Needless to say that with my love and admiration of the Hong Kong cinema, then of course I had to sit downd and watch the 2004 movie "Ai Zuo Zhan" (aka "Love Battlefield"), as I had the opportunity to do so here in 2023.

Writers Wai-Lun Ng and Kam-Yuen Szeto put together a fair enough storyline and script for the movie, though the pacing of the narrative was a little bit like a roller coaster, up and down throughout the course of the 96 minutes that the movie ran for. However, I found the story to be entertaining, and that is the purpose of movies, so that was a good accomplishment from the writers.

I watch a lot of Hong Kong movies, but I was only familiar with leading actor Eason Chan in this movie. And while he did carry the movie well enough, it was far from being one of his better performances in his career. The cast ensemble in "Ai Zuo Zhan" was good, and the actors and actresses put on fair performances in general.

While "Ai Zuo Zhan" certainly was watchable, it was hardly a movie that had enough contents to the script and storyline to support more than a single viewing. And I doubt that I will ever be returning to watch it a second time.

My rating of director Soi Cheang's 2004 movie "Ai Zuo Zhan" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Love Battlefield is not a good movie (I don't understand why its score is so high). It could have been a very good film but that's not the case. Although the premise is interesting, its development is a big failure. When a story is forced in some unnatural way that includes resources out of logic and common sense, that story becomes misleading and unbelievable. And this is the main problem of Love Battlefield: placing its target (shake profoundly the audience) before the requirements of the story itself, what could have been a stimulating mixture of thriller and romantic drama is only a presumptuous (and often dishonest) action HK movie disguised as a "quality drama" just for satisfying the likings and expectations of continental China.

Let's see one example of what I mean: Yui has been kidnapped by a group of thugs and his girlfriend has been a witness. She goes to the police office to report the fact. One of the detectives is a common friend of her and Yui, but he doesn't listen to her because in the same morning somebody has killed half dozen of cops and the police department is very busy trying to find the killers (both cases are related but it is unknown). Some hours later the police receives a photo showing Yui with the thugs, also in the picture is very clear that Yui is in difficult circumstances. But the detective (and common friend, let's not forget it) doesn't evaluate the photo as a confirmation of Yui's girlfriend report. Instead of that, he begins to think of Yui as the main suspect of the crimes.

The script is plentiful of inconsistencies like that, only for leading the events to desperate situations and leaving the audiences in shock. Sorry but I don't buy it: the main character (Yui) has a lot of chances to escape from his captors; the bad guys don't stop killing people and making noise in the city, driving here and there in a stolen car, but they don't face a single police control in the streets... Is this Hong Kong or the Far West?

The final result is a hysterical drama mixed with a mediocre action movie (yes, mediocre, don't expect anything impressive except, maybe, the scene of the car running over one of the thugs). And from any point of view, a very disappointing film.

I give it 4 out of 10 because the actors (especially Eason Chan, Niki Chow and Candy Cheung) are good and the story has its potential. But I can't find more values for giving it a better score, sorry (and I am a big fan of Asian movies).