Better Days (Derek Tsang)

[Peng]

[Peng]

Normally I wouldn’t care for a heightened emotional approach applied to something that can slide easily straight into miserablism like this; for one thing, on paper the antagonist can seem like a Bond supervillain in their outsized sadism. But director Derek Tsang has a sure hand modulating each melodrama story beat and guiding overall narrative momentum, with his gorgeously crafted and almost dreamy atmosphere, which renders the whole film heartbreaking rather than oppressive. It’s a bracing mix of 80’s Asian actioner romanticism and modern, gritty social realism, so much that even the Chinese censor imposing a lame present-day framing structure, complete with closing credit text assuring that the government has solved all the problems, can’t even put a dent in its impact that much. 8.5/10