Sweet Revenge (2007)
Reviewed by: mrblue on 2007-07-03
Sweet Revenge tells the tale of Yung (Fan Bing-Bing), a young woman with a terminal illness who is trying to solve the mystery of who killed her parents when she was a child. After making a delivery to a myserious antiques dealer, Shing (Anthony Wong), she notices one of her father's old cameras. The story of how the dealer got the camera begings to point the finger at someone in Yung's own family -- her brother, Chun (Nick Cheung).

If you think the above plot synopsis spoils anything, don't worry. Sweet Revenge telegraphs everything about the plot almost right away. Yet, it still takes what seems like forever to get to the resolution. In fact, if you're watching the VCD, you could probably just skip the first disc altogether.

Annoyingly, even after the viewer sits through the entire movie, the resolution is sudden and haphazard. It really feels like the film-makers simply did not know how to end the movie or ran out of film. Maybe it was a little of both.

Also, there's a lot of little things about the plot which simply do not make sense. Most notable is the romance between Yung and Shing. Try as I might, I just couldn't fathom what Yung would see in a burned-out alcoholic twice her age.

Sure, this is a movie, and that requires some suspension of disbelief, and I suppose it was good that they put in Anthony Wong versus some teeny pop star. But the point kept nagging on me to the point that I felt myself tuning out of the movie at points. It didn't help matters that this seemed to be another one of Anthony Wong's infamous "phone-in" performances.

Still, for some strange reason, Sweet Revenge did hold some sway over me. Perhaps it was Fan Bing-Bing's beauty, or the four beers I had while watching this, but ultimately Sweet Revenge did hold my interest enough that I can give it a mild recommendation. Sweet Revenge isn't a great movie by any means, but if you're a fan of suspense movies, it's good enough material for a night's viewing.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]
Reviewer Score: 5