Jin shouzhi (The Goldfinger) (2023)

January 2, 2024 9:53 AM

A criminal conspiracy is uncovered when the stock market crashes in Hong Kong.

Starring Tony Leung and Andy Lam years after their famous pairing in Infernal Affairs, this film is based on the Carrian Group scandal in early 80s Hong Kong. Production values are basically aughts HBO. A by-the-numbers piece despite the presence of such talented actors, who never really get a chance to do much to develop their characters beyond broad types. It seems like an interesting underlying story, and I would be interested to see a version of this movie aimed at Westerners that explored the Hong Kong business culture in more detail.

posted by praemunire (1 comment total)

Structurally kind of a mess, but overall I had a fun time with this one. The movie didn't seem to know whether it wanted to be a morality tale against corruption and greed or an Icarian tragedy with a villain protagonist. It seemed to lean into the second more, but the law and justice prevailing over all messaging was very insistent towards the end.

The costuming and set designs are a lot of the draw, and Leung's performance is most of the remainder. Fun to see that era of Hong Kong re-interpreted through a modern perspective.
posted by C^3 at 10:04 PM on January 8