Samhh I remember walking into the theatre without much expectations. I just happened to be vacationing in China and without anything to do on a searing summer day, I went to check out the film that everyone seemed to be hyped up about.I walked out awestruck. The Silent War is a clever film twisted with mystery, suspense and that secret hope of romance everyone gets between the hero/heroine. The beginning of the film was frankly, intriguing. Xun Zhou and Tony Cheung, two great actors, had perfected chemistry and through the progression of the film, you'll fall in love with them.The end of the movie will leave you reeling. You won't know what's going to happening, unlike some mystery films, until the very last second and even then you'll be able to convince yourself otherwise because everything was going so perfectly.In all honesty, its a beautiful and bittersweet film. Never have been much of Asian movies fan, but this is DEFINITELY recommended.

Mandy Chan It's a complex feeling after watching this movie. Even more when complicated when such a heavy and serious movie incorporated with Tony's witty and semi-funny acts. I really want to like this movie a lot, but really... putting the "tokyo raiders" charisma to this show proves it doesn't work. What's more is when the story is pretty predictable to some point it doesn't make sense. But nevertheless, the setting for the movie is nicely captured... and comes with accompanying music, and of course credit given to those who did a perfect job developing tony's character. Conclusion, worth watching on a boring weekend or when you have nothing to watch.

moviexclusive War, in any number of forms, is a frantic activity. War movies, in juxtaposition, are inherently an entertainment business, made by people who measure with near perfect precision the amount of drama and tension that best represents the specific war being discussed. Unfortunately, The Silent War is a miscalculation of the worst sort, mildly interesting in the least parts and wholly numb in the most parts. It takes too long to arrive at any kind of tension and buries its exhausting journey there in an uncomfortable direction and bald sentimentality. I don't hate The Silent War, but it's often more trouble than it's worth.The movie takes place in 1950s China where revolutionists run rampant. The government responds with the 701 agency, a secret department that spies on conspirators through telegraphs, intercepts their messages and intervenes before they hit. After the enemy cripples the transmissions, secret service agent Zhang Xue-Ning (Zhou Xun) is forced to recruit blind piano tuner He Bing (Tony Leung). He Bing eventually retrieves the transmissions with his heightened sense of hearing but not before he falls into a romantic gridlock with Xue-Ning and colleague Shen Jing (Mavis Fan). With the revolutionists quickly closing in on the government, the agency must stop them at all costs.Married to the direction of Infernal Affairs veterans Alan Mak and Felix Chong, The Silent War explodes into a cunning game of deceit between the good and the bad during the last half hour, culminating in a gripping finale that sees our heroes barely save theday. It's a finely performed conclusion that manages to feel like the worst type of indulgence, one that is only justified because the rest of the film is so terrible. Alan and Felix are uncharacteristically conservative here, almost too timid to explore the massive scale of the war and merely satisfied to lock the majority of the movie within the dark hallways of the agency's building.The result is a largely one-sided and stiff movie that doesn't quite earn the narrative trust it's supposed to have. Tony Leung tries to save the film by applying the most ridiculous dose of concentration in turning radio knobs and conveying a face perpetually taut with distress as he leans in on encrypted messages from the revolutionists while his colleagues caress morse code-printed paper incessantly. It's all done so that you can pretend that there're field agents on the frontlines receiving this intelligence and doing all the exciting stuff like chasing and shooting bad guys. Of course, this never materialises and you're trapped with seeing Tony Leung wearing sunglasses and turning radio knobs for almost 1.5 hours.At this point, I feel that it's both fairly accurate and patently unfair to label Tony Leung's character boring. While the film restricts him to a largely pretentious role, he has a thankless task of quickly switching to a jocular, if somewhat abrasive demeanour that lends reasonable credibility to the romantic portions of the film. This still doesn't excuse the poorly handled romantic threads that seemingly tear you out of the experience at random intervals, bearable at best and jarring at worst. Fortunately, the love story arcs survive the questionable introduction to work effectively into the denouement.The biggest problem with The Silent War is that it requires you to invest your interest in a hefty 1.5 hours before rewarding you the big prize in the last half hour. This would be fine if the first 1.5 hours didn't struggle while attempting to come up with anything remotely interesting. By the time it gets to the really good stuff in the last half hour, the movie's nearly over and it tries to establish elements that it never spent enough time considering. The Silent War is a movie that could be great, should be great, but isn't great.

Jeff Lee AN illiterate blind man who's an assistant to a piano tuner holds the key to cracking an espionage tale. How did this happen?Firstly, the blind man is played by Tony Leung, so, naturally, he possesses supernatural hearing skills. He can't see but he can very well hear everything, and at great distances, too.How does he get thrown into a plot reeking of romance and spying for the Chinese government in 1949?Well, a cute chick spots his talent, and in spite of his abrasiveness, she cajoles him into joining a secret group of code breakers.Naturally, he becomes the pet of the group because of his astounding skill, and he even learns Morse code within five days.The movie demonstrates his skill in a montage that will take your breath away. In it, he guesses the personalities of five rebels seeking to bring down China just by listening to the amount of pressure they use while tapping out Morse codes. The camera movement and editing here are exquisite.The title of the movie refers to Chinese government agents who die in the field, and whose exploits are never known to the world.Watching Leung in this spy flick reminds me of his appearance in another spy flick, Lust, Caution, set during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai during World War II. In Lust, he bares his butt. In Silent War, he bares his finely-manicured hands.Even while playing a blind character, Leung still has a sheen of animal magnetism. He's drawn to his recruiter, and when she rebuffs him, he finds love in the fields with another code breaker.The recruiter does so probably because of the dangerous nature of her work. So the two women take a walk in the fields to settle things, and the recruiter gives way to the other woman. All this is done in a civilized manner, so there's no scene of one woman attacking another in a bar.He marries the code breaker, and their pillow talk is confined to him tapping out codes he heard at work on her palm. So what does he do during lovemaking? The espionage plot is threadbare as our hero is confined to his chair. It's the recruiter who puts her life on the line, and the revelation of the traitor's identity is the only thing surprising.Midway through, Leung's character gets an eye op that will allow him to see. Firstly, I doubt if such technology was available in 1949. Secondly, it brings only more problems for our hero.I, of course, thought about Val Kilmer's blind masseur character in At First Sight (1999). Kilmer also gets an eye op and from that moment onwards, he can only see problems.Leung's character also feels the same way; he gouges out his eyes later.The director's maintains a mainly bluish-green patina in most scenes with a film-noirish mood. You can always make out the Rembrandt shadow on the guys. The production and photography are excellent. Too bad about the plot, which is hard to turn a blind eye to.