Eastern Bandits aka An Inaccurate Memoir [匹夫] is a Chinese movie by Beijing Enlight Pictures, released on 23rd April 2012.
About
Set during the Japanese invasion of China, Gao seeks revenge trying to assassinate a visiting commander. Gao encounters a local mafia, a group of bandits, lead by Fang. Fang has a devoted band of followers, who are also his friend, including his sister. They work together to infiltrate the Japanese.
Cast
Huang Ziao Ming [黄晓明] as Fang
A popular actor with a long list of movie and TV show credits although I don’t recall seeing him before. On the gossip side, he married Angelababy (not sure who she is) in 2015 and they were divorced by 2022.
Not sure if this old “official” Instagram account belongs to the actor.
Yi Zhang [张译] as Gao
I recall seeing one movie he was in before, One Second. He has a long list of films, TV series as well.
Review
The opening was fine and I initially had high hopes for the movie, however, it went downhill after a short wile.
On the positive side there was a good balance of drama, action or comedy.
The cinema photography was good, especially with the overhead shots of the view of the mountains. The acting was pretty good, at least thats how they all came across.
It’s biggest let down was the musical score, in my opinion, it just didn’t match what was going on. It felt as though it was trying to be a Chinese cowboy movie which totally didn’t work.
The saving grace was the comical scenes.
I will give it a generous 3/5.
Where Can I Watch
The movie can be found on Tubi. Not sure where else.