-not-deal I think. I happened to enjoy it actually, hence my rating of a six out of ten stars.
Now, it should be said that not a whole lot happened throughout the course of the movie and the storyline, and that is why I doubt that the movie will have a broad appeal to the wide audience. In fact, the movie's storyline was slow paced and not all that much actually happened as the movie progressed. But oddly enough, I found the stillness of the storyline and its simplicity to actually be the source of good entertainment.
While this is not a story that is driven by a fast paced storyline or an overly active storyline, then "Bends" was actually an enjoyable and entertaining movie. It is a movie that is driven by the character's story, and both Carina Lau and Kun Chen - the two leads - really carried themselves phenomenally with their individual performances in "Bends", and the movie was spot on given their performances.
While not the most outstanding moment of movies in Hong Kong cinema, "Bends" is a movie that might not have had the wide general appeal, but is a movie that will have entertainment value for a more picky audience with an acquired taste for the artsy approach of film making, I suppose.
I can warmly recommend that you sit down to watch the 2013 movie "Bends" if you are given the chance, and especially so if you like Hong Kong cinema. While it is not your average run-of-the-mill Hong Kong drama, it is a movie that actually had two very interesting and interwoven storylines that worked out well individually and together.
