Island of Greed

1997 [CANTONESE]

Action / Crime

10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 36%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 36% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.5/10 10 967 967

Plot summary

A gutsy police detecive and his team of cops probe into the widespread illegal dealings of a criminal mastermind who schemes to redeem himself by running for government office in taiwan.

Director

Michael Mak Photo
Michael Mak

Top cast

Andy Lau Photo
Andy Lau as Capt. Fong Kuo-Fai, Bureau of Investigation Artillery Team
Paulyn Sun Photo
Paulyn Sun as Miu-Heung
Winston Chao Photo
Winston Chao as Minister Feng
Annie Wu Photo
Annie Wu as Ling Fai
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1.02 GB
1280*516
Cantonese 2.0
NR
Subtitles cn  
24 fps
2 hr 6 min
Seeds 2
1.98 GB
1904*768
Cantonese 2.0
NR
Subtitles cn  
24 fps
2 hr 6 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by hokenyu

interesting portrayal of Taiwanese corruption

Black Gold is a good portrayal of corruption in Taiwanese democratic politics, but is also packed with action, romance and all of the other trademark Hong Kong stuff. Yes, Hong Kong! I watched this movie not knowing what it was about, and was shocked to see two Hong Kong actors speaking terrible Mandarin in a movie set and filmed in Taiwan! Anyways, Black Gold is about a former mobster (Tony Leung Ka Fai) who tries to run for election in the Taiwanese Legislative Assembly and the cop who is out to stop him (Andy Lau Tak Wah)One thing I disliked Black Gold is how Andy Lau's cop character is the protagonist, while Tony Leung's to-be politician is the antagonist; Tony faced way more obstacles (enemy mobsters, police investigation) than Andy did. Honestly, Andy really had no reason to hate Tony. On another note, I found there were many unnecessary characters, such as a Buddhist cult minister and a few extra mob bosses. Also, I also found that the action scenes were unclear and and the camera often seemed too close. There may also have been continuity problems, but this may be due to TV censorship.Though not a great movie, it was nice to see rare shots of Taipei. And of course, viewers must remember that Hong Kong movies are cheesy, and it's important to overlook some minor errors.
Reviewed by DanTheMan2150AD 6 / 10

Decent enough

Island of Greed is a pretty ruthless and gritty chronicling of corruption in the government of China and their occupation of Taiwan. Although it's much more of a political thriller using current affairs as a backdrop to tell the life of a triad boss in his attempts to seize power and the opposition he faces from both political rivals and an ever-persistent police detective. A lot of the movie is carried by the charisma of its two leading men, nice direction from Michael Mak, a haunting score by Raymond Wong & Landy Wei and some decent action set pieces that are too few and far between. However, the story relies so heavily on viewers knowing the ins and outs of Taiwan like the back of their hand, so I was extremely lost on most things that would more than likely have a deeper meaning to those who have grown up there. Nothing special but still worthwhile for the action and performances if you can get invested in all the political talk.
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