The Setting Sun (1992) User Reviews (3)

If you are a Diane Lane fan and you feel you must have this film think again

[med_1978 · 4/10 · 21 October 2008]

Since No-one has bothered to post a review of this film, although 29 people have voted. I thought I would be the first to leave a comment. First off I have to say I am a big admirer of Diane Lane and her work. I had read no reviews of this movie and just new what was printed on the back cover. I had an rough idea from IMDb of the plot and the movie sounded interesting, the fact it was foreign made actually appealed also and of course Diane Lane in one of the main roles with Donald Sutherland also in the film made it a must for me.

I watched the 119 minute US released version twice over, and I have to say both times the movie felt like it was over 3 hours long. This film was truly an ordeal to sit through.

The acting was not too bad from the Oriental actors, but the Donald Sutherland and Diane Lane Characters seemed really out of place. Diane Lane's line delivery at times was awful and she seemed totally miscast anyhow. She was playing a character called Lian Hong but did not look remotely Chinese/Japanese. Donald Sutherland, who was hardly in the film at all had an English accent and his part seemed completely unnecessary and just an excuse to put a big name actor in the production.

The direction was poor (not surprising as the Director was actually the writer and had never directed a film before or since) and very misguided. At times there is so much going on you cannot keep up with who is doing what to whom. Then there are the scenes where the Director just seemed to want to fill in time and the same scene of Wild horses running over open land makes an appearance at least three times and also scenes of the great wall of China and various Chinese Statues. These scenes have no purpose within the story and seem to be there just to enhance running time.

The lighting in some of the night time sequences is sometimes so bad you cannot make out anything at all. There are also some nude scenes (unfortunately none featuring Miss Lane)which did not seem necessary either. This film should have done much more with the worthy material but sadly fails miserably and ends up as a misguided mess.

All this and the film cost $23.7 million, where did all of this budget go ? It does not really show up on-screen as the film seems very cheap at times.

If you are a die-hard Diane Lane fan I guess you must see it, but be warned do not spend too many hard earned dollars as you will be disappointed.

Try watching it without the English subtitles and on laserdisc

[jordondave-28085 · 3/10 · 12 June 2023]

(1992) The Setting Sun (In Chinese with "no" English subtitles) WAR/ HISTORICAL

There's nothing more worse than to watch a Chinese historical war movie and the viewer is unable to understand it because the English subtitles I watched on the one I am seeing is unavailable. Anyways, this is the 'Laserdisc' version I'm reviewing, starring well known Hong Kong actor of many martial art movies by the name of Yuen Baio (Dragons Forever, Wheels On Meals, Iceman Cometh to name a few) after some Japanese spies during WWII with it's goal was to finance the Japanese cause- at least that's what RT says. This movie also stars Hollywood actress Diane Lane which I honestly didn't know, that the only Caucasian actress in the film was her until I saw her name and picture on the poster submitted by RT including providing a proper synopsis. Because I only want to base this movie solely on 'action', I have to say theirs not very much of it showing only artistic landscapes and photography (which Chinese films do well and often so much all the time) leaving with just the story adding up to a whole lot of nothing. A supposedly true account about the confliction between the Chinese and Japanese during WWII, but perhaps if this version had some English subtitles on the bottom the rating may have been higher but as it stand now I only give it like only three stars.

Good history movie

[mcbn-76-521658 · 10/10 · 9 June 2011]

I have seen the movie for over more then 10 times and every time I discover new facts. The acting is very good, place it in time of history it is quite normal there was a mix of people (Russian, Englisch, Japanese etc..) living in that time in China in that area. Diane Lane does a good job! It is a mix of history and martial art here and there. About the nude thing it was very surprising to see that the assistant Yin of the mafia boss (Yuen Biao) was a girl. I like that scene and that girl is very very beautiful. Why we never saw her again? Strange.. For the rest the movie looks like a photo. Beautiful. It is also very nice to see the locations how everything was built. As I understand a lot of the scenes were made in Japan but yet you don't get the feeling that it is in Japan. The cast is very heavy with a lot of good actors.