Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Heydon McIntosh Set in Hong Kong at the eve of the handover, Jeremy Irons stars as an expat freelance journalist in love with an unattainable local woman. A piece of unsettling news prompts him to distance himself from her, making the most of his last days in the territory.The acting by both leads was superb. As another review has noted the way it was shot made it feel like a documentary, with Jeremy Irons narrating over several scene transitions and pouring out his confessions and regrets.The whole experience feels honest and captures the mood of Hong Kong in the 90s perfectly. Chinese Box is a fitting a tribute to the city itself, the ever bustling backdrop to a genuine love story.8/10

nicnik6 This film is indeed a Chinese box containing some separate stories nested within the movie's frame: there's Vivian's story, there's Jean's story, and there's of course John's dramatic one, but then there's also the story of the Hong Kong island and its inhabitants and how they take the 1997 political change. I haven't seen very many Jeremy Irons films and in the ones I've seen him he plays supporting roles, but I particularly enjoyed his part in this film, especially because it seems an atypical one for him. John's friend Jim is fun to watch (see the bolero scene)although he is predictable all through. The two girls are both strong characters, even if their stories are quite different (or are they?)and I was relieved to see that their womanly instincts prevailed when it came to understanding John. All in all, "The Chinese Box" left me a very good first impression and I would recommend it to all Jeremy Irons fans.

djonaton For starters, it would be fair to say that I have seen this movie at least ten times. I was never bored... In fact, the magical atmosphere of the movie makes it beautiful to watch, and makes you enjoy every minute of it, even with the story aside. The cast is excellent, and the way that the actors 'ignore' the camera really makes you believe the story. The story has many layers, all of them viewed from an aspect of a dying man, packed with emotion, all masks down. The handover of Hong Kong and a love story, with all the cultural differences and barriers, is captured from a very close range. It's done almost like a documentary and strongly effects any spectator. The characters are complete, the story also, and everything else in the movie (from the photography and the music to the actual footage of HK and its people) only makes it more powerful. A beautiful movie.

rosscinema I remember how excited I was when I first viewed "The Year of Living Dangerously" and watching the main characters in Indonesia just before the Vietnam War broke out. This is nowhere near that but I did come away thinking that this is a very personal film about the change in Hong Kong. Story does take place in Hong Kong during the last 6 months of British colonialism and the central character is John (Jeremy Irons) who is a writer and roams the city with his video camera capturing different things that go on but he is madly in love with Vivian (Gong Li) who owns a bar but has a sordid past that looms over them. John has been feeling ill and gets checked out and learns that he has leukemia and has 3 to 6 months to live.*****SPOILER ALERT*****John continues to wander the streets and he meets Jean (Maggie Cheung) who has a bad scar on her face and she sells knick knacks on the street and John becomes fascinated by her. As time dwindles down John must face the fact that changes are inevitable and the people of Hong Kong will go on without him.This film is directed by Wayne Wang who has made a good career out of making films about Asians and the way they live despite cultural differences. But while I think there are some interesting things in this film it's clearly not one of Wang's best. Film tries very hard to be thought provoking in it's overall message with the characters but it just seems to come off as ponderous. As talented as Iron's and Li are they seem a bit uninspired and the rare bursts of energy just lack any conviction. The most interesting character in the film is Jean played by Cheung and she easily steals every scene she's in and her character shows obvious layers of pain that she hides well despite the scar on her face. Cheung is a Hong Kong action star but she shows she can easily handle drama and I hope someone writes her a good script to be in. The story meanders and doesn't really have any focus in it's message and even though Wang is a good director it just comes across as lacking emotional depth.