The Wasted Times

Released Dec 16, 2016

2h 3m

Mystery & Thriller

Crime

Drama

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List

20%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

78%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

The Japanese army attempts to form a dubious alliance with a local crime boss in war-torn Shanghai.

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Audience Member

It does tell the story clearly, although not necessarily in a coherent and chronicle way,

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I love the structure of this movie, but the emotion and feeling behind the structure is even more charming . This is the old time of Shanghai in my imagination .

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Incredible film and adventurous filmmaking - every frame of cinematography is well considered as is the outstanding score. What a joy to experience.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An obvious arthouse try-hard with strangely sparse depth, employing some of the best names in Chinese cinema but with actually very little to SHOW - it's one thing to linger the camera on a famous actor's face to capture subtle changes, but if there ARE NO changes at all, it just feels needlessly, obtusely panned out. Chaotic time-jumps are employed for multiple "gotcha" Shyamalan-esque "twists", obviously supposed to encourage second viewings of past scenes with an elightened viewpoint in mind, but this old horse has been put on show for so many times it's very existence allows seasoned viewers to easily predict the ending. Others have compared the copious blood pools as Tarantino-esque, perhaps if Tarantino didn't exist, this would be refreshing, perhaps if we didn't watch Game of Thrones, we'd be shocked by the sudden picking-off of most of the cast, but since GoT does exist, this again, becomes another tired troupe whose very existence prepares viewers for every subsequent kill. The keyword is predictiable - predictable slow arthouse shots with nothing much to focus or explore, predictable time jumps and twists, and predictable gore that long lost the power to shock. BTW most of the ensemble cast for the first third simply vanishes with no explanation, while the female lead was only introduced in the second third, dominating the rest of the film. It felt like two separate stories clumsily stitched together without much common focus to bind the whole film together, feels like two separate short stories than one coherent film. Stunning cast, smooth cinematography, but without a cohesive focus there's very little point for the film to exist, especially when the themes it tries to tap in are explored much better in other, separate films.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Apparently inspired by Quentin Tarantino's ?Pulp Fiction?. Art direction, cinematography, sets, costumes are all good. The narrative itself looks fragmented & broken however.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

Audience Member

the best chinese film i've seen recent years

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

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Er Cheng

Director

You Ge

Mister Lu

Zhang Ziyi

Xiao Lu

Tadanobu Asano

Watabe

Chun Du

Killer

Gillian Chung

Xiao Wu

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The Wasted Times: Trailer 1

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Ben Kenigsberg

New York Times

"The Wasted Times" plays like a movie carved out of a much larger mini-series, whose segments are then shown out of order.

Dec 15, 2016

Full Review

Ren Jender

Village Voice

The majority of the characters murder or are murdered in short order, so finding someone to root for or a storyline to follow in this strangely empty Shanghai (even the train station looks abandoned) is difficult.

Dec 13, 2016

Full Review

James Marsh

South China Morning Post

While The Wasted Times is not quite the ordeal its title may suggest, it nevertheless makes for convoluted, impenetrable viewing.

Rated: 2/5

Mar 28, 2017

Full Review

Boon Chan

The Straits Times (Singapore)

Perhaps an English-language film in this style would have seemed overly derivative. In a Chinese work, it still feels fresh and intriguing.

Rated: 3.5/5

Jan 5, 2017

Full Review

Daniel Eagan

Film Journal International

Shanghai gangsters and lovers struggle through the Japanese occupation during World War II in an art-house misfire.

Dec 16, 2016

Full Review

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Synopsis

The Japanese army attempts to form a dubious alliance with a local crime boss in war-torn Shanghai.

Director: Er Cheng
Producer: Albert Lee, Zhonglei Wang, Jerry Ye
Screenwriter: Er Cheng
Distributor: China Lion Film Distribution
Production Co: Huayi Brothers Media Group
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Original Language: Chinese
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 16, 2016, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $348.9K
Runtime: 2h 3m

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