Not often do you find a film this focused on the lead character's development and psyche that the plot itself no longer seems important. Duan Yihong acting and the overall tone of the film are the true highlights, and the film is full of brilliant motifs. As the film progresses, you simply feel that the mystery itself becomes less and less important, rather the movie is driven by the questioning of the lead's motives. But is it possible that everything is just a hallucination in his mind? And the question posed at the very end, did he ever win the award?
Add a Review
-
jackson_ro24 September 2018
-
minjaandjelkovic3 January 2019It's a pleasent surprise that all movie fans need to see. Besides murders being in the center of the story-telling, It's actually a multi-layered social drama, exploring many subjects, an unconventional love, depression, living in a provincial place where life almost equals death, etc.
-
MovieIQTest14 January 2019I have to say this movie has inevitably reminded me of many movies and TV series: Insomnia (2002), Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise (2015), True Detective (2014), Fargo 2014), and some great Scandinavian TV series, such as The Bridge, The Killing, Wallander, Border Town...ect., etc. The noir atmosphere are pretty similar and strong. I'm amazed to see that a Chinese movie could be on par with those that I've mentioned above.
This film was well made with great directing, great cast, great camera technique, great subtle scores. The leading male actor is one of the A-list actors, a brand name ensuring better or even the best films if he was in it. The leading female actor is also very very good with profound, unpretentious, natural acting talent. This was a tough acting performance for the leading actor since he got to do a lot of actions in the endless downpour rain, not an easy money to earn for such tough acting.
This is a film with very dreary, suffocating, gray, downcast, depressing atmosphere. Nobody was happy in this film, a struggling generation in China. It's a romance going nowhere and ended up so cruel, with serial killings as the background at a blue-collar steel manufacturing factory in a 3rd or even 4th class of a city in China. The rain seemed to nonstop like what we experienced in Portland or Seattle, but in a city in China, it just looked so throwback hopeless and frustrating, most of the residents there just like what those young people in those harsh, poor and boring towns or small cities in the mid north or south of United States, dreaming to get out of, either going to the west coast or to New York; here in that miserable factory town, people were dreaming moving to Hong Kong or elsewhere. When the factory finally and suddenly closed, all the basic hopes of the people working or living there died together with the city, exactly like Flint, Detroit, Buffalo....and other cities in America where people and business all depended on those sole factories, once they closed or moved away, everything died.
The serial killings might seem to be the main plot but it's what the guy who depended on it to keep investigate, felt alive and hopeful. When the real serial killer was dead, the killings actually stopped, but that guy didn't know so he still pursuit it with his own interpretation. He forgot to grasp the love at hand, only focused on a big-case to be solved by him and him alone. His self-indulgent blindness cost him a lot to lose and without anything to gain in the end. A small potato among the 1.4 billions.... -
deloudelouvain27 February 2019Visually The Looming Tower looked all okay, with a dark rainy ambiance throughout the whole movie, but the story has plot holes and could have been much better. My Mandarin is useless but I'm pretty sure my translated subtitles came from Google Translate, in other words they made no sense. So that also contributed to the fact that I could not fully enjoy the movie without worrying what they were talking about. The acting wasn't bad either, but some actions scenes should have been better. Overall it's not my cup of tea.
-
niall-leonard-19508 October 2018This is not a standard thriller/detective story, even though the pursuit of a serial killer is a major plot element.
The action takes place in the mid-1990s, at a time of economic change and modernisation. The main character is a factory security chief, whose job is prevention of theft by the workers; he has one young assistant. When a dead body is found near the factory, the main character tries to help the police, but is seen by them as a "wannabe".
The development of the plot follows his pursuit of the killer, and shows how far he is prepared to go to succeed, at significant cost to others and to himself.
Any more information would amount to a spoiler; but think of a mixture of Element of Crime (but the detective is not the killer), Taxi Driver (without guns), and Leviathan (without overt political criticism). Unique. Beautifully acted and photographed.
To understand the film, it would probably help to know something about recent Chinese history. No, it does not go quickly, but it really stays with you after you have seen it. -
annacolinber15 August 2018One of the most incredible movies I've ever seen. Actors are absolutely amazing. It is a drama, more than a thriller. It is poetic and very sad at the same time. Beautiful.
-
guilherme_silva_199223 April 2022Amazing performances by all of the actors.
An engaging story that keeps delivering till the end.
More than a thriller, this is an amazing movie about the human psyche.
I guess some people were expecting some action movie? It is a slow movie that requires patience, so I guess lower rating derive from that. -
TheBigSick24 December 2017Typically a crime thriller should be pretty gripping and enthralling. However, "The Looming Storm" is not the case. It is so boring that you keep thinking when it could end. The pace is slow and there is very little dialogue. Absolutely avoid watching it.
-
mmwobupanidawo3 May 2019This movie is just a masterpiece This movie is just a masterpiece This movie is just a masterpiece This movie is just a masterpiece This movie is just a masterpiece This movie is just a masterpiece This movie is just a masterpiece This movie is just a masterpiece This movie is just a masterpiece This movie is just a masterpiece