Let the Bullets Fly

Waking up early to see a bad film is probably one of the biggest punishment that one can get, and unfortunately I got punished like this for nothing. Although I have never liked westerns, comedies or I’m not a great fan of Chinese cinema, I have decided to wake up at 7am to see Let the Bullets Fly during this year’s London Film Festival. I was very disappointed. Mainly I was disappointed with the fact that although the seats in NFT1 at BFI are much more comfortable than my bed in my own bedroom, the sound was so loud in the film that I simply could not get any sleep. Instead I was made to follow this pointlessly complex plot presented in the smallest, white subtitles often on the white background. Throughout the whole film, I was just sitting there thinking that at least I will have something to write about, especially if it’s a bad film, but the problem is Let the Bullets Fly is a bad, but horribly boring film. Because it was really boring, I did not focus on it much so I cannot really complain about anything specific because I have no specific knowledge about what was happening. I could read the description on IMDB, but I don’t think I really care to discuss this film as much. Let’s get some things straight though, because some notes have been taken during this screening, so I can at least tell you why you should not waste your time on it. And boy was it a waste of time...

I cannot really tell you what Let the Bullets Fly is about, because it involves too much talking in white letters on the white background and because of the most background stories ever told, including political issues that one’s brain does not consume easily when they are served with flying trains and sliced stomachs. The combination of the latter is what really makes Let the Bullets Fly so surprisingly boring, I think. If it was a sort of political western (if something like this can even function) I would be fine, or if at least it was a political comedy. But boring us to death with politics and then once in a while present us with a nice action sequences or incredibly dark and gore humour, creates an uneatable mixture. I could take one or another but not both at the same time. Like the rest of the audience I expected The Good, The Bad and The Weird and got some bad CGI and much too long monologues instead. The lack of an individual character does not help the film. You can say something about three characters in the movie, but it is not enough to make their vivid image. They are either good or bad, and the rest of the cast just stands or fights in the background.

I might have a different cinematic sensitivity from Chinese audience, but to me Let the Bullets fly does not fulfill its promised function. It dragged on for ages and not one scene’s finale satisfied me. Please LFF, keep the film baddies for the later hours. I hate the feeling of disappointment so early in the morning.

2/10