Divergence (2005)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Strictly average movie

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Wanted to see the movie because of its actors...well I don't regret wasting my time but the movie was pretty much predictable and got me wanting it to finish, some action is cool tho wouldn't recommend it if you'r not a patient person:)Personally I start watching more and more Movies that don't come from Hollywood, but I saw better ones then this one. Found it about 20 minutes too long.I think they did put too much in the struggling of our main character, he's sad but it was too much with the crying and yelling, we got the point in the first couple of sad scenes... I was glad to see the lawyer getting shot, she flashbacks in the end were cool when we understand how she died.

I loved this movie!! I originally wanted to see it because I am a big Benny Chan fan. Remember Heroic Duo and Gen X Cop? I thought they were awesome and so I thought I would check this one out too.The movie is basically about three guys. Suen, an obsessive, manic, rundown cop, who cannot get over his girlfriend's sudden disappearance, which happened over 10 years ago. An assassin, who we meet in the beginning of the movie when he murders the guy chained to Seun and who seems to posses secret important info. And, the lawyer. a man who can get off any client, regardless of his crime, and who coincidentally happens to be married to a woman who looks exactly like Sean's missing girlfriend - which really messes with Sean! Anyway, this was one of those movies where I could not guess how it was going to end, and that is huge to me. It was so complex! All of the characters were so well developed, with such strong personalities that it made for a really intense dramatic, thriller, mystery, movie experience. The whole time I was trying to figure out where everything was going and I couldn't! So many films these days are so ridiculously obvious and formulaic, which is why I think it's important to step out of the mainstream on occasion. This movie is a great opportunity to do that!

After Aaron Kwok won the Golden Horse, the Taiwan's equivalent of the Oscar, for best actor, I got interested in this movie to try to figure out how this pop star who was considered a long shot by many people won the prestigious award. The first impression I got after I finished was, and I remembered clearly, sitting at my sofa, staring at the blank TV screen for a couple of minutes, and saying, "What just happened?" No, I was not blown by it. The opposite occurred. I was confused.The movie was a typical Hong Kong movie, with the usual grittiness and stylishness. It had its moments, but sometimes, for some strange reason, it felt slow. Maybe there was not the ridiculous amount of gunfire, car chases and explosions that we viewers of Hong Kong thriller films are most familiar with and what I am most fond with. Maybe the love line story was so unnecessary that it dragged the movie down. Whatever the case, the mysteries and the search for the truth got my attention and got me excited...till I reached the twist. The twist right before the ending was a little surprising, but in retrospect it became obvious because too many clues were given that even a 2 year old could guess it (not recommended for 2 year olds- they are too young to be subjected to bad films). Still, it could be forgiven because an effort was made and it was a decent twist, no matter how predictable it was. However, here was what killed the moving- the ending. Nothing good could be said about it. It felt like they were trying to make this movie sophisticated by leaving so many questions unanswered. The problem was, those questions were not rhetorical or philosophical questions that might make one reexamines one's life. Instead, those questions were questions about the plot; the ending made the writers look stupid and left the movie feeling unfinished. Not enough clues were given in the film to help the viewers to try to answer the questions that were left. I tried to answer those questions, but after a few moments of pondering, I gave up and started swearing at the writers for wasting almost 2 hours of my time and the favors I have to pull to borrow this movie. There was no way to answer them and it was dumb to even try.I could not say nothing good came out of this film. I finally understood the formula for the voting panel at the Golden Horse Awards. 2 words: star power. The guy was once part of the legendary 4 kings of Hong Kong pop music and even though the status had became history and he was struggling for the past few years, he still have draw power. Letting him win would be a feel good story and let people talk about it for days; it could boost popularity for the show, which saw its ratings down from last year and had been on the down side in recent years. This was not to put down Mr. Kwaok. He did a good job and it might arguably be the best performance of his career. However, compared to the other nominees, his performance still felt weak. I guess everything was for the ratings.My only advice: do not watch it just because Aaron Kwok won the Golden Horse for it. It is a meaningless piece of work and your time would be better devoted elsewhere.I give it 6/10, because an effort was made and only the ending sucked.

Considerably better than movies in the same genre such as director Benny Chan's own recent New Police Story, "Divergence" would still come under the categorisation of "flick" in my book, albeit a fairly good one. One reason would be Ivy Ho's ("Shore West") script which is usually reliable. "Convergence" apparently is her first "macho" screenplay. The mission is to tie together the stories of three men, each at a cross-road, played by Aaron Kwok, Ekin Chang (sort of reunion of the Wind-Cloud duo from Storm Riders) and Daniel Wu, through a woman played by Angelica Lee. On the whole, the job is quite well done, with a reasonable degree of coherence, although it is not difficult to point to logical gaps, predictability and coincidences that really stretch one's imagination.At the end of the day, this is still an action flick, but one with more emphasis on the story line and character depiction. Some of the action sequences still reach jaw-dropping proportions, such as Kwok chasing Wu on the elevated freeway in the middle of brisk traffic, or a massive truck coming literally within inches of Kwok's body lying on the road. All these become even more impressive when you hear director Chan intimate in a radio interview that Kwok did not use any stunt replacement for these shots.Trying to keep this report spoiler free, I wouldn't delve into the characterisation other than saying that there are generally good efforts, with varying results. I would say though that TV superstar Lo Kar-leung outshines the three principals, while talented Angelica Li is underused. As usual for Hong Kong movies, the ensemble of "regular" supports is always a joy to see. In Divergence, we have Lam Suet, Jan Lam Hoi-fung, Sam Lee Chan-sam, as well as inimitable Eric Tsang Chi-wai. There's also Ning Jing showing her worth by demonstrating that she is just as alluring in her shaved head.