A young man goes to Las Vegas with his best friend to prove he can win big bucks. When he loses all of the money, he and his friend get help from a young woman who tells the man the story of some special stones that are part of a legend involving time travel and parallel universes. When the trio get in a car accident, the young gambler is the only survivor. Pursued by a female detective, the two accidentally end up back in time on Christmas Day, where the gambler decides to make the wrong things right, and he also ends up falling in love with the detective.
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Reviews
Really Surprised!
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Leave it to Hong Kong filmmakers to take a time travel premise and turn it into a gambling movie. Ekin Cheng is the gambler, and he has his eyes on taking the high rollers in Vegas. But things go wrong, and he ends up off a cliff -- but not before a mystic Indian talisman transports him, and the detective chasing him (Cecilia Cheung) back in time -- but only three days back, where they have to race to save lives, and of course fall in love. Bad jokes, bad English acting, and a silly time travel script that doesn't entirely add up, but what the heck, there is a lot of fun to be had along the way, and Ekin and Cecilia are entirely charming and can get you through the weak parts, and the Las Vegas desert setting adds some novelty into the production (for a Hong Kong film).
This is a strange mix of genres that you do sometimes see a lot of in Hong Kong films. It's partly a romantic comedy (which Netflix billed it as), but also more serious than that as well. Ekin Cheng thinks he's a hot shot gambler who just needs a chance (that is, money) to win big in Vegas. He gets that chance by stealing some money along with a friend. But things go horribly wrong and his friend ends up dead. But then he ends up going back in time rather mysteriously and has a chance to change things.The end and beginning are fairly serious, the middle is extremely funny in spots, almost slapstick.The English captioning is terrible at times, which is odd, because part of the movie is in English (it's set in Las Vegas), and they can't even get the subtitles for the English parts right.
I just saw this on the International Channel and was mesmerized. It didn't have the flow of a Hollywood movie, which is part of its charm. Like in Donny Darko, there's a time tunnel, future and past merging, regrets, etc. The Chinese themes helped me identify with it: Asian guy, unlucky with women, gambling obsession, weirdness with gay people, in love with the cute Asian girl.The main Character, Ren, is macho and self confident to a fault. He doesn't value his friends; he is impulsive and messes around with the ladies. Living day by day, not caring about anyone but himself. But this weird car accident and memory SNAFU give him a second chance, and the story unfolds around his change of conscience and a quirky love story.It also reminds me a little of Memento. I don't think its very much like Groundhog Day, like the other reviewer... not that comic. Time is used as a ploy to deal with the main theme, which I think is regret.I enjoyed the suspended disbelief, partly because it was a bit cheesy. And I do love casino scenes, so that helped me enjoy it.I gave it a 9 out of 10. -hc
SPOILER=======================================================> I just finish watchin the movie. I loved how the plot was set up, so that ekin cheng finds out who commited the crime, but I am confused as how his attitude could have changed so quickly, the early ekin would kill for money, but the later one who is only a few days older would risk his life for his friend and the girl. but other then that I loved it
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