The Moss (2008) User Reviews

The Moss Review: I liked it

[ninjaalexs · 7/10 · 25 September 2009]

The Moss seems to have attracted mixed reviews; some have praised its cinematography, others have put down its violent nature and derivative nature. The storyline involves a corrupt cop who has his hand in the pockets of the criminal underworld. After a raid on a brothel a fat man farts an emerald out (seriously) which is collected by an under-age girl trying to make money and escape poverty by working in a brothel, another prostitute goes on the run with her. The fat man is murdered by another prostitute and his body hidden. The cops are then involved in a shoot-out with a Pakistani gang and things follow from there really.

The cinematography is great capturing the grit and dirt of the street. The camera movements can be distracting and sometimes it is hard to tell what happened (during the fight scenes) as some of it is so quick. Blink and you miss it. Other than that can't complain. The sound design is crisp and varied. The acting by the main characters is spot on. Some of the bit players do tend to either overdo it or not really stand out but it can be overlooked.

The film has been criticised for its violence. Bloody shootings, brutal beating, impalements: it's all here. Another factor which may put people off is its unsympathetic nature; I would say it is nihilistic in tone. This is a current trend in film and can be seen a lot in horror and thrillers but I like my films a little darker.

Summary: Recommended for fans of gritty HK cop/gangster films. Should be avoided by fans of nice films. It offers nothing new to the genre but there's enough to recommend it.

DVD: (Mei-Ah HK Version 2-Discer) Good clean picture quality with sharp contrast (what you would expect from a recentish film); Sound: on my system crisp sound levels with good balance the bass sounds were particularly good. The subtitles were hit and miss, some spelling mistakes and accuracy mistakes but they were good enough to be understood. Disc 2 has a making of extra. Disc 1 is just the film.

Recommended

Not much of anything

[dbborroughs · 3/10 · 2 March 2009]

The title of the film refers to the low life dwellers of streets (cops, prostitutes, crooks) who cling on to the edges of society. Set in a city slum the film deals with a less then clean cop and the people he comes in contact with including a prostitute and a young girl, who dreams of being rescued by a prince. Striving to be something deep and meaningful the film fell flat for me. The rapid fire, hand held style may have kept things moving and allowed for the film to be shot in close quarters but at the same time the camera moves so much and the cuts are so rapid that its hard to get a handle on what your watching, or in some cases I wasn't sure who was who with most of the characters blending together (not because they look the same more that we never really get a good look at some of them). I really didn't care about anyone and it made getting through this film a real chore. Its not a bad film as such, but its the first film in a long while where I feel that it wasn't worth the effort to see it or to pick it up (or even review it). In a weird way its kind of like the title lichen, something that dwells in the corner and isn't worth your attention.

Bewitched for Survival - Review of "The Moss"

[kampolam-75813 · 4/10 · 23 January 2023]

Director Kwok Chi-Kin's second film, technically compared to "The Pye-Dog" (2007) has made obvious progress. The script and storytelling techniques are stronger and more forceful than the previous film. Of course, the film has not been able to get rid of the flooding elements such as police, gangsters and undercover agents, but this time Kwok Chi-Kin took the police force responsible for "to release snake" (to conduct a sting operation). The title of the department VICE is a bit new, but it describes the story of the former undercover Jan played by Shawn Yue Man-Lok, and a comment from Pan, a colleague of the Regional Crime Unit played by Shaun Tam Chun-Yin, "is more bewitching than a hooligan", the fall of a policeman.

The film is not much the length of this description of Jan's , but instead Kwok Chi-Kin deduces three story lines: the son of the female gangster Chong Mom (played by Susan Shaw Yam-Yam) is missing, and Jan is asked to track down the whereabouts of her enemy Four-eyed Tong played by Liu Kai-Chi; Jan's prostitute lover Lulu (played by Bonnie Xian Se-Li), her cousin in the Mainland China (played by Shi Xueyi) came to Hong Kong and had a chance encounter with the beggar killer played by Fan Siu-Wong, a scene of "Beauty and the Beast", Four-eyed Tong was assassinated by the beggar killer, Jan thought it was the murder of Chong Mom, but it turned out to be a conspiracy within the gang; in addition, another branch was a group of Indian and Pakistani outlaws who robbed the area, and finally met Jan, the beggar killer and Four-eyed Tong subordinate (played by Gill Mohindepaul Singh).

This multi-line confluence of plots is obviously a reference to Johnnie To Kei-Fung's films, but Kwok Chi-Kin failed to achieve Johnnie To's composure in terms of skill. Kwok Chi-Kin said in the production special that he named "The Moss" because he knew a police officer from VICE who happened to be call "Moss". He further pointed out that as long as there is water and light, moss can grow, and the tyranny of the vitality just represents the characters in the film, living in a harsh environment, still exert their motivation for survival. Perhaps this is also a portrayal of the Hong Kong film workers.

By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)