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Simply Perfect

Good movie but grossly overrated

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I will introduce the film Tian xia wu zei(A World Without Thieves) which was directed by Feng xiao gang in 2004. This story is simple but fun. It tells the couple of thieves Wang li and Wang bo protect the innocent young man who comes from countryside from being stolen by Li shu and his team. No one in the world could believe there are no thieves in the world. However, Feng xiao gang decided to tell people the truth by an interesting way. This film has a very clear structure which is about Sha gen's 60000 yuan. At the first, Wang bo wanted to steal Sha gen's money but Wang li found she was pregnancy and would not like to do the crime. However, another team which was leaded by Li shu focused on Sha gen's money and Li shu also wanted to show his ability to Wang bo by this action. In the end, Wang bo died but he protected his wife and Sha gen's 60000 yuan. Actually, money is not the only thing that Wang bo and Wang protected. What they would like to keep is the quality of kindness and confidence between people. One scene in this film gave me a deep impression that Sha gen shout in the train station "Who is thieves? Can you stand out?" then he said" there is no thieves in the world because no one can stand out." This is a really interesting detail and I think many people will laugh at Sha gen because it is impossible for a thief to prove he or she is a thief and has done a lot of crimes. However, from that, we can see Sha gen is a very kind man he believes all of people in China are helpful and innocent. He also trusts there is a confidence between different people even they do not know each other. He also said to Wang bo and Wang li "it is impossible for people are worse than wolves." The director takes Sha gen as an example to show some people in the countryside in China are pure and kind in that age. These people believe that they can have the happiness by their efforts and everyone in the world will give you a hand when you are in trouble. However, in the real world, people just call it is utopianism. In my opinion, the goal of director is not to destroy the crimes and create the ideal society; he wants to show kindness by Sha gen and makes audience find the confidence between people. This is also what director would like to protect in China. The couple of thieves about Wang bo and Wang li also gives me a deep impression. Director uses them to show that people can still be a kind man if they know their faults and correct them. Wang bo is an experienced thief and he only trusts the money can change people instead of kindness and confidence. In the beginning of the film, he looked down upon the guard who only saluted the men who has good cars but not let the other people come in the house. We can find that he would like to be a bad man but the real society force his to do that because people only have respect for rich men. After he knew his wife was pregnant and she asked him not to do the crimes again, he still believes he will always be a thief even he decides not to do that. However, the baby of them saved him. He and Wang li did not want their baby to go their way. I think they even want their baby can be the man like Sha gen. Therefore, the couple made a decision to help Sha gen. We can see that Wang bo used his life to protect the money and his wife in the end, he also protected kindness and confidence. There is another important point that the director Feng xiao gang uses many interesting communications in the whole film. He does not like making this movie become serious and he wants to make people know his ideas by a funny way. Audience will be happy and moved by his film, then, they will think about real meanings about these interesting performances and scenes. Many films just show their themes by a serious story and it is hard for most of audience to accept directors' ideas. Therefore, this is also the success of Tian xia wu zei.

This movie certainly looks good, but it never really gelled for me. Andy Lau plays one-half of a married pickpocket team whose wife, much to his annoyance, announces she wants to go straight. On a train, they meet Dumbo, a simple peasant taking his savings home and not really caring who knows about it because he doesn't believe anyone would want to steal from him.Ah. That's what didn't gel. Strange how writing something down can sometimes bring an obvious but elusive thought rising to the surface. The problem with this film is that the characters are so poorly drawn and unbelievable. Nobody out of pampers is as trusting as young Dumbo, and even peasants must have had people trying to nick their crayons at school, or run off with one of their goats or something. You could argue that he's a little simple, but I don't think so – not to the degree he'd need to be in order to be so trusting.Lau sports a daft wig for no apparent reason for most of the film and would love to relieve Dumbo of his money, but knows wifey would really kick him in to touch if he did. He tricks Dumbo into giving him some of it and, when a member of a band of travelling pickpockets steals the money from Dumbo, Lau steals it from her, fully intending to keep it because he didn't steal it directly from Dumbo.This travelling band of pickpockets, working under a boss who seems to be something of a master of disguise, also doesn't ring true. Hollywood might have just about gotten away with it in a Fu Manchu flick in the 30s, but it doesn't work here. Some of the interplay between Lau and this Mr Big is reasonably entertaining, and the intricately choreographed fight scenes within the confines of the train's narrow corridors are well staged, but overall, whether or not this film is intentionally attempting to create a metaphor for the problems encountered in our journey through life, it just fails to convince and only fitfully entertains.

Professional thieves Bo (Andy Lau) and Li (Rene Liu) con a businessman out of his BMW, and head for the hills to lay low. They visit a temple, where Bo busies himself relieving pilgrims of their wallets and phones, while Li earnestly prays. Shortly thereafter, she announces to her lover that she wants them both to abandon their thieving lifestyle and settle down. When he refuses, they argue and split.On foot and hopelessly lost, Li encounters Sha Gen (Wang), a simple man who wants to find a wife and settle down with the money he's earned. He helps her find her way to a train station, where she's reunited with Bo.Touched by Sha Gen's open honesty and trust in his fellow travellers, Li adopts him as her little brother, and decides to protect him and his money on their journey as an act of redemption. However, while Bo wants to get back together with Li, he has his eye on Sha Gen's moneybag. To make matters worse, a whole gang of thieves is on board the train, and they all wouldn't mind helping themselves to the easy cash. It's thief vs thief as the train rolls through gorgeous landscapes, and Li has her work cut out defending Fu from all sides, not least her unscrupulous lover.I've only seen one of director Feng Xiaogang's movies before, 'Big Shot's Funeral', and will admit to not being blown away by that. This, however, is a very engaging and beautifully shot romantic crime comedy, and I enjoyed it immensely. The product placement that seems to have offended many viewers slipped by me, and the pro-communist message simply fits the character of Sha Gen and did not seem out of place. I certainly didn't feel anything getting forced down my throat.Andy Lau manages to be a likable rogue, while Rene Liu plays her role with a lot of heart. Their on-screen chemistry is perfect.There are a number of 'fight' scenes between the thieves, that put me in mind of the 'God of Gamblers' series of films. Instead of fighting with Mah Jong sticks or flinging cards at each other though, the thieves duel with razor blades as they try to poach from one other. These scenes are inventive and done with flair and just the right amount of CG trickery.I did have a problem with the ending, which - while being necessarily melodramatic - seemed overly manipulative. To compensate for this, Rene Liu's acting at the conclusion should leave all but the hardest of hearts unmoved. I have to admit with some shame that this is the first film I've seen starring this astonishing actress. It will definitely not be the last.

A world without thieves is close to impossible, at least not in our modern world where there are those who covert what others have, and given no means of obtaining those items legitimately, seek the easier way out and give in to temptation. But there are those who naively think that such an utopia is possible, perhaps given their simple background, and their trusting nature to not see the evils of man. Sha Gen the Dumbo (Wang Baoqiang) is one such person, who declares and openly challenges, on a crowded passenger platform to would-be (and to himself, non existent) thieves, that he has RMB60K on him.Andy Lau and Rene Liu play Wang Bo and Wang Li respectively, a Bonnie and Clyde styled couple whose profession is to profit from conning and thievery. They're skilled pickpockets, and in a scene set in a temple, we see what Wang Bo is capable of with his deft hands armed only with a thin razor. Things don't go down well for the couple as Wang Li decides to forgo the partnership and go legit, for fear of karmic retribution. As such, she takes it on herself to look after the kind hearted Dumbo, and what could Wang Bo do except to go along, even though he's secretly harbouring thoughts on that 60K cash package.But like the adage of washing your hands in the golden basin, their will and skills are put to the test when Uncle Li (Ge You) and his band of merry thieves which include Lam Ka Tung as Four Eyes and Li Bingbing as Leaf, board the same train, and constantly poke and probe for opportunities to succeed in fleecing Dumbo like a helpless sheep when his guardian wolves are less than alert. It's a classic cat and mouse game, with each side displaying their fangs as they encircle their prey, with the prey none the wiser to the drawing of territorial lines. It's not very often in recent times that you have a movie set for the most parts on board a train, and good ones at that, unless you pass the likes of Steven Seagal's Under Siege 2. The first Mission: Impossible movie had a great action sequence, Bollywood's Dil Se featured an awesome dance on the roof of a moving train, and The Darjeeling Limited and Before Sunrise had great conversations, but I'd dare say Feng Xiaogang bested them all with this movie. It's not difficult then to say that I've enjoyed this movie, having seen his Banquet and Assembly, both of which I had liked, and I guess his works are now on my watchlist.But it's not all claustrophobic in having everything set on a train. There were ample opportunities for lush cinematography to accentuate the beautiful vast lands that China has, although at some points to allow for action sequences, some of them had to be superimposed instead. Don't let that mar your enjoyment though, as the effects were pretty much nicely done, on par with what you'd come to expect with movies made in Hollywood. But the characterization here takes priority as well in moving the story forward, especially with Andy Lau's character caught in the crossroads of listening to his heart, as well as figuring out the intentions behind the admiration from a grandmaster thief.And Ge You, if you'd think his portrayal in the Banquet was one-dimensional, you should see him in action here, with his various disguises, and his silent charisma shining through, chewing up almost every scene he comes in. It's little wonder that he's a frequent feature in the films of Feng Xiaogang, and I look forward to his next with the director, starring opposite yet another Chinese thespian in Jiang Wen. Rene Liu had great chemistry with Andy Lau and thus made their couple character quite believable in their love for each other, as well as the conflict of ideals that they face which put a strain in their relationship. The only gripe I have will be that some of the fleecing scenes were shot in too close up a manner, but it sort of emphasizes on the blink and you miss sensibilities that these crooks have to capitalize on in order to practice their trade. And that of course presents itself as a perfect opportunity to rewatch this wonderful movie again. Highly recommended!