I saw two movies in the past few weeks. One was great and the other not so great. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance was absolutely enthralling, especially during the most disturbing sequences. I loved it from beginning to end and it is a great capper for Chan-wook Park's revenge trilogy. The not so great film I'm talking about is Wilson Yip's overhyped and too serious Sha Po Lang. This film folks is not what it truly aspires to be. People who have seen the film have called the best Hong Kong film in the past decade. The problem is that it is not even as good as the third installment of Infernal Affairs (and that one was the worst of the IA trilogy). The plot is not original at all (as some people have called it), it is completely contrived. The characters have good and bad sides (wow, what originality!) and two of them (Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung) know martial arts!!!!!!! The problem is that we don't know why they know how to fight in this film. Then there's this annoying subplot with Yen and how he made a criminal literally into a retard (complete with video game playing). Why do they always bring retards into arcades in movies? Aside from all these negatives, the fight sequences are extremely well done and the ending is really really dark.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance: A+
Sha Po Lang: C