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Critics reviews

MANHUNT

John Woo China, 2017
The New York Times
One hesitates to sound like Jeff Daniels’s pompous character in “The Squid and the Whale” and categorize “Manhunt” as “minor Woo,” but it’s undeniable that “Manhunt” delivers first-rate cinematic technique while skimping on substantial emotional investment. It’s still a great deal of fun.
May 18, 2018
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Even the more intriguing moments of visual melodrama are offset by Manhunt’s sense of ironic nostalgia. With every overblown character introduction and goofy twist, it announces itself as intentionally cheesy guilty pleasure. With Woo, one expects a higher, more transcendent grade of cheese.
May 3, 2018
This is all completely preposterous and continually enjoyable, with constantly startling action choreography and an overheated soundtrack that at one point breaks into Turandot. Here those damn pigeons don't just soar into the sky; thanks to CGI, they flap annoyingly into the middle of fight scenes, spoiling a punch or a gunman's aim... What Alain Delon was to The Killer, Takakura is to this, and the steelly self-possession of Zhang Hanyu gives the film a solemnity amid all the flamboyance.
September 12, 2017
If the screenplay is (knowingly) nutty, Manhunt's chases are something to marvel at. Whether aboard speedboats through Osaka or inside a country house besieged by armed bikers, Woo's action scenes jovially parody some of the director's patented leitmotifs (e.g., the white doves Du and Yamura set free while battling).
September 11, 2017
A similar universalist sentiment belies Manhunt, John Woo's mind-blowing comeback that I could only describe as a series of nesting dolls, if each doll stood for some bizarre snafu and somehow proceeded to grow larger in breadth and depth. I'm happy to hear that we all enjoyed the film! If Good Luck's circle possesses a single bisector, then the circle of Manhunt contains an infinite number of intersections.
September 10, 2017
It's pure, maximalist filmmaking in the hands of a master who can put it all out there within the right emotional context to prevent it all from falling apart. It's also Woo's most self-reflexive work to date, with references to most of his filmography peppered throughout... This is a different John Woo than we're used to: someone who's more playful, more self-aware, and, in some ways, more cinematic. Let's hope this version is here to stay.
September 8, 2017
I had a blast with this cartwheeling medley from the Hong Kong action veteran, which of course exudes its own musicality. Woo's love of cinematic movement—the promiscuous use of dissolves, over-cranking, freeze-frames—is in full sway, so that a brush with a pair of restaurant hostesses leaves space stretched and the senses whirring long before they doff their silk robes and lead a massacre with a pistol in each hand.
September 8, 2017
It would be hard not to have a good time, at least some of the time, during "Manhunt," veteran Hong Kong director John Woo's return to high-concept, low-brow action, after his foray into period drama with the "Red Cliff" and "The Crossing" movies. But whether we're laughing with the film or laughing at the film is a slightly less clear-cut question... As awesome as it sounds, and sometimes is, "Manhunt" is sadly more pastiche than homage.
September 7, 2017
Intrepid cops, flying glass, mid-air shootouts in balletic slo-mo – not to mention a fair few of the director's trademark white doves… Manhunt is a John Woo movie like he used to make ‘em, before his US period including Face/Off and Mission Impossible 2, and recent Asian historical diptychs Red Cliff and The Crossing. In fact, Manhunt is Woo's first Asian police thriller since 1992's Hard Boiled, the film that consolidated his international auteur status.
September 6, 2017