 Next we're checking out this movie review. So this is for the 2016 foreign release Travisa, which on the day that I'm dropping this it is dropping on the Shutter Horror Streaming Service. Now this isn't really a horror film so the reason that I'm actually reviewing it is just because it's coming to Shutter. I get a lot of the Shutter screener copies so I can review films and watch films before they come out. I didn't get this one with enough time to actually watch it and put the review up before it dropped on Shutter, but it's same day for when I'm putting this out. So if you like what you hear here, because it's no spoilers on this review, if you like what you hear go watch it on Shutter, or if you've already watched it, welcome. You will still understand what I'm talking about and can relate it to the movie. So this is directed by Javons Au, Frank Hui, and Vicky Wong, written by Thomas Ng, Man Hong Lung, and Tin Shumak. A $5 million budget on this film and it was made, I'm sorry, sometimes my notes are just not very good. It had a $5 million budget to be made and it made $9.2 million in the box office. So it actually was profitable, it actually almost got close to doubling to making its money back plus that amount. So this is a Shutter exclusive, so shouldn't be streaming anywhere else since it's exclusive? That's my idea of it. So I decided to look up and I found that Trevissa actually has a meaning to it, that specific name. It's like Latin or something like that. It's a term that is for three poisons. It's a term of three poisons, greed, anger, and delusion, which all end up leading to suffering. Now that is appropriate because there are three main characters in this and things happen. So this is kind of like a mobster type film. I don't know if anyone watching this has ever watched like Japanese mobster films, Chinese mobster films, American mobster films, Italian mobster films. They're all kind of different in their own right. And one of the big things with the Japanese and Chinese films and ones from South Korea as well, because I've seen plenty, is overall their cinema is a lot slower. Actually overall European cinema as well is a lot slower than American. American films are more kind of like chopped up and edited down to be fast moving to keep people's attention because that's kind of the society we are. So what you need to know if you haven't seen movies like this before, it's kind of slow. Like they have no problem just kind of taking their time, taking in the scenery, you know, extended scenes, letting people kind of just do things naturally, taking a little extra time, not cutting it down. So just know that that is at play here as well. And that's normal. That's normal. So you have to kind of be in the right mood, in my opinion. So for that reason, I wasn't in that particular mood when I watched it. But then as I kept watching it, it got to about halfway. And I was like, oh, I know why this is feeling so slow because it's been a while since I've watched an Asian film and these just are kind of slow. So, you know, that's just the thing. So let's get to this. The filmmakers got in trouble actually for using fake money on this film. There's actually a lot of fake money in this film because it's dealing with, you know, illegal dealings, mobsters, if you will, there. And some of the people involved with the film actually got four months in jail because they did not have the proper permits to use fake money on set. The judge had basically said, look, it looks way too real. You got to go to jail because you didn't get the proper permit for it. And it looks way too real. So that's a crazy kind of backstory on this film. This case is the case actually steeped in suspicion, though, that that one where they got four months in jail for the counterfeit money. It's steeped in suspicion of influence for mainland China. As it was a Hong Kong film and was banned from being shown in mainland China and only really came out in Hong Kong within China. Now, Hong Kong actually, you know, owns China now, but there had been kind of agreement when the British handed Hong Kong over to the Chinese that Hong Kong would be able to kind of remain its own entity, even though it was owned by China. But some of that stuff is starting to break down now. That's why there are all those protests over there. If you want to understand that stuff a lot more, I would highly recommend. I listen to a lot of podcasts and this American life, which is done by NPR and has been for since 1995, I think. So they've been going for a long time. They just recently did a podcast a few weeks ago about the protests in China and the dip or in Hong Kong and the differences between Hong Kong and mainland China and the divides and everything. And I think it's a really good backstory or a background information for watching this specific film because knowing the background of what happened with this court case. So I would just recommend that the film has Golden Horse Awards, 11th Asian Film Awards, Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards and 36th Hong Kong Film Awards. I don't know what all those are, but that's a lot of awards. So obviously some people really like this film. In the beginning, it actually says that it is inspired by true characters. Now, that's hard to know what that means, because I'm used to seeing inspired by true events based on true story, those types of things. But we see those plenty of times in American films. Now, based on true characters, I assume that means that there was someone who was kind of like a character that's in the film or a few of them. That would indicate to me that that the circumstances around them and the story around them is way more fictionalized than anything. And it's just kind of based on here's this person that was kind of a basis for the character that we put in this film. So but it's also hard to know like how much did they actually take from it? Those types of things are always tricky. There's no time really wasted getting into stuff in this film. It does kind of start with a with a punch. But being an Asian cinema film, it then backs off significantly. And then it becomes extremely slow until you get to the very, very end where you have much more of a payoff for the film. But if you're not into this style of film, it's not going to be enough of a payoff for you. I don't think I'm just saying early on, it seems like very care every character is a macho strong personality. They really do kind of have this everyone's strong, everyone's intense. Everyone's kind of a little bit over the top in one way or another. And at first, it's kind of weird, but it makes sense for the actual story as you keep going on. And then some of their personality traits actually mellow out a little bit. It's more of like headbutting in the beginning and then things get a little calmer and you see more of the inner personalities of the actual characters, as opposed to some of the some of it is posturing in the beginning versus who they actually are. So the movie jumps actually a bunch of different places, making you wonder how things will actually end up coming together in the end, especially in the very, very beginning within the first like 20 minutes, I'd say it keeps jumping to different scenarios. Like here are some characters talking, having this meeting, jump over here. Here are some new characters. We have no idea who they are. They're having a meeting talking about something totally different. Then here's some more over here. And it does a lot of that jumping and going back and forth. So it's kind of like you just feel like you're in an information gathering situation at that point and it does make it hard to like really enjoy the film right then because you're just trying to take in information. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I need to remember who all these people are because we're meeting a lot of new people real quick. And I have a feeling I'm going to need to know who's who down the road. So it made it a little less enjoyable in the beginning. But then once you get all that stuff established, starts to calm down. And you're like, OK, here we go. It's really just a series of meetings in the beginning, to be honest. It's like meeting after meeting after meeting. It seems pretty repetitive for that reason. And that is one of the things I really don't like about this particular film is that it seems like there are so many meetings going on. It was like, can we do something different for a change? Tons and tons of meetings in this. And some of them are really cool meetings and they have interesting things happen. Some of them just feel like they're rehashes of meetings that already happened, basically, but just with different people. And you're just kind of like, could cut that out. Just just saying. Represents it's interesting because there there's a it represents kind of a older time where there was actually, I guess, a black market for electronics, which I was not aware of. I assume that was actually a thing based off how, you know, the film seems to be kind of real life. And it was just interesting to me. I'm like, black market electronics, this is so weird. I mean, I guess maybe there was something like that going on in the United States at some point, but it's not something you think about. And it's just like an interesting new thing that was introduced into my mind through this film. And I was just like, huh, OK, interesting. A lot of the characters actually have quirks that make them seem a little less serious, but also sometimes kind of unstable. And that actually helps with the story, to be honest. I actually like that aspect of it, where, you know, not like in the I was saying in the beginning, everyone's like very intense, strong personalities. It actually you learn a lot more about them later. They all have little quirks and are not fully serious. So it allows you to kind of feel differently about all of them. And they start to differentiate themselves from each other because in the beginning, they just all seem like they're almost the same character, because they're all acting the same way. But then as it goes on, you start to, you know, they develop a little bit and you're like, OK, this guy's like this, this guy's like this, this one's like this. And it mainly is just male actors. There are a few actresses in it, but they're all in extremely minor roles. Don't get more than less than a minute of of screen time, to be honest. So it is a very male dominated film, which for the time period, it's set in isn't all that surprising, especially with the whole, you know, mob related storyline. There's a big focus on food in this, actually, which is interesting since food is usually glossed over in American films like this. Actually, American film in general, or especially when you go to a genre like this, where it's kind of like a crime thriller. People don't eat, you know? It's not a thing. You don't see people going to the bathroom. You don't see people eating. But in this film, there's plenty of people having meals, which, you know, it's kind of weird. Like I enjoy seeing people have a leisurely meal in film. I don't know why that is. I guess maybe it's just because I enjoy food so much. I'm a foodie type person. So when I see someone else enjoying it on the screen, I'm always kind of like, oh, what are they eating? Like I legitimately look from like, well, what are they eating there? Um, but I actually, I liked the food-centric nature of a lot of what was going on in this film. Some people may not, but I found it very interesting. But just also thinking about that, you know, what I just said of like, that's something that's totally glossed over in American film, pretty much. Like, as far as you know, for the movies that you watch in the United States, nobody eats food when anything's going on. Certainly when there are crimes happening, or you're planning for them or anything. There's a little bit of humor incorporated in this. Actually, I guess it's more than a little bit. It's kind of like a medium amount of humor incorporated into it. It's nothing that throws the feel of the film off or makes it too weird. But there are some like, moments that are supposed to be kind of funny where you're just like, eh. But there are other ones where, you know, it's a nice kind of funny moment. I didn't actually laugh at anything. It takes a lot for me to do that. But I enjoyed some of the comedic moments in there. Like I said, in true Asian cinema fashion, it's kind of slow. But there's enough interesting stuff going on and things are revealed kind of slowly in a way that you want to stick with it. You want to know what the end story is going to be. Now, when you get to the end of that story, do you feel satisfied? For me personally, I was kind of like, hmm, it was OK. I wasn't huge on the film. I did enjoy aspects of it. Am I glad that I saw it? Yes, I'm glad I saw it because it was interesting enough. The story reading the kind of like synopsis ahead of time from from shutter. I was like, oh, you know, that sounds kind of interesting. I'd be interested to see what's up with that. And there was enough really good acting, which is a big point. There was a really good acting in this and the directing was really well done. Cinematography is nice. And the locations are cool, especially for a person who's from the United States has never been to Asia. It's cool to see all the different locations that they used and kind of get, you know, little bits of the culture. So I like that as well. But the overall like resolution of the story was OK. The overall story itself was just OK, to be honest. I've seen many more Asian kind of mob films that are a lot better, in my opinion, but it was OK. Real good acting, like I said, but especially actor Jordan Chan, that guy played a character named Chuk, C-H-E-U-K. So, you know, when you see the subtitle, that was an extremely enjoyable character. That guy chewed scenery and his acting was awesome. I love that guy every time he was on screen. He kind of drove my interest in the film on his own. So there seems to be a theme of a remaining defiant in who you are, even as the world around you changes and tries to change you. That was kind of my big thematic takeaway for this particular film. And yeah, hopefully other people see that or maybe you don't. But if you watch the film or if you have already watched the film, put a comment down there and let's talk about what did you think thematically? Would you just think of the film in general and we can rap about that? But man, that's an old that's an old term. Rap about that. That's terrible. I'm not going to use that again. Anyway, please hit that subscribe for me real quick. I'm going to give you the star rating now, though. Out of five stars with half stars in play, I'm going to give it a two and a half. I kind of landed right in the middle on this one. There are things I really enjoyed about it and it is well put together, but there are things I didn't really enjoy about it. And one of the biggest things being the story wasn't super compelling to me. I think they needed to, for lack of a better term, judge it up a little bit, make it more interesting, a little more high octane maybe, but decent enough, I'm going to put it at two and a half. So anyway, thank you so much for checking this out. Like I said, put some comments down there. Pay me back by hitting that subscribe. That's the big thing and I would appreciate that. You can do the thumbs ups and whatnot, but the big things to subscribe. Thank you so much for checking this out. Until next time, keep it brutal.