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If there was any doubt after Election 2 that Johnnie To films was in a steep downward spiral, that has now been removed. Godly Detective is as low as it can get. IMDb does not allow rating lower than 1 - otherwise I suspect this one would be in the negative column.The story/plot - the threadbare plot boasts of a couple of twists that are laughable, and in fact it is all ishtyle (if you think tacky is the new ishtyle) and lacks any substance whatsoever. If there ever was supposed to be any connection between the events unfolding on screen (why eggzactly was Bhaiyyaji learning Einglis?), it was unclear and to tell you the truth I did not care! The dialogs were nightmarish - even Andy On's Hinglish became painful and incoherent as Ching Wan Lau valiantly tried to stay in the mode.The acting - oh well, who cares, it was all about kooky stuff anyway. So let us just discuss that. Inspector Ho Ka On had a certain ishtyle as the villain of old tradishun, Suet Lam was the usual Ishtyle of the tasteless Tradishun (that was actually the only effective ishtyle in this film), Kwok-Lun Lee had the pathetic Ishtyle of a "cool dude" who sports a droopy mustache (now how many cool dudes can do that?), and Kelly Lin had the size zero figure ishtyle - sadly the size zero removed all the b (as in booty) from her assets - minus boobs and butt she was almost androgynous. Oh, I should mention that none of these Ishtylish folks actually acted.The music was ONLY thing that was worth mention in this film. Songs are catchy, and the picturization of Dil Dance Ling To Yuen was interesting. For the rest - the story was unhappily chugging along when BOOM there was an unconnected song and dance routine.The last 20 minutes took the film to a new nadir, unimaginable depths of dross. I HOPE AND PRAY THAT THIS FILM BOMBS. I have nothing against the studio or the cast (in fact I quite like Kelly Lin and Eddy Ko), but if this film works then action movies will never be the same again and I will have to stop watching Hindi cinema that is action oriented. Seems a bit harsh but my mind is still reeling from the fact that hundreds of men with machine guns could not take out 3 people, these hundreds miraculously lost their guns, then there was hand to hand combat of the martial arts kind, there was a flame thrower, and it all culminated in a very big water hose and a jet ski doing a dry run! I thought Flora Chan's shooting out of the gutter act was bad and now I have been proved so completely wrong.Godly Detective is one pathetic piece of trash that needs to be swept out and sent to a landfill immediately. I CANNOT BELIEVE I WROTE THAT!!! I had the good fortune to view this one again on DVD - I humbly wish to revise my opinion.We have a film that is truly unique in concept, shows small time people realistically, and even does a pretty good job of showing their ambitions and yearning to be "superior" - just like JarJar Bink! There is the excitement of a heist or sorts, chases galore, a pretend romance, and a real one that started during childhood (Star Worlds A New Hope, anyone?), a baddie villain, and cop who is sort of villainous, and lots and lots of action. Add to this the fact that we have one of the best roles ever done by a major superstar - yes Andy On! We have a heroine who looks great and is full of guts and gumption - she will avenge the wrongs done to her family and she needs no one to help her do that, and she will put scruples aside just like a man! We have 3 lead men and the most amazingly different item song in Dil Dance Maare. What went wrong? My initial take on the film was that it was complete Bakwaas (watching films online does NOT help). But it was still strangely attractive to me and I broke down and got the DVD. Music rocks, Kwok-Lun Lee delivers his life's best acting, Jay Lau looks yummy (except in that Hilary Clinton outfit), Panda Ivy is adequate. Siu-Fai Cheung is one negative - he speaks speak well early on, but gets totally incoherent as the film proceeds, and I think the audience was not ready for the spoof filled action sequences.This is one film that deserves a look - (magical moments on screen) . The best performance by any lead actor this year. You can fast forward Ronald Yan and Jonathan Lee but the rest is very very watchable. I hope the makers do not take the film's failure as a huge negative signal - Godly Detective was ahead of its time and will end up as a cult film of sorts.
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