User reviews

You know I'm a man and I like cars. There's nothing to be ashamed of there. I also liked The Fast and the Furious, it had some fun in there but it also had big, fast, shiny cars, and one like mine too. So when I heard that there was this movie (Initial D) about drift racing popular with Japanese teenagers and it had been adapted from the Manga story, I was interested, and courtesy of Moviesville, I got to see it.

Movie The movie itself is good, it's quite comic in places which could be traced back to its Manga origins, and unfortunately this takes away from the story because it does present itself as having a serious underside.

Something that surprised me about this movie is there isn't that much racing. For a film that is supposed to be about drift racing, there's not that much that goes on. However, the four or so races that do occur are superbly filmed and driven. Mixing unusual camera angles, some CGI, and smooth stunt driving, you end up with every race scene being exciting and visually rich.

The pace of the movie is quite back and forth. It's this feeling that there should be more racing, and yet we're taken through scenes that range from comic to romance. It's understandable considering the group that the movie is aiming towards, but you can't help but feel a little bit of growing up could have been applied to the story.

The romance thread is interesting, and brings a dimension to the character of Takumi. Not only does he awaken his racing spirit, but also other feelings as a teenager. However some of the scenes are a little long and can feel like they jar you out of the story. It's a shame because again, this movie is about racing. Ultimately though it's a good plot device and comes to a satisfying ending, comparable with his Fathers life and choices.

Some characters are not full explained, and although that can sometimes be a good thing, here it makes them feel as though they are only brought in as a distraction. The character of Takumi's friend is straight out of a comic, and nothing much appears to have been done to bring him into the world of the movie. Perhaps this was a deliberate move in order to retain the connection with the story's roots, but he just seems to get in the way of events.

Jay Chou playing the lead of Takumi, don't have that much to say, and although this reflects a troubled teenager, it does quickly get grating and you can understand why his Father wants to kick him into action!

Picture Presented: 2.35:1 The picture is very sharp and clear, this is particularly noticeable during the racing scenes which mainly occur at night. The CGI is seamed in very well and the picture remains strong even when the camera is locked to a crane sticking out from a speeding car! It looks like a lot of work has gone into making this DVD look good.

Audio Presented: DD5.1:EX \ DTS:ES During the racing the sounds are really good, you can hear the engines changing gears and over revving, and when the camera is near the car the LFE kicks in well. Good use is made of the DTS track during these races, and you feel immersed in the action.

Outside of the racing little is made of the DTS, but then the story doesn't really dictate it at these points. Use of the DTS would have felt forced and unnatural.

Extras Presented: Behind the Scenes, Character Bios, Making of Featurette, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, TV Spot, Promotion in Shanghai, Promotion in Japan, Photo Gallery, Cast and Credits Unfortunately there were no English subtitle options with any of these extras, but I still watched them all! Mainly to see some behind the scenes of the racing moments, and to see more of the cars in action. They are there, you just have to watch rather than listen...unless of course you can speak Chinese.

Overall It's an okay movie, but where it excels are in the racing scenes, superb drift racing which has been filmed really well using some interesting techniques, camera angles and a little CGI. This makes for very impressive viewing and when combined with the powerful audio track it pulls you right into the race seat. Yet the rest of the story seems a little bit weak and could have done with more character development and less reference to its Manga roots. If you like cars and you like street racing, you'll enjoy this movie.

Overall, I'll have to say right off the bat that as a fan of the original anime I found it somewhat amusing.

There are a few things that the movie does right. The camera angles and the overall feel of the movie was spot-on to the original source material. A particular highlight was the "zoom-in-on-the-eyes" of the loser in one particular race. This was exactly like the anime, and was a great touch.

People might slam Jay Chou, but I thought he did a good job in this. It's rather hard to screw up a character who is generally bored and half-asleep (as he is portrayed in the anime).

There are a lot of small changes here and there, such as Bunta being a drunkard for comedy relief, and the complete lack of Keisuke (his character was combined with Nakazato). Or the fact that the anime Nakazato drove the 4WD GT-R model of Skyline, and did not drift. I won't touch on these in detail, as they didn't really bother me that much.

However, the biggest element lacking in this is the music! Inital D fans know that Initial D is known for it's high energy dance-style J-pop music. Considering there are at least 10 Initial D soundtrack CD's out in Japan, I can't believe they didn't realize how popular the music is.

The music in the film is best described as "Chinese rap/R&B" I guess, which really hurt the feel of the movie in my opinion.

As synonymous the anime is with the music, I can't help but think what it would be without it. We'd be left with scenes of car racing with cheesy dialog, intertwined with brief romance scenes. Which now that I think of it, pretty much sums up this film.

If they were to make an Initial D anime series with music similar to this movie's soundtrack, I wonder if I would like it as much.

I just might feel the same way about it as I do this movie, in that it's a nice reminiscent film somewhat faithful to the original, but nothing to get really excited about.

If you're not a fan of Inital D or of import racing, there's not much for you here.

Takumi and Matsuki take a selfie at the beach with a disposable camera. This predates the selfie that Paris Hilton claims she invented along with Britney Spears in 2006 by 1 year.

Based on a long running comic series by Shuuichi Shigeno, this all star cast Hong Kong movie puts on screen what's on the comic's volume 1-15 ( Part until Takumi joins Project D ).

Takumi Fujiwara (Jay Chou) is a high school student who lives with his single father running a tofu shop. Inbetween his tofu deliveries, he frequents Mt. Akina that has winding roads to improve his driving skills. He gets involved with the street racers that frequents the area, and a battle ensues to prove who's the fastest one on the road. Takumi with his outstanding driving skills, bests other racers with better performing cars. Amongst the people who shows up was Ryosuke Takahashi (Edison Chen). Ryosuke takes notice of Takumi's talent, and takes interest in him. Takumi's girlfriend Natsuki (Ann Suzuki) is chummy with Takumi, but she also has other things going on with older men. Takumi goes head to head with Keiichi Sudo (Jordan Chan) to prove who's the fastest man on the road.

The same staff from Medea Asia that's created the "Infernal Affair" series made this movie. The movie was shot on location in Japan around Yahikoiwamuro highway in Niigata Prefecture, and Shibukawa city in Gunma prefecture. The production quality is high despite the difficulty of bringing the location to Japan. Mt. Akina is a fictitious mountain that's modeled after Mt. Haruna in Gunma prefecture.

One of the center piece of the action is the Sprinter Trueno AE86 that Takumi drives. Despite its diminutive size, it succeeds in out performing cars that are designed for racing performances. Trueno is is a sister model of Corolla Levin, and shares the same frame, and the engine. It's a performance version of the standard Sprinter model with a twin cam 4A-GEU engine. In the '80s Japan, 4A-GEU souped up to 450 horse power was sold by custom shops. Used on AE86 that weighs less than a ton, the combination made the car into a deadly rocket that can go head to head with lesser powered cars like the GT-R. So a car to car battle like the one seen in this movie was entirely "Possible". The original comic states that the story is occurring sometime in the '90s time frame, and the cars appearing in this movie also reflects this fact.

I wonder if China these days are following the Hollywood style casting that casts compatible astrological sun sign actors in the leading role. This method seems to ensure good chemistry between male and the female lead. In this movie, three earth sign actors plays the lead (Ann Suzuki - Taurus, Anthony Wong - Virgo, and Jay Chou - Capricorn).

The movie has a world of its own that's completely different from the TV anime series, and in some ways more exciting due to the interaction between the stars, and the actual driving that takes place on the road. It's an excellently made movie that combines best of what Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan has to offer. I only wish that Edison Chen would return to Hong Kong cinema. He was very good in this movie.

A very enjoyable movie that takes you into the world of street racing culture of Japan.

That's about it. The race scenes were shot pretty decently. They grip the viewers at the edge of their seat. The songs by Jay Chow are pretty good. The movie is funny. It was set and filmed in Japan, yet all the dialogue were in Cantonese. What else is there to say?

Jay Chow was pretty good for his first starring role. He gave a believable performance. Anthony Wong is his same reliable self and Chapman To again provides comic relieve (seems like he is typecast now).

The movie did not follow its inspiration, the manga. Even though Jay Chow's character is low-key and mild-mannered already, in the manga the character is even more mild-mannered and even less intense. In the manga, the dad seemed to be more responsible and nicer. That does not matter though, because the races are entertaining enough. That is one of two reason why people pack the theaters to see it. The other reason? Jay Chow. Do not underestimate his draw power. This guy is an idol in Asia. Whatever he do is gold.

This film is made for entertainment purposes. No depth. No plot. Just watch it and have a good time.

7/10, because it is entertaining. Take that out, a 4.

Just to set the expectations from this review, I have not read the Initial D manga, nor watched any of the anime. Therefore this review's point of view will be from the cinematic experience, and there will be no comparison on how true it stays to the manga/anime.

Despite all the star power in the film, from teeny boppers Edison Chen and Shawn Yue, to veterans Kenny Bee and Anthony Wong, this still remains a Jay Chou vehicle (pardon the pun). Jay stars as a petrol pump attendant who by day works at a petrol kiosk, and in the wee hours of the night, helps his tofu selling dad deliver tofu in an old Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno using a route that traverses along a winding Mount Akina.

Naturally, with his 5 years experience, he intimately knows the terrain, and gets faster each time, until a group of street racers set their sights to conquer the route.

There will definitely be comparisons with Hollywood's The Fast and The Furious series, starring Vin Diesel/Paul Walker. The similarities are there - the fast cars, the beautiful racer babes, the rivalry between arrogant drivers. You even get the same cinematography technique used that starts from the driver's POV, pulling back to the dashboard, the rear seat, the boot, and the car from a "helicopter" view.

But what sets this film apart is the way it is delivered. Being based on a comic book offers some depth to the storyline, and it helped by staying true to the setting, being based in Japan and not HK. The races in itself might seem repetitive, as the highlight seemed to be focused on its title - the "drift" technique, being used ad-nausem, but having different drivers challenge each other on the one and only route breaks the monotony as you root for your favourite to come out tops.

Given this is Jay Chou's debut movie role, it is difficult to critique if his acting skills are up to mark, as his lead character Takumi Fujiwara is a nonchalant man of few words. Which is very much like his persona. His co-stars Edison Chen and Shawn Yue could very well be their own persons as well. Chapman To, as usual, brings across the rather light hearted moments, and Anthony Wong as Chou's dad, a veteran race ace who finds solace in the bottle and having a penchant for dozing off.

Perhaps the only flaw about the movie was the sappy romance between Jay and his Japanese co-star. Not that she isn't gorgeous (which is a saving grace), but their scenes together doesn't further the plot much, and slows down the pace somewhat of this movie about the need for speed.

This is an enjoyable flick, one in which I waited for the theme song / tune to be featured (only at the end credits!). But no, I don't think I will be converted to a Jay Chou fan boy anytime soon.

I suspect that in the upcoming weeks, we probably might see parallel imports / makes of the Trueno on our shores to satisfy the racer boy wannabes (heard Singapore only has 2?), although it probably can't run as fast as in the movies (movie magic lah). And yeah, the driving with one hand on the wheel and the other on the face, with the contemplating look.

I haven't read any Initial D manga, and frankly, hadn't heard of it until a friend asked to watch this movie, thus cannot comment on the accuracy of the story.

But after watching the movie for the 10th time, I can freely say the movie is a must-see for car lovers, and goes beyond Hollywood fake races, which makes speed and fancy cars seem more important than the driver's ability. The actors did a great job, too, specially Bunta Fujiwara (Takumi's father), who plays hilarious scenes.

Not to mention the Soundtrack, which is great add to the competition scenes.

This film, based on a Manga, is centred on Takumi Fujiwara and eighteen year old who delivers tofu for his father, a drunken ex-racer. This involves driving along the roads on Mount Akina that are popular with street racers. He has been driving the route since he was thirteen and can drive as fast as the racers. He also works at a local garage, which is owned by the father of his friend Itsuki. Itsuki aspires to be a racer but doesn't have Takumi's natural abilities. As the racers see Takumi's skills they naturally want to race him. Away from the cars Takumi is smitten with Natsuki, a girl in his class.

I must admit that I haven't read the manga or watched the anime version so viewed this film as a stand-alone work. The story is relatively simple but none the worse for that; it delivers where it counts and that is the thrilling races down a winding mountain road. These are filmed in a way that makes them feel real and thus exciting. As well as excitement there are plenty of laughs; mostly provided by Itsuki. Not too much of a problem but in many ways this feels like an origins story as we learn how Takumi is drawn into the world of racing; when it was over it felt like there was more to come. The subplot involving Natsuki was a bit of a distraction but not too much of one. I rather liked the fact that there was no obvious antagonist beyond a racer who is a bit rude to Takumi and Itsuki. The cast does a solid job making their characters believable and fun to watch; it was easy to forget that they were mostly Chinese actors playing Japanese... of course not speaking either language may have helped there! Overall well worth a watch if you enjoy exciting car based action set in an impressive location.

These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles and the original music soundtrack.

Of course I had to watch this movie since I was a big Initial D fan. I had high hopes when watching the opening scene where Jay Chou's character is effortlessly gliding down the mountain pass in his Trueno. That was the best part of the movie unfortunately.

Let's talk about the good first. The car scenes are pretty fun to watch sometimes. In many of the scenes they'll hug a turn on the inside and let the rear slide out and overtake the opponent. It's pretty fun to watch and you just have to wonder who the stunt men are or if they brought in Japanese drift legend, Tsuchiya on to the set for some of these shots.

Unfortunately that's the only thing that is good about this movie. Let's talk about the bad now. The characters are two dimensional. If you are a fan of the anime you will not find your beloved characters here. Jay Chou does a pretty bad job as the protagonist. I feel like he's always mumbling out his lines or is just wondering why he isn't doing the music video yet. Also, let's talk about his friends. They're morons. His best friend Itsuki is more of a raving idiot than his anime counterpart would ever hope to be. In the anime, this character talks about trying to get better and having Takumi as his inspiration. In the movie, this character talks about how he's a racing god and when he loses and wrecks he asks his poor father to buy him an even faster car (GTR) so that he can rematch and wreck that one too. Takumi's father is also a drunk and a bum. Also he is abusive. He beats his son and Jay Chou has scars on his back from all the beatings. I don't know what they were thinking by making him an abusive drunkard since obviously from the original material he was never one. Obviously, you can tell from what I'm writing here that the director probably never watched an episode of Initial D in his life.

I find the camera work to be also crappy and low budget. There are lots of scenes where they freeze the frame and you are left thinking "did something happen to my DVD player?" Nope. That's their creative take on racing. To freeze the scene even when it's a person's face talking. Then there's the music. Nothing in the movie was good except for Jay Chou's song. The racing scenes have music that sounds like a background track for a rap battle without the rapping. If you're a fan of the anime don't expect to hear your favorite eurobeat tracks or Move songs.

Overall I was bored, only paid attention during the races and got utterly perplexed by the ridiculous ending sequence where the people are celebrating. The other team and even his abusive father who has his arms around two young girls start cheering. Also I'd like to point out that not only is a 3 car race unfair, I've never seen a race with 3 cars in Initial D or any mountain race scene in any movie!

Next time try not to squeeze so much crap in.

Anyone desiring some simple entertainment centered on street car racing will not be disappointed by the very nimble camera work on the racing scenes in this film.

Unfortunately, it's a tough film to recommend to anyone. Many would agree that the sexual themes are not for adolescents, while the drama and slapstick comedy are so lame that adults watching it on video are likely to fast-forward to view only the racing scenes.

In addition, and most importantly, anyone who has any sensitivity to bigotry must be turned off by the very obvious Japan bashing by the writers. Aside from failing to depict any trace of virtue among the characters, these Chinese film makers have used their artistic license to depict the protagonist's father as almost constantly falling-down drunk, and his beautiful girlfriend as an insulting representation of Japanese womanhood. I'm not even Japanese, but this aspect of the film should be offensive to any intelligent viewer.

The bad: [1] There was no story line. (Or at least the story line went absolutely no where.) [2] The racing scenes were very repetitive, they kept showing the same moves over and over again. This is not very good by today's standard. I expected more, given that this was a relatively high-budget production with some of the biggest name HK actors. [3] Horrible acting from Jay and Edison. There was no chemistry whatsoever between them. I presume from the storyline they are suppose to become friends or develop some kind of camaraderie through racing. Nothing like that happened.

The good: [1] Anne Suzuki in short shorts. She's younger than a lot of those cars, by the way. [2] I loved watching Jay getting the crap kicked out of him by Wang Chou Sang. That's gotta be the best part of the entire movie. [3] The racing scenes were not overly done with CGI. It's pretty believable, although not terribly creative. [4] This movie sure brings back fond memories of when those cars were considered cool, which was quite a while back.

Overall, not too bad. Wasn't a complete waste of time. I got some entertaining values out of it. Just in case you were wondering, the AE86 is known in the US as -- the Corolla. :D

First of all it is not a ripoff so that's great. Secondly acting is great. I have watched all initial D stages and most of the movie was connected to story. So if you are car fan you should watch this movie and anime too.

An average film with actors who can't cry in an at all convincing way. And it went on forever for no reason at all, but the ending was good.

This movie is a live-action adaptation of a manga/anime series of the same name. The story is abridged synthesis of the first two seasons of the anime, with details from the fourth(third?) mixed in. Compared to the original work, much of the characters' personalities, relationships and motives have been altered, some in the ways that are hard to agree with, too. Many of the characters have been dropped or diminished. Judging the movie as independent entity, it's not a great deal, but some of the modifications make the story a bit confusing. Casting itself is rather good. Characters have strong resemblance to their drawn counterparts, apart from the main character and her girlfriend. To even things a bit, their characters are best preserved in the screenplay.

What I like in the movie best is it's honesty. The movie does not try to justify the illegal street racing theme with some far-fetched undercover cop/family honor/extortion -subplot, it's only about young men driving fast on downhill. Though the most spectacular stunts are CGI, the races are pleasant to watch, by no means small reason being the relatively calm pace of editing. Drivers' actions while cornering, the toe-heel braking, down shifting and steering, are usually shown in single shot, instead of several split-second extreme closeups. What I also liked was the fact the races are about who was the best driver, not about who has the most outrageous sticker or flashiest accessories on the car.

The movie has been criticized for lack of plot. I don't think it is so. The plot is subdued, not overly dramatized story of a regular kid who learns about downhill racing scene in his home town. The biggest problem with the script is the inclusion of 2nd and 3rd Stage. The plot makes all too abrupt change of direction halfway through the movie because of this. The movie finale is a synthesis of 1st season and rewritten 2nd season finales, it's awkward and not very successful. I can't help thinking the movie could have been better if the writers had made the scope a little less wide and only included the 1st season.

Even so, the movie is rather enjoyable. You don't need to vegetate through the movie to enjoy it, or have a die-hard passion for the subject.

I don't know about all the other reviewers, but I have been an avid follower of this animation since the beginning. To begin with, I d say that this director n everyone involved in the making of this movie has no idea whatsoever about the legacy of original story. Where shall I begin...... any movie you see with an all-star cast means only one thing; publicity without any depth in the film.

While I applause the director's effort of trying to imitate some of the out of this world angles used in the animation, there is nothing in this film which suggests it has been properly written or related to the original drawings of the manga writer himself.

An all star Hong Kong cast (except Anne Suzuki) + venue in Japan + actors and actresses speaking in 3 different languages (which eventually was dubbed) is weird enough and to spice up the ridiculous plot, the Hongkies made Takumi's father a drunk and a child abuser. Totally revolting and disgrace how they bought the rights and twisted the whole plot into a circus act.

Takumi (played by Jay Chow) plays the easiest act, showing his emotionless corpse now and then in the film. Only positive thing about him is that he bears some resemblance to the Takumi in the Japanese animation. Ryousuke Takahashi played by Edison Chen lacks the vibe and aura which makes him stand out as a great leader as well as driver. All he had with him is a bunch of mechanics, a van and a laptop. Finally, the biggest mistake was the Itsuki Tachibana character, played by Chapman To which is obnoxious and shallow. The problem in this film is that the moron who casted all these people i this film felt it was alright for them to act out what they have been doing in all other movies. So before you watch this movie, close your eyes and imagine all Chapman To's movies and you will know what I am saying. If I hadn't known better, I thought Itsuki Tachibana (Chapman To) was the lead because he was the loudest and the director paid too much time in his character developing which is totally unnecessary.

I felt ashamed knowing I once admired the director and he screwed up such a beautiful and exciting story and the fact that I was a big Initial D fan didn't help. To make matters worse, Itsuki Tachibana was the petrol kiosk owner's son (wtf?!!!!!). I know it is unfair to expect a good storyline in a 2-hour film from a four staged animation / manga which spanned more than 8 years to created, but other films have done it before with great success (i.e ichi the killer, spiderman, lord of the rings).

The only good thing about this film is that the cars are made to resemble the ones in manga and animation, and that s just as much excitement you will get. Car races shows no formula or tactics so there isn't much connection or man-to-car relationship in this one. Just pure luck rather than skill. Kyouichi Sudou (from Emperor team) might look arrogant and over-confident, but his skills are well-timed and counted for and his experiences are matched by only the best drivers. So to see him irrationally trying to overtake 2 cars after being warned that there is an incoming vehicle and then crashing top-sided beggars belief. If you watch the film very carefully, you would realize that all the director is interested in is the fact that takumi won all his races. No time given on how the races build up to the end where usually our hearts would be pounding trying to figure out what Takumi's next super trick would be.

NOTE TO MUSIC PRODUCER: FIND ANOTHER JOB, YOU BOUGHT YOUR DEGREE FROM A COCK-EYED BUTCHER IN KOWLOON. One of the most important elements in Initial D animation is the music. No arguments there. Tracks such as Around the world, Forever Young and No One sleeps in Tokyo still linger in our head long after we watched the animation. Great beats like those kept us glued to the story as well as the action. In this Hong Kong movie, they got a 85-year old man with a chronic herpes beating the drums at the studio while recording. So throughout this film, you will hear a same dull beat. Makes you think that the beats are just placed there as a requirement rather than a catalyst to the car races.

Finally, would I recommend anyone to watch this film? Let s just put it this way: I would rather have a hot iron with the words 'I am Freddy Mercury's Bitch' up my ass than to go through this crap again.

Takumi is a high schooler who often delivers his fathers tofu late at night. His late night trips have made him adept at the winding down hill run of Mt. Akina, which is a course used by the street racers of the area as the ultimate test of skill. When an unintentional race brings him to the notice of the racers, his life changes as he has to field numerous offers to actually see who is the best driver.

Based on a Japanese comic and cartoon, Initial D is a live action Chinese film thats broken box office records across Asia. Despite being a huge animation fan I've never seen the animation nor have a I read the comic. I'm not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing, but seeing how many fans of the source material are unhappy with the film I would say its a good thing.

Flat out I liked this movie. It did take a while to warm up to, but once I began to take it for what it is I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Is it a great film? In someways yes and in others no. As I said this takes a bit to get going. The lead is a bit too closed mouth for my taste, barely uttering a word for the entire two hours. Its a bit too teen angsty. Still you have great characters and great performances by pretty much everyone in the cast (even if everyone was speaking three or four different languages when this was filmed.

The racing is excellent. Its mostly seems to have been done with out CGI enhancement. I like that there are no horrific crashes, police chases or other clichéd events that are so rampant in American movies. And while I was initially apprehensive by the fact the racing is always on the same stretch of road, I warmed to the idea since by doing that we really got to see who was best. (If you want American style racing in many different environments stay away)

Definitely worth a look see, especially if you want to see a race film that is not like all of the rest. 7.5 out of 10 rounded up to 8 out of 10 for IMDb purposes.

Well, music is terrible and I feel like there's no need to discuss this.

Regarding the rest, I've watched all stages of anime countless times, comparing movie to it... it's clear that they were low on budget (lack of characters from the original anime, racing only on one mountain, certain races being changed from how they were in original... but then again, there's only so much you can do in real life compared to what you can do in anime...

Overall, if you put all the anime/manga backstory aside, movie is enjoyable and it's fairly fine (excluding the music), but this movie is no match to the anime in any way.

I feel I must apologize on behalf of all Hong Kong folk for this film. It wasn't made for the international audience. In fact, it doesn't even appear to have been made for fans of the manga/anime 'Initial D'. It was almost certainly made exclusively for the Chinese market, because frankly, I don't see how it might have any appeal anywhere else.

There are some good examples of great stories from other countries which when remade under the Hollywood banner, stink. This film would be an example of a great story being remade under a Hong Kong banner. Hongkong-ized, if you will. And it stinks too. The tragedy is that the two directors once upon a time made a fantastic trilogy called Infernal Affairs, which won international acclaim, and is ironically about to be Hollywoodized by Martin Scorcese.

So how is it that two very talented directors who already have a good track record can turn out such a piece of excrement? Well, because it was made for the all-style-no-substance appetite of the Hong Kong movie going public, who basically just want to see an extended music video starring their favorite popstars.

And so on behalf of Hong Kongers everywhere, sorry! We're not all like this.