Nominated for 8 Golden Horse Awards and it is HK's entry for the Best Foreign Film Award, but seriously I don't get what the hullabaloo is about. Let me count the ways it failed - unevenly paced, oddly edited, directed without clarity, unnecessary fractured timelines, characters feel like walking enigmas. Only they know what they are doing. I didn't care for anyone. I think it is a veiled attempt at social commentary about the state of lonely youths in HK but the characters are not drawn well. The movie does not strive on suspense and we know who the murderer is pretty soon. The film then delves into their motivations but as far as I can tell every character is only painted with one identifiable trait. Getting Aaron Kwok here to be driving force is a waste of talent and I can't understand what's the point of him taking Polaroids and playing that damn kendama toy. I hate it when filmmakers do these dumb stuff and expect us to derive a deep reason about it. Scene to scene, the transitions feel unwieldy. Sometimes odd characters parachute in to pay some lip service and suggest some depth. Yawn! And I hate it when there are false endings. I think there are 3 here. It felt like it didn't want to end.
I do like Christopher Doyle's cinematography in that he refuses to pick up anything glamorous about HK. Jessie Li and Michael Ning as the killed and killer are laudable. Finally the movie doesn't shy away from some grisly gore. Something I don't see often in HK movies.
PS - I googled the actual case which is just grisly. A 16-year-old girl got chop into pieces by a 24-year-old man. Go wiki Wong Ka Mui
