Hello,

This post is about the new Feng Xiaogang movie "A World without Thieves" starring Andy Lau and Rene Liu. This is not a review but if one likes Feng's movies, then one will no doubt seek out this latest release. If one is not familiar with Feng's commercial offerings, however, this just might be the one with which to start.

Here are some general observations. First, the print that was showing at Peace Cinema City in Nanjing, China was subtitled in both ENGLISH and simplified Chinese (oddly enough, the credits were in the idiom of non-PRC Chinese, e.g. "�o•i�l" for "Producer," which would be "�§•Ð�l" in mainland Mandarin.) Moreover, everything was subtitled including the lyrics of songs on the soundtrack. Assuming that the rest of China's theatre's are showing the exact same version (and that Peace Cinema City's print is not an anomaly), then one could literally ship out a PRC print and show it in any Anglophone country with no need to subtitle anything. Something even stranger: the reel change mark was in the bottom right hand portion of the screen as opposed to the upper right hand corner--a first for me in my mainland cinema-going experience.

Some notes about merchandising. The 1999 Zhao Benfu novel from which the film is based has been reprinted and started appearing on shelves about two weeks prior to the December 9 release. At the theatre, they were handing out lobby cards with a 2005 calendar printed on the back plus giving away "'A World without Thieves' Extreme Viewing Handbook" (twenty-three pages) that features interviews with the director, cast, and adverts for some of the nifty products featured in the film. The manual's tactility is similar to a special circular one finds in the Sunday paper--thus is disposable--but is nonetheless well designed, featuring a lot of graphics and behind-the-scenes reporting. Oddly enough, the one that I picked up was printed in Beijing (that's twelve to eighteen hours away by train) with adverts having reference addresses and telephone numbers to Beijing branches.

Thanks for the report. How was the audience response to the film, and yours? Good crowd? Are there any reviews out yet, if so, what do the critics think.
I gather it's not a typical Feng Xiaogang film. And most importantly, how does Li Bingbing look these days? Does she have a large role in this? Inquiring minds want to know.

For anybody in/passing through Shanghai, the copy at Kodak Super Cinema World
(Metro City, 5th Floor, at the big intersection at Xu Jia Hui) will apparently also have English subtitles. I'm not sure about prints in other locations -- I just got an e-mail from the Maria's Choice list about it. Maybe I'll go check it out tomorrow!

Hello Dennis (and others),

I caught the movie with a Friday night crowd at 8:30pm. In a theatre with a capacity for about 450, I'd estimate there were around 400 to 425 people in attendence with only the first two rows not completely filled. A total of four out of seven screens were playing "A World without Thieves" with the other three showing the Angelica Lee thriller "Headlines" and the Will Smith sci-fi action film "I, Robot" (side note: the previous two weeks were all-American featuring "I, Robot," "The Bourne Supremacy," and "King Authur" on the seven screens.) Whilst purchasing my ticket at 6:30pm, I noticed that the smaller halls that were showing "Thieves" were mostly sold out prior to their scheduled showtimes. The audience in main auditorium one was comprised of a good mix of families (two parents and a child), young couples in their teens to twenties, and older couples in their forties to fifties. Everyone laughed in the right places (cf "House of Flying Daggers," where they didn't. Of note, its audiences were skewed primarily to the younger crowd and families with children. Indeed, "Daggers" was marketed as the youth holiday movie for the 2004 summer vacation away from school.) Overall, the audience for "Thieves" was a good crowd with which to see a movie and a lot of people seemed to enjoy the show.

My own opinion is positive although, truth be told, I'm the last person whom should be quoted for their critical opinion. On one hand, I'm the type of bloke who will cancel all his evening appointments if I find out Bertaloucci's "The Conformist" or Marcel Carne's "Children of Paradise" is playing on a local screen; on the other hand, you're talking to someone who watched "The Twins Effect II" and "Elixir of Love" close to a a combined dozen times on their initial theatrical runs--my critical faculty is obviously "whacked" and thus not reliable in any way. English reviews should be showing up shortly (e.g. _China Daily_, _City Magazine_) but my two cents are that "Thieves" has the humour and charm of Feng's earlier new year's movies ("When Dreams Come True," "Be There or Be Square") and is his most structurally tight picture to date. I'd opine that when he's working with someone else's material (e.g. this and "Cellphone"), the results are a more focused and less scatter-shot.

As for Li Bingbing, she's in a memorable supporting role. The film has a superb ensemble cast that works well together and Ms Li fits in quite nicely. Truth be told, she's one of my favourite mainland idols for two reasons. First, she gives really loopy interviews and is always flashing peace signs and whatnot. Second, she can do it all--drama, comedy, and action--and isn't afraid to take non-glamourous roles. In this outing she gets to do "bad girl" (sort of like in "Silverhawk") and "sexy" (there's one or two scenes where one goes "wow, you're felxible!") She also gets to show her nutty charm too, which is a plus. Thinking back to Jane Ding's comments a few weeks ago about the state of martial chivalry motion pictures, if they ever start making "wu" and "xia" movies again, Ms Li is primed to be a leading "xia nu" in a Jin Yong or Huanzhu Louzhu-styled caper.

I'm a big fan of Ge You, Rene Liu, and Andy Lau too (it's his real voice in Mandarin on the soundtrack.) They all acquit themselves very nicely in the movie and I can not emphasise enough how well the ensemble has been put together. Even newcomer Wang Baoqiang ("Root" in the movie) does well. "Thieves" was originally the movie on which Feng Xiaogang was to collaborate with Stephen Chow--with the latter's "Kung Fu Hustle" opening up in just ten days, though, this is turning out to be a very merry Chirstmas indeed.

Thank you for the extended report. As noted elsewhere here, I haven't seen Cell/phone yet but vastly enjoyed his earlier New Year's films. So, if WORLD is in line with those, then I shouldn't be disappointed. And I'm glad to hear your assessment of Li Bingbing's role. Might have to eventually pick up SilverHawk after all. Embarrasingly, I have to admit I've only seen her in Seventeen Years (Rrrrrr! ) and so far, none of her HK work. (Heard her part in Purple Butterfly is rather small.)

Looking forward to future reports on the local movie scene.

I ended up seeing it yesterday at my local cinema, where it did indeed have English subs. The theater was at least 3/4 full, with the audience ranging from elderly people to kids of about five. The biggest reaction of the night was when people first caught sight of Ge You.

I did enjoy the movie, and would see it again. Without giving anything away, there were a few moment near the end when I was like, "Why are they doing that?" or "How could that happen? That doesn't make sense." Did anybody else have that experience? I don't know if there really were logical problems, or if I just wasn't quick enough to "get" everything.

Am not sure whether Dennis is interested in just the Mainland Chinese audience to the film. In case that's not the case, here's a short report from Malaysia. ^_^

Watched the movie in a packed Kuala Lumpur cinema yesterday. Unfortunately, the audience's enthusiasm for the film was not as high as the audience size was large -- and in large part because of how the story wound up. In as vague a way as possible (so as to not have to include spoilers in this post): Suffice to say that the movie's ending might be said to be somewhat unexpected as well as overly protracted.

You gather correctly. Among other things: A WORLD WITHOUT THIEVES is not a comedy; and Ge You is not its lead male.

Dennis, I think you'll enjoy the fact that you'll be able to see this one actress in many different guises over the course of this one movie. :)

Unfortunately, they're opting to show the (dubbed into) Cantonese version of the movie here. Andy Lau's voice sounds like Andy Lau's but think it's safe to assume that noone else lends their real voice to this -- I'm sure -- inferior sounding version.

Out of curiosity: Does anyone know whether Feng Xiaogang has been in contact recently with Johnnie To? For it seems that with its talk re karma, AWWT thematically connects somewhat with RUNNING ON KARMA. Then there's its main pair of characters being a romantically associated couple of thieves, as with YESTERDAY ONCE MORE...

I did too. In fact, was wondering whether it was the fault of the Malaysian censors that I got to feel that way. But since someone watching it outside of Malaysia did too...

Lost my first reply... <_<

Yes, thanks to both you and MF for your reports.

I must admit I was somewhat happily surprised at Yi Lee's reporting a positive audience reaction. I would have guessed and expected just the opposite, due to coming on the heels of the wildly successful CELL, the film being an atypical Feng Xiaogang venture, the fact that Ge You is not in a leading role and then the storyline 'issues' you hint at. Under similar circumstances, it sounded like a forumula for a big audience disappointment, or worse. So, what do I know? Or maybe, it's like HOFD, a tempered love it or hate it reaction? In any case, looking forward to being able to judge for myself at some point.

Hello,

For the record lots of mainland viewers seem to like "A World without Thieves." Chinese entertainment news put the weekend gross at 30 million RMB with a final projected take of 80 million RMB--that's more that "When Dreams Come True" and "Be There or Be Square" combined. Moreoever, the weekend earnings for "Thieves" has already matched the total two-month gross for "Dreams." Mind you, there's inflation to take into account plus the increase in the the total number of mainland picture houses. Nonetheless, folks seem to use the phrase "worth seeing (ÖµµÃ¿´)" to describe the current movie.

As for the spiritual issues, I've noticed Buddhism and spitituality have made a big comeback in the past few years, particularly among the middle class and young professionals who earn more than 60K RMB per year. I'll be looking for a To connexion myself but barring that, a lot of people seem to have found religion in the recent boom era. There's a popular saying that Shanghai is a city of a million millionaires and whenever I go over there to visit my cousin and her posh Chinese friends, they're always making plans to see Tibet, Thailand, Laos, and wherever for religious reasons. And the number of temples and historical sites that have been restored in the Jiangnan (the tri-Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui area, which includes Shanghai) since '96 is also quite astounding. More mention of karma in the future, then?

Just read in another forum that the print the the poster saw in Beijing had both Chinese and English subs, too. Also, the kid from BLIND SHAFT is also in it. First I heard about that.

[No real spoilers]

I saw this film last night on what I think was the legit Region 6 dvd that someone had brought back from China on Monday. It has English/Chinese subs that are often lost in white backgrounds, and the disc had advertising and other things on it before the disc. Despite those annoying defects (I'd say a third of the dialogue is hard to see with the white-on-white subtitling), I enjoyed the film.

I liked Andy Lau's performance, and his character in the film. The story is a little forced, as I'd say are all these films with duelling experts (duelling hitmen, duelling moles, now a new set of duelling experts in this film...). There is some comedy to the film, but quiet humor next to the sorta-suspense, sorta-drama, sorta-action. I'd agree it's worth seeing, but I wouldn't say it's a great film (and so I'd probably disagree that it's a strongly polarizing, love it or hate it film).

Does anyone have the region 6 dvd that could confirm that the dual subtitles are on it (burned in)?

charlie