Television director and producer Gao Xixi makes his film directorial debut with 2017's The Game Changer. Singers/actors Peter Ho and Huang Zitao(former member of Kpop band EXO) take on the staring roles for the film. The film is inspired by a television drama called Shanghai Bund that was very successful in 1980. This film is only one of a slew of remakes that the drama has inspired.
Two men work together under a powerful gang where it's leader is in a fight for power over the town district. These men see each other as brothers but one of the men has history in his past. He is on the path of revenge for the deaths of his university military group of friends killed at the hands of the leader of the gang. Things continue to work in his favor when the gang leader's daughter falls in love with him, putting a divide between the two brothers.
The Game Changer could have gone somewhere good in storytelling. Had the film took the time to tell the full story of some of the character's with a solid good scene. The film uses a lot of quick flashback sequences to make the viewer wonder what happened to one of the characters. Which is cool because you spend your viewing experience figuring out what's going on in a good way. Bad part about this decision is that there's never a solid flashback scene that brings all these random flashback scenes together.(The scene used to tie them together was like a short flashback.) You are instead left wanting more expansion on the characters introduced. The Game Changer does go the extra mile to explain how the two characters became brothers but this doesn't help the film overall when you want to know more about solely one character. Nothing can be done except to realize The loop holes in the script. Now you bring in the action scenes, then you pretty much have all that The Game Changer can be. Action is done very darn well by this film. I just couldn't help but think that the action overrode the potential that the storyline could have been. There's some much action that when you get to a scene with speaking lines, the scenes feel forced or rushed to get back to the shooting. Not all scenes were like this but even the good acting that did happen in this film was toned down by the action. Everything about The Game Changer tries too hard to scream that it's a "gangster " film. Massive destruction in the action was what made this film be one step above a mindless Chinese action film. Gosh, you should know how I feel about some of the recent films out of mainland China. I've seen too many films that I had to turn off before the hour mark. I would have liked this film to have focused more on the plot but there was enough of a story progression to keep me watching. Perfect balance like Ying and Yang is key though folks.
Peter Ho was in the zone for his character. The film's best acted scenes involve him and even some of his scenes feel like he was acting on an undeveloped character. Tao wasn't terrible while acting with Peter. Though we all know that he was cast as a money bag filler. Him being in this film alone got this film some good amount of admissions…. mostly women probably. His acting can be a little over the top in some scenes. He might want to learn how to let his emotions come out more natural. Love is one emotion you can't rush when acting. I couldn't get into the same space as Tao's character and his love interest because it felt like he had just met her. In the film, they had known each other awhile however, I didn't feel that as a person watching them. Peter Ho on the other hand had me feeling every bit of his heart while acting with both actresses. Thinking about the film, many qualities of the film were over the top…. The deaths to be exact. Bottomline was that the action takes top priority over much of anything in this film.
I might sound kind of evil or sadistic but liked that the action scenes were bloody. Watching the blood fly from the bodies made the action all the more realistic. Then…. the realism went far out the window. I couldn't help but laugh at the stunt doubles falling off buildings in slow motion. So damn slow that you could see the strings holding them up as they fell. How could the director give that mess the ok? That was as bad as that overused 1930's Shanghai film set.
The Game Changer could be a good watch depending on what your watching it for. It's not the best but i've seen much worse. At lease Chinese cinema is working it's way to having coherent storytelling again. Slowly but surely as I always say.
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