Jiang Kaiyang’s The Blizzard follows Song Chao (Nie Yuan) and Liu Haiyang (Tan Kai), best friends turned enemies: after being kicked out of the police academy where they were both being trained in Harbin, Song murdered Liu’s father for mysterious reasons, and Liu – now a police detective – has had only revenge on his mind ever since. One day, Song reappears, lured out of hiding to rescue a friend who was kidnapped by a local mobster; Liu is ready to bring him to justice, but he doesn’t realize that the murder of his father is part of a deep conspiracy, and Song may not be the real culprit… Add a thick layer of snow to it, and a solid yet unremarkable thriller can take on an atmospheric, unforgiving edge. Such is the case with The Blizzard, which starts promisingly enough with several intriguing plot strands, but then fails to combine them in a compelling way, with plot turns either thuddingly predictable, or simply ludicrous, and a surfeit of thinly-written characters that enter the story without proper introductions and exit it as loose ends (which works for ‘slice of life’ drama but not for action thrillers). Yet thanks to the aforementioned snow draping stark Harbin cityscapes and classily captured by Korean cinematographer Kim Gitae (2012’s Confession of Murder), strong performances by Nie Yuan (impressively intense) and Tan Kai (engagingly rugged), and a few raw, Korean-style brawls choreographed by Kim Shin Woong (2015’s The Throne), The Blizzard remains an efficient little thriller. **1/2
All posts tagged tan kai
THE BLIZZARD (2018) short review
Posted in Film Reviews
Posted by LP Hugo on September 25, 2018
https://asianfilmstrike.com/2018/09/25/the-blizzard-2018-short-review/
- Follow Asian Film Strike on WordPress.com
Asian Film Strike on Twitter
- First teaser for Simon West & Li Yi Fan's THE LEGEND HUNTERS, another adaptation of the Mojin book series, starring… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 13 hours ago
- New posters & trailer for Benny Chan's action swansong RAGING FIRE, starring Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Qin Lan, Ray… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 13 hours ago
- New banner for Vincent Zhao's directing debut, the military action film COUNTER ATTACK, also with Jiang Yiyi & Lu P… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 5 days ago
- RT @chinaenews: Li Bingbing poses for photo shoot chinaentertainmentnews.com/2021/01/li-bin… https://t.co/YqlkBQ9rew 6 days ago
- First trailer & new posters for Dong Wei's martial arts film SOUTHERN SHAOLIN, starring Fan Siu Wong, Xing Xin Xin… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 6 days ago
Top Posts Today
Asian Film Strike on Instagram
Tags
aaron kwok alex fong chung sun andy lau andy on cynthia khan donnie yen eddie peng eric tsang fan siu-wong fantasy francis ng girls with guns horror jackie chan kara hui lam ka tung lam suet louis koo martial arts moon lee remake sammo hung kam bo simon yam song jia tony leung ka-fai wong jing yuen biao yuen wah yukari oshima yu nanRequest a review