I don't think I would have ever have seen this film if I had not read a review on it on this site, the first thing that appealed to me was the fact that it had such a huge range of amazing actors within the film, so it could either turn out brilliant or crap. I didn't know what to expect with this film, I have to say, I didn't know if I would like it or if I wouldn't, but I decided to give it a try.

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The Plot
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The film is based around a Chinese proverb, which says that life is built on 4 emotions, these emotions are the following:

Happiness is a man who is stuck in a boring day job, who makes money for other people. He makes a decision that will make him very happy. This character is played by the brilliant Forest Whitaker.

Pleasure is a man who works for a mobster and uses his special ability of seeing in the future to his advantage. Brendan Fraser plays this role and when he realises that the future changes he finally finds pleasure.

Sorrow is a young pop singer played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, she finds herself under the control of a mobster, she faces sorrow when she falls for a man.

Love is a doctor played by Kevin Bacon, who is in love with his best friends wife, her life is in danger and his love makes him save her life the only way he knows how.

These four people's lives are so far apart from one another, but eventually they all intertwine in the best way possible.

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The Cast
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Sarah Michelle Gellar- Trista (SORROW)
Kevin Bacon- Love
Brendan Fraser- Pleasure
Forest Whitaker- Happiness

Andy Garcia- Fingers
Emile Hirsch- Tony
Julie Delpy- Gina

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My Opinion
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I was a bit worried when I saw how the film was going to be set out, I hated this style in Crash and other films I had seen it in, but I decided to give it a chance. I am not too keen on this style of filmmaking but it did get the point across a lot better than if the film was done in the usual way. I found it very hard to explain the plot here, it is quite complicated and even when you watch the film, it isn't until the last minute that everything falls into place.
I haven't heard a lot about this film, well nothing about this film until I read a review on ciao, I think that it is a brilliant film, much better than others alike it (Vantage Point, Crash) which got brilliant recognition and bored me to tears, I think it really is a shame that more people have not seen this film because it really is an amazing cast, and surprisingly a great story.

It isn't a flawless performance though, I think if I had been in a different mindset I might have hated it, the film does not let you see much of the back story of the characters, which is a risk in the fact that to make a good film you must really connect with the characters and surprisingly you do connect, within a small time.

I think the cinematography of this film is just stunning, there are some scenes that have been put together beautifully well and just look amazing, it shocks me that small budgeted films like this one, is able to create such beautiful moments, where high budgeted films forget about the importance of realism and cinematography.

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The Acting
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This was the reason I watched this film, I have watched a lot of these actors over the years and think every one of them is very talented and it's lovely to see them on screen together.

Sarah Michelle Gellar takes one of the lead roles, she plays a pop star and thank god you don't get to hear her sing too much during the film, when I heard she was a pop star within the film, I was ready to cringe like I cringed when she sung in the musical episode of Buffy. That is where most of you know her from and the role within this film is as far away from her role as the vampire slayer is very different and I'm glad she did this. She is a good actress and she plays this role brilliantly.

Brendan Fraser plays the role of the mobsters lacky brilliantly, I was slightly put off this actor when I saw his definite drunk moment on Graham Norton show, very unprofessional and not someone who I really liked anymore. I think he is a brilliant actor, and this film like Gellar's is far away from his most famous roles (The Mummy, George Of The Jungle).

Forest Whitaker is someone that I just think is a shining star, it wasn't until his role in ER and Last King Of Scotland that I really knew who his was and his brilliant acting talents. He has been in the same sort of films recently, you could compare Vantage Point to this film (Vantage Point was not good) so I didn't know what to expect. He is a brilliant actor.

Kevin Bacon is the final Chinese proverb, and he is a brilliant actor as well, I haven't seen much of this guy in films, but I have heard a lot about his acting talents. He plays a great role of someone deeply in love and when that love is hurt, he does everything possible to help her.

The last actor I should talk about is Andy Garcia, who is a great actor, he plays a mobster called Fingers. He is quite violent in this film and that is something that might put some people off.

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The Good
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The acting is just brilliant in this film, you get a huge wide range of actors within this film and they all work well together. I think it's good that they chose these specific actors who are all well known for certain things or another, for example Gellar is known for her TV series where she is a slayer, Kevin Bacon is known for his performance in Footloose, Brendan Fraser is known for his role is The Mummy and Whitaker is known for his venerable roles. I think the choice in actors, really reflects the Chinese proverb that the film is about, I think that they chose the different actors to play these roles because it reflected the proverb.

I think the film does leave you with a good feeling, it is well put together and you do connect with the characters easily, I think that this is the reason why the films works.

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The Bad
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It is a violent film and this could put some people off, including me. I think that if I hadn't have watched it on such a tiny screen, my opinion on the film may have been a bit different, I really think that some of the violence could have been left out, but if the Director thought it was needed then good for him.
I think that the way the film is filmed could put people off as well, like I said, it does remind me of some other films like Crash and Vantage Point which were filmed in the same way, and both of them sucked in my opinion, so when the film started, I was really expecting not to enjoy the film.

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Should You Buy The Film?
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I think that it really is a good film, it's not the best I've ever seen and it's not the worst, I think that is one of those films that is horridly overlooked because it didn't have much of a budget, which means advertising the film after the release was down. You can get the film from play.com for a fiver but I really don't think I'll watch the film again, I rented it out from blockbusters for a few quid and I think that it was really worth it compared to the other films I rented out this weekend.

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Details
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Director: Jeiho Lee
Release Date: 2008
Runtime: 95 minutes
Rating: 15

(C) 2009

I hope you enjoyed the review, please comment as it makes me smile :D