Yellow Fever, ha ha ha.
Arthur Gardner | Tucson, AZ USA | 01/20/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I initially got this movie because I remember watching it some years ago when I lived in Germany and there was a time when my father and I decided to make up the time to swing by faster by renting movies almost every day or every week at least and watching them through; movies I'd never even really heard or seen. Usually they were kung fu movies and such, but every now and then we'd pick up a movie that would seem to pass the entertainment radars for us (when you're an American in Germany, it's REALLY hard to find American movies or their debuts to hit overseas as it takes at least 6 months, if you're lucky, to almost 2 years just for an American movie to come out... can you imagine? While you read on the news that somewhere in California the Matrix has started, you'd have to wait an extra few months just to watch, or something like that-- I just use the Matrix as an example.)
The Corruptor was one of those movies and sadly, we'd ended up watching the movie on DVD because it just never showed up in the bigscreens there. So anyway, I remember watching this movie and thought about how insanely deep this movie was. All the stuff about Chinese gangs, crime, the asian-flare of a metropolis society and how everyone seems not to care-- plus it has Mark Wahlberg who's one of my most favorite hollywood actors. More importantly, it also houses CHOW YUN FAT!!! Not only does it have a favorite actor of mine but has an amazing chinese kung fu actor! Performances from both these actors really stock you in for the vicious ride and twists this movie has for a plot and the action that befits it isn't over the top since the setting is basically China Town.
In a way I wanna say this is like Law & Order meets Shaft, but that's a disheartening comparison except to say that it has the crime story scene with the heart-pounding action of the latter but intensified ten fold. The cinematography is astounding, the characters, protagonist and antagonists, all are a great bunch to watch intermingle with and against one another and it's a really good movie worth the watch; the least to say, own.
Really, if you dig cop movies, this is your hit.
If you dig drama, this movie's your bag.
If you dig action, this movie's your well-given shot.
Seriously top notch stuff and glad I came across it years ago. The fond memory of it being the thing that pulled me back to watch and own it now."