Peace Hotel

I thought this was a great movie. The story was an interesting idea, only matched by the great supporting case. Chow Yun Fat, as always, shines. My only criticism is that the ending falters a bit. I do not want to spoil it for everyone, but it almost seemed anti-climatic, and not in the best direction. But regardless I thought it was great and enjoyed it.

Directed by Wong Kar Wai who consistently makes good movies but slips up sometimes just like everyone else. I would only consider this average because of Chow Yun-Fat but in every area it is actually below average. The story starts out unclear but it all comes together by the end of the movie. Chow runs the Peace Hotel and has so ever since he had a very bad day which they will show shots of at the start. Cecilia Yip shows up saying she is Chow's mistress but she is really on the run from some bad men. There has always been an agreement that when someone flees to the Peace Hotel, the pursuers must give up their chase and turn back until that person leaves. When this woman shows up it looks like the bad guys with their fierce leader are going to storm into the hotel and take the girl regardless of the agreement that has been made. The movie is funny at times, has a couple of good action sequences, but ultimately falls short of being a good movie. Chow steals the show from everyone and I was expecting a much bigger impact from the end which fell way short of my expectations. Great music also and some AMAZING cinematography but an average movie needed at least a decent ending.

The version from Mei Eh has ok picture quality and pretty good subtitles. This movie won a Hong Kong film award for the best original film song. Personally I didn't think it was that great but it has subtitles which you may know is a rare thing for songs in Chinese movies.

"Peace Hotel" is a great movie. Chow Yun-fat's acting in this movie is unquesitonably wonderful. I am a big Chow Yun-fat's fan, but I didn't like any of the movies that he made in the U.S. It was a shame that this was the last movie that he ever made in Hong Kong.

THIS MOVIE IS DIFFERENT THAN ANY OF CHOW'S MOVIES, IT'S A PERIOD PIECE, AND ONCE YOU GET IN TO IT YOU WILL LIKE IT. IT HAS A FUNNY ROMANCE STORY THAT'S VERY UNUSUAL AND THE FEMALE LEAD WAS GREAT FOR CHOW'S CHARACTER! THE ENDING IS SOMETHING YOU REALLY CAN JUDGE FOR YOURSELF, HOWEVER YOU WANT TO INTEREPT IT!!

I bought this movie without seeing it before hand (which is how I see a lot of Hong Kong movies), and thought it just another Chow Yun-Fat vehicle, which was, to be honest with you, fine by me. I thought it would just plain be interesting to see CYF in a western. Well listen, in this movie, it's the acting that shines, not so much the gunplay. Sure, we lead junkies get our fix with a gunfight (and an even cooler sword fight), but the story here is deep. Much deeper than I expected. For one thing, subtlety is at play here, and that's a new thing for me while watching Hong Kong movies. I mean, I suppose it was there before, in other movies, and maybe I didn't pick up on it (d'oh! I think this sentence is turning into an oxymoron...), but here they don't slap you in the face with plot points, and they leave you to your own devices to try to figure out what a character is thinking and feeling. Some people may not care for that, but it always impresses me when a film doesn't insult it's audience's intelligence and perceptiveness.

Peace Hotel is a visually impressive movie as well. The film appears to have been washed, giving everything a dusty brown tint to it, which lends itself to great atmosphere in a western. There are subtle little tricks that may or may not have been intended by the director, such as...well, I'm not going to ruin it for you. It's quite an interesting film, and anyone who wants to see Chow Yun-Fat's acting chops should give it a try.