Island of Greed

Black Gold is a good portrayal of corruption in Taiwanese democratic politics, but is also packed with action, romance and all of the other trademark Hong Kong stuff. Yes, Hong Kong! I watched this movie not knowing what it was about, and was shocked to see two Hong Kong actors speaking terrible Mandarin in a movie set and filmed in Taiwan! Anyways, Black Gold is about a former mobster (Tony Leung Ka Fai) who tries to run for election in the Taiwanese Legislative Assembly and the cop who is out to stop him (Andy Lau Tak Wah) One thing I disliked Black Gold is how Andy Lau's cop character is the protagonist, while Tony Leung's to-be politician is the antagonist; Tony faced way more obstacles (enemy mobsters, police investigation) than Andy did. Honestly, Andy really had no reason to hate Tony. On another note, I found there were many unnecessary characters, such as a Buddhist cult minister and a few extra mob bosses. Also, I also found that the action scenes were unclear and and the camera often seemed too close. There may also have been continuity problems, but this may be due to TV censorship. Though not a great movie, it was nice to see rare shots of Taipei. And of course, viewers must remember that Hong Kong movies are cheesy, and it's important to overlook some minor errors.