Nowhere Man (2019) User Reviews

Long waited HK noir style is back

[renoirbleu · 7/10 · 8 April 2020]

As a big fan of the 90s HK filmes, this was a nice retro style series. It has traditional themes including gangster crime, brotherhood, and lust. The vivid colour and selection of mindblowing sound tracks were excellent to bring back the old good days of HK cinema.

I was surprised to see that this series was made in Taiwan and wish that it could be only a begining of seeming more like this good piece of work from the mandarin producers. The story could be quite banal or mixed up side down. Maybe it was intended so as its title suggests in Mandarin.

For the originality of cinematography and characters were good enough to make me nostalgic about Wang Kar Wei. I cannot wait to see any similar works to be released soon.

Not a 'bad' show per se, but rather a confusing one

[Cinefil_Original · 5/10 · 2 November 2019]

The show definitely had something special, although I can't exactly put my finger on it. It was also quite confusing and lacking direction, but overall enjoyable. Looking back, plenty of plot threads were not explored, and the plots that were presented were also intertwined which made the show pretty confusing. To rap it all up, the main 'villain' was not believable, his means and actions were not explained, the main characters were not nearly enough build or developed throughout the show, and some of the side character deserved more background. Also, it seems like the show ended without tying up loose ends. Was this worth the watch? Yes and no. There are other shows more deserving of your time.

Where is the plot?

[mickydu · 2/10 · 25 November 2019]

The cinematography wasn't bad but there's such a lacking in storytelling. There's no flow in the story and the poorly character build-up makes it really confusing and lacks any sort of depth. The only thing I can see is the director wanted to make some nostalgic piece of film. I watched the first episode and couldn't bring myself to watch anymore. It had lots of potential but it needs to go back to the drawing board to make it even watchable.

Wasted the viewer's time, cast's talent

[kamw-70159 · 1/10 · 7 November 2019]

Great acting but I am not clear what I was watching. I needed to read reviews to get a better sense of the narrative. Episode 1 was very confusing. I think the director tried to make this an artistic film and ended up losing the audience.

Really really struggled watching this. The plot had potential, actors were great but the pace was awful, cinematography was terrible. #DirectorFail

Took me by surprise and amazed me

[betty_boo2006 · 9/10 · 1 November 2019]

Wow! Great acting and amazing cinematography, the light and the colours used were breathtaking combined with the music! Everything matched so well together. The actors fitted just perfectly in this universe as well. Joseph Chang was indeed a delight to watch, along with Wang Bo Chieh. Probably the best casting for this kind of show. Loved how they intertwined the "past" with the "present", sometimes maybe confusing, but the "present" was more understandable because of that. The twist near the end I kinda expected, but the very end (watch till the credits begin) surprised me in a good way! Amazing show!

Exceptional!

[mesachen · 10/10 · 13 November 2019]

1. The most important is you need keep your brain running when watching, the story is awesome and great. If you think more, you get more fun and discover more surprise hidden in the detail.

2. This not for the people who just want to watch without thinking.

3. It's okay to give a low rating, but it's not fair if you hate it just because you don't don't want to think when watching. This is somehow like most people hate to watch the "Theory of relativity" by Einstein, their dislike is mostly due to they just cannot understand.

4. Overall, this is not 100% perfect drama, but I really like it and believe this drama can compete with other Hollywood A-class drama.

Not easy to understand without deep Taiwan and Chinese lit understanding

[milty908-1 · 8/10 · 16 December 2021]

I've read a few english reviews and it really misses a lot of the point. I don't blame the reviewers, because even for casual Chinese and Taiwanese watchers the plot and more importantly, the theme is hard to understand.

------ SPOILER ------

Hard to even write this review to explain the story. On the surface seems to be a gangster revenge and honor type of movie, with some twists in the kidnapping plots. Only at the very very end it is revealed that the entire movie was dreamt, with the old man Tang (real name Xia) as the central figure previewing Quan's fate as he grows older. This is why the theater scene was shown twice, the second time as the ending, without promises of marriage, and only tears in Quan's eyes. It is also finally revealed that Tang/Xia is presumably Quan's mother's first husband, and Tang/Xia ended up in jail because he killed Quan's real father, a man named Chen (only revealed in newspaper clippings in Ep 4). Presumably, somehow Quan knows this fact, which is why he said Tang/Xia was his enemy, at the very end scene, while his friends were teasing him.

This is difficult enough to understand, but then it gets very philosophical. There are many references to Chinese literature and poems, some well known some kind of obscure. There are also quite a few literary themes in Chinese culture that refers to a dreamscape that reveals the future, like a Chinese ghost of Christmas future. Being that the entire story is a dream, Quan is representative of Chinese and Taiwanese people's fates, often not in their control, and controlled by big businesses, governments, and triads. By cycling the fate of son revenging father's death but only to die at the hand of the son and so on, it's trying to comment on the cycle of perpetual hell, or Avici in sanskrit, where suffering is repeated over and over. Most of these poems comment on this fate, and one in particular by Li Shang Ying gets to the heart of what the story is trying to tell, which is complicated but simply put that desires lead to suffering.

There are some things to pick on with the story, such as it's overly complicated with some side plots, loose ends that aren't explained, and plot holes that are not or barely or nonsensically explained. I think this aspect is why it's not well reviewed in the general public. If the story was cleaned up and maybe done as a feature film in 120 minutes it may be easier to follow.

Typically dream endings are decried as cop outs but in this case, the story is technically the cop out as the dream, with the intertwined dream within a dream, is the real story. Presumably as the end of the series show, the events in the dream never happened, yet.

One of the best.

[djinnmoto · 10/10 · 21 February 2020]

I don't understand why people rated this serie so badly. It's probably one of the best movies Taiwan ever made. A lot of twists and turns. And an ending that satisfies every one with an exhaust of relief.

The narrative might be a little confused at first just because most of you are not familiar with Chinese names in English and that makes you difficult to focus on the storyline.

It's a good one and definitely worth watching.

Great series

[doanduyphuong · 10/10 · 3 May 2020]

Great acting with great colors used, every scenes look perfectly balanced. Almost all the actors fitted perfectly and played their role in developing the whole stories, their acting is phenomenal (btw, lots of curse phrases in Chinese where you can learn too lol). The timeline was a little bit mixed but pretty easy to understand if you pay enough attention. Highly recommended for someone who likes a series with lots of plot twists.

Creative Screenplay

[jl67298 · 8/10 · 7 September 2020]

Keeps audience in suspense with arrhythmic storytelling that mirrors the complexity of the plot. Daring, unrepentant approach for an otherwise generally tacky and predictable Taiwanese theater scene.

However, for such a revolutionary screenplay, one would expect better, more convincing fight and love scenes. Also, the juxtaposition between who we originally think is the nowhere man and who the actual nowhere man is later revealed to be, can be better portrayed with symmetrical contrast.

Well done. Keep pushing the boundaries!

Loved Every Minute of It!

[celinka20 · 10/10 · 25 July 2023]

What I loved: 1. The characters - especially between the brothers. Brotherly love and loyalty isn't always sweet and respectful. Brothers fight all the time because of how competitive some of them are. There is always a favourite, and there's always a mediator in the mix. I just loved the acting and the dynamic between the actors who played the brothers because it came across as feeling very genuine.

2. The clever plot and how all the problems were resolved. So brilliant! When I thought the movie was about revenge, another plot line was revealed. When I thought it was a story about a prison break, a mystery plot was revealed to hook me into following that plot line. All the twists and turns really paid off at the end. This movie isn't all about the violence and the hate. It's also about social injustice, and it presents an angle that I have not seen before in other HK triad-type movies.

3. The artistry. I loved the cinematography, the set designs, the costumes, even the Cantonese subtitles. I don't know how many viewers noticed this, but that was simply brilliant!