Switch

I was pretty excited to see Switch in my workload as it stars Andy Lau, an actor whose been hit and miss on my radar for the past decade or so. Still, I loved him in Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame and had hoped he was on a role. 

 

Unfortunately Switch is simply put, a mess. The film, both written by and directed by, newcomer Jay Sun, is a big confusing heap of idea’s seemingly borrowed from films like Iron Man, Mission Impossible, and James Bond. A lot of he film is more flash then substance with elaborate sets donning half naked women feather dusting a stereotypical villain, a group of, what I would say are Cosplayers, slashing people apart. One minute their on Lau’s side, the next their threatening his life. No real explanation, it all just sort of jumps around sporadically and without notice. 

 

The film centers around Lau, an undercover agent working on the theft of a very important painting that’s priceless. In the mess of a first half we see British or Australian thugs going after it, a Chinese villain sending his blade wielding female ninja crew after it. Oh, and there’s this weird lady who pops in for a scene, known as The Empress. 

 

It was all together too confusing to follow and couldn’t keep my attention if someone dubbed my name into the film. To many erratic cut scenes, laughable dramatic soundtrack change ups, and not enough sense to boot. 

 

The film comes in both original Mandarin and English. I watched both halves of the film in each. It didn’t seem to add any kind of clarity. For story I’d give this movie a low F. 

 

PICTURE QUALITY:

Switch was an interesting evaluation on picture. There is a lot of green screen scenes that make the picture look fuzzy and soft, low quality black levels during some nights scenes, even close ups (mostly when showing the phones with a fake green screen on them) were a bit sketchy. Overall though the picture was mostly sharp with fine line detail, good texture quality and organic color schemes from skin to inanimate surroundings. Not a bad looking BD transfer for a B+ worthy grade. 

 

BONUS FEATURES:

Not much to brag about. A couple of music videos, trailers, and previews.