User Reviews

Let's talk about prerequisities first.

If you hate American action flicks, if you don't revel in nerve-wrecking psycho-dramas too badly, if you can appreciate style over substance and if you're into asian cinematography, pick So Close.

Rest assured there's plenty of nonsense in this movie, even cliches from time to time, but there's not enough of it to prevent you from enjoying it. Really, even acting was fine with me. Action is exquisite, girls are lovely, effects are cool, plot is trivialized but sufficient I guess. It was meant to be easy and fun and you know what? It's easy and fun alright.

8/10

SO CLOSE (2002) is a high-tech action adventure from Hong Kong that revives the girls-guns-and-kung fu genre that once attracted fans to HK cinema from all over the world. This one is an update by director Corey Yuen of exactly the kind of films he used to make back in the day like YES, MADAM! (1985), with Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock, RIGHTING WRONGS (1986), with Rothrock, and SHE SHOOTS STRAIGHT (1990), with Joyce Godenzi and Carina Lau.

SO CLOSE is a little more pumped-up, with more beautiful female stars, more CGI and wire work, and a high tech veneer that permeates every aspect of the characters' lives. There are three main characters--all female and all played by top Hong Kong stars--Shu Qi (THE TRANSPORTER), Vicki Zhao Wei (SHAOLIN SOCCER), Karen Mok (BLACK MASK). The first two are absolutely stunning while Karen Mok opts for a no-nonsense, scrubbed-down, ready-for-action policewoman look--which is still damned attractive. The women get a lot to do here and are seen frequently in close-up. What more can fans of these actresses ask? Well, there is more. They also create strong, confident, vulnerable, emotionally-charged characters who interact a lot with each other. Shu Qi and Vicki play sisters, Lin and Sue, who hire out as a high-tech hit team to go after high-profile corporate criminal types. Karen plays the policewoman who takes it upon herself to go after the sisters, but also bonds with them and even offers a significant helping hand at one point.

That's pretty much all the plot you need to know, although there are plenty of subplots, including a burgeoning romance between Lin and a young man she once knew who's come back into her life. There are abundant flashbacks, achieved largely through digital video home movies, showing the two sisters as young girls playing with their parents, whose brutal murders (also seen in flashback) were engineered to steal the father's invention of World Panorama, a surveillance system with unlimited capacity. These murders propel the girls into their lives of crime--and vengeance.

The high-tech aspects are particularly clever and imaginative. The sisters each carry a watch that can pretty much do everything (cell phone, surveillance camera, computer, detonator, etc.). At one point Sue is in a car chase through the streets of Hong Kong and dials Lin on her headset for help. Lin uses a surveillance satellite to track Sue and keep her away from the pursuing police cars, all while she herself is using two automatic pistols to ward off a raid on her house by a team of assassins. Later, during the final raid, the two opposing sides use different tricks to fool the other side with manipulated surveillance camera coverage.

Do the action scenes deliver? Yes, they do. Granted, the actresses are not fighters and have to rely on stunt doubles, quick cuts and wire work, but they pull it off (certainly better than the girls in the CHARLIE'S ANGELS films do). Is the action far-fetched? Yes, but it will have you smiling and cheering, not groaning. These girls are the good guys and you care about them and want them to triumph.

Kung fu fans will welcome the presence of Yasuaki Kurata as one of the villains. This Japanese star has been in Hong Kong films for over 30 years (including HEROES OF THE EAST and FIST OF LEGEND) and he's still going strong.

The film is best appreciated in its Mandarin-language version, in which you get to hear Shu Qi and Vicki speaking in sync-sound in their own voices, although if you've got the HK import DVD with both language tracks, you can toggle back to the Cantonese track for Karen Mok's scenes, so you can hear her speak in her own voice.

"So Close" is a terribly unremarkable and uncharismatic title for a movie that should have been called, simply, "Sexy Action Chicks!". There's a lot of cool action and style, mostly to do with wire-aided martial arts and the three immensely appealing leading ladies, who were obviously having fun doing this. So if you like Asian action and kick-ass heroines, this is a must-see.

The premise with two girls being an action team, one a computer whiz and the other a field agent, is extremely similar to the comic book "Birds of Prey", which was also a short-lived (but abominably bad) TV series recently. Being martial arts assassins, the characters can also be compared with other comic book action chicks like Elektra or Lady Shiva, or, for that matter, Danger Girl. This movie seems very comics inspired.

Unfortunately, there is also some bad news: the story is pretty awful. In fact, you hardly notice it. The film-makers almost appear to have forgotten about it. Once again Asian producers do not realize the importance of having a proper plot. This is formulaic assassin/police/revenge clichés ad nauseam, with nothing even remotely original or surprising. One of the girls has a crush on the female police officer, and while that's sure-fire fodder for male fantasies, it's also gratuitously voyeuristic. Oh well, peace be with that - I admit I enjoyed it! Also, this was the first time I saw Karen Mok (outside of cameos), and she made a great impression. She's not drop-dead gorgeous, but she makes what she has go a long way! And she's a very sympathetic kind of person.

The CG effects were a little grating, esp. all the smashing glass. You'd think it would have been cheaper to just use real glass - but I guess they didn't wanna clean up afterward! Some of the other effects, like the elevators and many of the shots of the office building, were very well made.

I would have liked to rate this movie very highly, but at the end of the day it doesn't have much substance. It does however have beautiful women, some cool fight scenes, and great style. The entertainment value is definitely not bad, but I can't rate it higher than a 7 out of 10.

(Edit: Actually, yes I can! In hindsight I think it has enough intriguing elements, also story-wise, to warrant an 8 rating, and that is what I have now revised my rating to.)

This movie demonstrates Hong Kong movie making at it's best. Martial arts, CG work and an engaging story. The fights scenes are flashy without being overdone and the quieter parts of the movie are not too long winded. The performances of the three leading ladies are well balanced however the supporting cast let the side down a little. All in all a good movie that demonstrates Hong Kong directors and producers ability to take the Hollywood recipe and re-mix it. How many Hollywood directors would put the Carpenter's song "Close to you" over a gun battle? Definitely one for the collection if only for the fight scenes, but watchable for the story as well.

I thought this movie would be just a Hong Kong version of Charlie's Angels, but it is not. The movie was about two sisters who became professional killers because of their traumatic childhood of witnessing the murder of their father. Their father has developed a high-tech GPS technology just before his death. The sisters used this technology to aid them in their profession. The effect used on this movie is a lot like Matrix'. I thought the movie used the effect properly and therefore, the movie itself is a lot of fun to watch. The storyline is rather predictable, so also is the drama. However the fighting scene is cutting edge. Any scene that can make Vicky Zhao (Zhao Wei) looks like a vicious fighter is worth seeing :)

Saw SO CLOSE in Hong Kong (which unfortunately meant I got the badly dubbed into Cantonese version). I was quite excited about seeing it, just because Hong Kong doesn't produce many action movies these days... and because Shu Qi is always a pleasure to see.

My first reaction to the movie was "Oh my god, how was this movie ever allowed onto the screen"? The script is one of the worst I have ever seen - I used to write more coherently when I was 10 years old. Scripts have never been a big focus in Hong Kong movies, but the really sad thing about SO CLOSE is that it feels like they did try but didn't have a clue what they were doing.

With all the cliche and nonsense in the script, and the erratic direction from Corey Yuen (the mood of the movie lurches all over the place, with totally gratuitous attempts to inject 'style' in all the wrong places), I thought that Shu Qi had gotten herself a lead role in a clunker to rival the dreadful MARTIAL ANGELS. However, the movie does have one redeeming feature - excellent action scenes. Corey Yuen also choreographs, and he manages to add something new to the action movie's vocabulary. None of the cast except Yasuaki Kurata have any martial arts background, but the sophisticated choreography and deployment of wire and computer effects hides this fact well. The scenes are full of variety and adrenaline. The fact that you're watching cute girls doing most of the fighting doesn't hurt either :)

Overall, there is no escaping the fact that SO CLOSE is a badly made movie. The script and direction are woefully sub-par even by HK action movie standards. This is a real shame, as the action scenes are probably the best we'll see in 2002.

The writers get no points for creating a cohesive or logical plot. It's all over the place. A guy creates a worldwide spying device and then he's killed in an attempt to steal it. Years later his two daughters use the device to become hired assassins and get away with all their crimes. One of the sisters falls from some Korean sex symbol and decides she wants to stop killing people for money. The other sister wants to keep going and so she tries to do a job on her own and she screws up. There's a rookie cop who pretty much figures it all out and she's hot on the sisters' trail. One of the guys who paid for a hit decides he wants to wipe out the sisters and the cop and then it's all kicking and shooting and wire fu for the last exciting 20 minutes or so. Like I said, the story is pretty poorly put together but you will enjoy almost every moment any of the sisters or the cop is on the screen. Karen Mok is brilliant as the tough, smart, sassy and sexy cop. Shu Qi and Vicki Zhao make for the cutest sisters you'll ever see on screen. Whenever any of these characters are fighting with good guys, bad guys, one another or each other, you will be amazed at the stylized kung fu artistry. Yes, there's a lot of wires and camera trickery but it never takes away from the enjoyment. And how many movies can turn "Close To You" into a action theme? Don't watch the English dubbed version if you can avoid it. Watch it either in Mandarin or Cantonese for full enjoyment.

This could have been awesome. And at times, it gets there. This is basically a Hong-Kong Charlie's Angels. Usually I avoid making statements like this, but it's hard not to since Charlie's Angels does seem to be a major point of reference. It is based around two young, attractive women with an expanse of gadgetry at there disposal, whose work gets in the way of their love life and who get to kick major ass. The only difference is that the women are hired assassins, rather than hired crime fighters. The film makers seem to openly acknowledge where they stole their ideas from, giving Lynn's character the codename of 'The Computer Angel'.

The plot is non-sensical, the script wooden and the characters basically huge cardboard cut-outs. But then, this is a Hong-Kong action movie after all, and the plot is really just an vague structure to link together the visually arresting action sequences. And the action sequences, on a whole, are very well executed. At times they stretch too far. They try and acheive the visual trickery of Charlie's Angels, The Matrix, Crouching Tiger et all, but, due to the smaller budget, don't always pull it off sucsessfully.

The idea of women rolling about in t-shirts and tiny shorts by day, and kicking ass by night, is either hugely empowering or deeply degrading to women everywhere, depending on which side of the fence you are on. And the plot development of the criminal and the police officer earning new respect for each other by joining forces seems to be the blueprint for all H-K action flicks.

At the end of the day, if you like your movies big, dumb and action packed, this is really good fun. It's just been done a lot better. The film does get one superlative though, gaining the title of "most blatant product placement ever".

Actually I would like to refer `So Close' as a bad movie, but considering even sometimes a bad movie can be very entertaining, so I cancel it, because `So Close' is definitely don't come any closer! When the first time I heard the fuss about this movie, a so-called Asian-Charlie's Angel, directed by the well and capable Corey Yuen, my expectation is sky high. I know Corey from his famous Michelle Yeoh's `In The Line Of Duty ', a mid 80's action movie, that personally to me is a classic. So I think I will also get a fantastic action twist like that one.

I don't know what's wrong with Hong Kong actions lately. They seem on a wannabe-sophisticated-movie-ala Hollywood, but fall in a messy package. Great director like Stanley Tong and Tsui Hark directed such trashes like `China Strike Force' and `Black Mask II'. They could be better!

`So Close' is suffering from a dumb plot and bad directional aspect. I really don't know where is the movie goes, is it action or drama. Neither of it builds well. If only it focusing on one aspect, it could be a winner. There's so much waste here, which makes me so bored when I watched it. The only decent scene is the finale that so enjoyable and heart throbbing. Very reminiscent the Hong Kong styles. But that's it. Only that, nothing else.

I don't why such a great actor likes Seung Song-Heun and legendary actor like Yasuaki Kurata involved them self on this. Even among Shu Qi, Vicky Zao and Karen Mok, only Vicky managed to deliver a great performance and the rest of them such a mist cast. The only thing good is how stylish it's been made. But, once again, that has been done in Hollywood.

To sum it up; `So Close, So Dull!' I pity my self to ever watch it on the theater. Such a money waster. I highly don't recommend this to you. Better check `Charlie's Angels' or Cynthia Khan/Moon Lee's flicks instead. They're a million much better than this!

3/10

Despite the fact that this is a super-slick action thriller with guns, swords, cars and martial arts, So Close is a refreshing and unusual movie. It's NICE, to put it simply. Lovely girls, dressed in white much of the time, hanging around their picturesque house messing around and eating cakes and having baths. Despite all the asses they kick, they actually behave like young women and not ultra-agressive 'I-want-to-be-a-man' type female heroes, like Xena or Sarah Connor.

The action is sleek and graceful - feminine. It's also rather slow and lo-key compared to most films of this nature. The real action doesn't come until the climax, but when it does, director Corey Yuen pulls out all the stops, climaxing in a two-against-one sword fight that ranks alongside that of The Phantom Menace.

Despite how it's advertised, So Close is not a skinflick. The women are certainly not sex objects. They are sexy, but in a wholesome way. It's their natural beauty rather than their sex appeal that is most noticable.

So Close is a great movie, and should entertain any mainstream audience regardless of their farmiliarity of Asian films.

So Close is nothing like Charlie's Angels. Three beautiful women in the lead, two of them contract killers and one police. There is some drama-plot involved but that doesn't hold too well. Sometimes there are a few silly minor things but all in all the movie was very entertaining. Fight choreography was at least very interesting and quite original.

Rating: 7/10

Immediately one of my favorite movies. Excellent action, great use of CGI, a few jarring "impossibilities", but overall an excellent action-thriller.

Here's the thing: I didn't know who Vicki Zhao was, so she didn't impress or disappoint me. I had seen Shu Qi in "Gorgeous" and didn't like her much in that, so she impressed me with her range of acting in this movie, to tell the truth. In fact, all three female leads were impressive in some of the thoughts and emotions they communicated in nothing more than a quirk of an eyebrow or a twitch of the lips. But I came away totally impressed with Karen Mok. I know her as a singer, and have always considered her a little arrogant or conceited. I don't consider her half as sexy as she seems to be generally considered. But I *liked* her character in this movie, and that must be largely attributed to her acting and scene presence.

I think they played up the "sexy" angle of the girls too much. They are all quite attractive, yes, but the attempts to take advantage of that sometimes distracted the movie...to me, inadvertent sexiness has far more impact than when it is shoved in your face. Still, an excellent movie. Well worth seeing.

...and for what it's worth, I liked the sound-mixing on the gunshots. Excellent heavy/punchy sound that really communicated what it might feel like to get shot.

This movie is a sleek action spy cool girl film. Complete with its classic genre of gadgets and technology and whozits galore. Along side the action kicking kung-fu and gun fights of a Schwarzenegger film. Now with all that to compare it to you think the film would blow chunks. But it actually doesn't.

The film is well put together. Basically two sisters take high profile contract jobs, corporate espionage, hitman contracts, etc... A new cop on the scene may try to take them out, but who is really working for the better cause. The plot doesn't try to be overly complicated but still is enough of a plot to keep the audience engaged.

The action sequences are well shot and move fast and well. The technology of the cool watches and spy satellites isn't completely unbelievable and does actually add the appropriate amount of 'cool factor' to the girls and film. The story isn't anything overly complex or lower IQ simple, but does keep the viewer interested. Everything works just the way it should and it fits together like interlocking puzzle pieces.

I expected this movie to be something akin to "Charlie's Angels" the first one. This movie is much better. If you were to compare it to eating different brands of ice-cream "So Close" would be your favorite brand and flavor, and "Charlie's angles" would be like a nasty banana split. Not to say "So Close" is completely mind blowing, but it does what it sets out to do and leaves you with an extremely satisfied flavor in your vision. A definite recommendation.

One more thing the english dubbing of this film was quite good. Although the subtitles don't always match, the story line is still the same. You don't even need to have the subtitles on if you are lazy and just want to watch it in english you won't notice almost any times when the characters mouths move different from what they say.

So Close is THE movie that hooked me onto foreign cinema. Like many Americans I was ignorant to everything except horribly dubbed martial arts films from the 1970s. I visited my video store one day and noticed So Close in the Action section, immediately assuming that it would be a good film to laugh at. Subsequent to watching this film, however, I was confused. Had I just inadvertently watched an EXCELLENT film? Yes, I had! My criteria for excellence is quite simply entertainment value, regardless of the genre (i.e., drama, horror, action, romance, etc.). And yes, there are serious dramas that are quite frankly NOT entertaining, and therefore NOT good movies, regardless of how many awards the "official critics" want to give them. In like manner, there are actioners that are VERY entertaining, and therefore VERY good movies, regardless of how negatively the "official critics" want to rate them. Keeping this in mind, So Close is simply BURSTING with entertainment value.

First of all, the action sequences are very well done, and are highlighted by the final infiltration of a corporate high-rise, which ends with an absolutely CLASSIC three-way swordfight. The choreography (both gunplay and swordplay) is phenomenal, and puts the vast majority of actioners to shame. It is admitted that this film focuses more on finesse than the power and brutality of Hong Kong films released in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This is actually a good thing when one considers the originality of the movements and the length of the scenes themselves, which greatly exceed most of the action sequences in previous (and subsequently released) movies. The stylish protagonists use a treasure chest of items - satellite imagery, high-frequency earrings, guns, wall-piercing high heels, miniature grappling hooks, swords, decoy programs, bamboo sticks, etc. - in a wide variety of ways to eliminate the antagonists. The sheer diversity that is showcased in this film is enough to overpower three typical action films put together. Finally, it is a delight to experience action sequences where the characters actually DO something, instead of making theatre poses and shooting little glowing balls at each other (as in Storm Riders and A Man Called Hero). It is also a delight to see carefully choreographed movements, instead of slide-shows with chaotic camera-work that makes the scenes completely impossible to follow (as in Ashes of Time).

One important point to be made is that this film contributes characters that are LOVABLE. Regardless of who is present on screen (Zhao, Karen, Shu, or Yasuaki), it is an enjoyable experience. This adds significant entertainment value for scenes shown in-between fights, and therefore enables So Close to avoid the incessant boredom that most actioners inflict upon their viewers.

Was this film so groundbreaking that it single-handedly opened the flood gates to an entirely new realm of cinema for me to explore? Is So Close the primary reason that I have thusfar viewed over 900 Chinese, Japanese, and Korean movies over the few years and have added over 300 more in my online rental queue? Yes, it was! Rating = 5/5 stars

Qi Shu (The Eye 2) appeared in six films in 2002, one of which was The Transporter. While we didn't get to see her in action in that film, we sure do in this one. She made me forget all about Jet Li with her moves. But, she wasn't the only one with moves, as her nemesis, Inspector Hong Yat Hong (Karen Mok) was equally good, and a battle they had in a parking garage really got the blood pumping as it was just about to get very interesting until the bad guys showed up and they had to join forces temporarily.

Qi Shu was the Computer Angel, as assassin, who finally was betrayed and killed. At that time was born an avenging angel in the form of her sister Sue (Wei Zhao), who had equally impressive abilities, including magnificent swordsmanship.

Wei Zhao and Karen Mok joined together to avenge Lynn and eliminate the bad guys. I have never seen such fantastic marital arts displayed. It was utterly amazing, mostly due to the choreography of Corey Yuen (War, Fist of Fury) and Jianyong Gao. Fortunately, we will get to see Corey Yuen's work again this year in John Woo's Red Cliff, starring Wei Zhao and Tony Leung.

Stupid re-hashed script, CGI heavy "action" scenes and two of the blandest performances ever. The very fact that "So Close" is rating above a 3 is an example of how pathetic HK films are nowadays.

I wasted my time, don't waste yours.

I really enjoyed this movie. This time, it's not Chinese male who rule an action movie, but Chinese women. But above that I really enjoyed the relationship between the two sisters. How a movie is touching you depend of your life. I lost my parents I lost my daughter and may be this is why I was touched by this movie. I would like to have the version of close to you from this movie. I also liked the play with the camera. One of my favorite scene, is when Lynn (in the french version) jump out of the window (at the beginning) while her sister is asking her to not forget the cake.

Martial

There was a vague suggestion of a plot here somewhere, but I'll be damned if I can remember enough to do a summary.

Shu Qi and Zhao Wei play assassin sisters who have to screw over some important people for some reason. As this is the 21st century computers figure largely. Zhao has an impressive if rather daft office full of computers that enable her to see just about anything, anywhere, which is really helpful for her telling Shu when she has to get ready to plant her stiletto boot in some guy's face. Oh and there's some other woman played by Karen Mok, who is a policewomen trying to stop them. Ooh, the tension! The gaps in between the OTT but pretty decent fight scenes are taken up either by Karen Mok jibing at her partner, otherwise known as Goofy Girl Power Fodder Police Sidekick Model 101 Who Wears Glasses Because He's Goofy, or Shu and Zhao arguing with each other ("Waaa, waaa, I want to shoot the important people!") or occasionally fighting which at one point leads to a scene involving a full bath tub, soap, Zhao getting very wet, a naked Shu Qi and a carefully placed white towel that's as soft core as you can get without actually being soft core.

So far you probably think I hated this film, but I did find it enjoyable. Action-wise, it's standard fare for anyone familiar with HK action, so that means it's much superior to anything Hollywood churns out in a similar vein. Unfortunately there's some lame CGI pasting things together now and then but there's enough neat martial arts and gun play to justify giving it a look. US actresses can try to be Shu Qi, but few come close in terms of charisma or looks. Along with the action she's the only significant factor holding the whole thing together.

The major stumbling block is when the film goes dramatic into the third act. What started out as a fun, light hearted shampoo commercial come shoot em up almost regresses into an overly melodramatic vengeance piece that I felt didn't fit in with its initial attitude. Luckily vast hordes of people start getting shot soon afterwards which prevents the film from killing itself with its shoelaces.

Don't feel you have to rush out and rent this. It's fun, but Infernal Affairs signalled the end of the post-John Woo HK crime recession which suggested they can do a lot better than this. But I don't want my money back because So Close achieved what it set out to be; brainless action with attractive women. Certainly choose this over Charlie's Angels.

I wish I could get these 2 hours of my life back. There was no real point to this movie, other than the production staff seeing how cool they could be. There were maybe 3 amusing points during the movie, but the rest of it was just horrid. The action scenes were sterile and had no pop or pizzaz to them. The "story" was a poor excuse to string together a few boring fight scenes. As someone else mentioned here, the window smashing scenes were painfully obvious CG. I don't mind movies with subtitles, they need to learn that if they are going to use white subtitles, they need to not put them against white backgrounds in the movie (like the white clothes the "heroes" wore or the brightly-lit-from-beneath table).