The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon (2023) User Reviews

An uneven, but often impressive crime thriller

[alain-kapel5 · 8/10 · 3 March 2024]

This extremely entertaining Taiwanese neo-noir works both as a pitch-black comedy and as a slick action thriller.

Lone hitman Chen Kui-lin, the film's protagonist, enters the scene with swaggering charisma, murders a gangster, then proceeds to daringly escape from policemen through buildings and rooftops. All of this shot with plenty of energy and bravado. And that's just the first 15-20 minutes of the film.

Soon he learns he's got stage four lung cancer, news that, understandably, put him in a depressive mood. But then he finds out he's only the third most wanted criminal in Taiwan, so he sets out to eliminate his competition before time runs out.

The premise is promising and lets you know you're in for some premium east Asian fatalism. You know that mix of melancholy and unpredictable, extreme violence that permeated the works of, say, Kim Jee-woon or Park Hoon-jung? Couple that with some twisted humor and you've got a winner.

In fact, I've mentioned those directors because this film has distinct two halves, and the first one resembles A Bittersweet Life or Night in Paradise somewhat. Until the second hour, it's a crime thriller with bursts of solid action, polished to a fault. Then it turns into a contemplative drama that reveals the film's more spiritual, reflective side. But surprises are still in store for the viewer.

I love tonally uneven genre films and this one sure fits the bill. Some might not like how it swerves into so many directions before settling down, but I felt like it only added to its charm. Director Wong Ching-Po isn't new to this type of film (if you've seen Revenge: A Love Story, you'll have some indication about how this one turned out), and his script extracts some great performances from the actors. Ethan Juan, as a homicidal protagonist, and Yi-wen Chen, very memorable as a spiritual leader, are standouts.

In all, this is a technically polished, fantastically shot and scored crime thriller which offers more than just surface-level genre pleasures. It's also got a deeply cynical worldview and an aura of eccentricism that work in its favor. Big recommendation.

Weirdly stupid and unbelievable but interesting and watchable

[OnlyGrit · 6/10 · 9 March 2024]

The storyline is absolutely unbelievable and unrealistic, Taiwanese or not. But what makes this movie entertaining is the fast edits and well paced story which has a new turn every few minutes.

The cinematography is excellent and the direction seems to be on point as well but the dialogues and delivery are also not the best. Acting is fine but also nothing out of the ordinary.

Some scenes are exceptionally well executed and some are utterly bogus. Movie is long and sometimes, by the end, it felt like a drag.

Overall though, it was very entertaining and enjoyable. Sunday evening and you're looking for something easy, fun, forgettable, and not to intellectual to watch, this movie won't disappoint you.

The Meaning of LIFE is not to have a Meaning at all...!!!

[PANDIAN120621 · 8/10 · 7 March 2024]

A different take on gangster movies keeps u sublime and funny perhaps makes u bleet at times...Hats off too director for having a good times to pass out...

Based on the true story the film incorporates elements from true crime and the figure of Liu Huan-jong, a gangster in Taiwan who was executed in 1993, further expanding the film's dimensions,with few cinematic liberties that's surprisingly delicious...

A strong first half of intense, believable gangster action. Followed by a shocking transformation into a religious cult drama that's long and slow. With a killing spree in a meditation hall Keros ur spine chilled with surprises striking the right chords...

Not to have a special mention all the lead characters does give their best to keep u invested for a runtime of 2hrs so meaningful while Ethan ruan wind ur heart easily...

Overall not to reveal anyting just keep ur self neutral minded to cherish this unconventional gangster movie...

Definitely worth watching Bravo!

[wangtaifr · 2 March 2024]

To those suggesting the film is from mainland China, it's important to clarify that, although I am from mainland China myself, this movie was entirely produced in Taiwan. The title may draw inspiration from a Chinese fable, but the creation is Taiwanese. It's crucial not to misattribute achievements or claim recognition undeservedly. Acknowledging our current position without misleading ourselves is vital. I've observed a significant increase in the quality of Taiwanese TV series and films recently, which meet international standards and indicate a thriving industry. In comparison, the market in mainland China faces different challenges. I greatly respect and admire the Taiwanese film industry for its distinct path and the quality it has achieved.

One man's meat is another man's poison

[lily-30563 · 7/10 · 24 March 2024]

I was fascinated by the theme song at first. The movie went viral on Netflix recently, that's why I took a look this weekend. It's a story about the national ranked third wanted. He decided to kill the ranked first and second ones and then go to surrender. He got the fame that he pursued: "Be remembered by the public after died.". Several bloody fierce scenes happen at the end, so get prepared before you see the movie. You can see the soft part of a man though he seems like a bad guy to society. He saves a girl's life and destroys a secret religion. Finally, he let go of everything and accepted the death penalty.

I created my account just for this movie

[weiliangdwl · 10/10 · 4 March 2024]

Oftentimes, I refer to IMDb for the reviews of the show before watching it.

True to its rating (7.5 at the time of writing), it's a show with depth. This is unlike other movies you've watched.

I liked that the synopsis provided an insight, yet not enough for you to expect what is to come for the show. I could not find any roles that had acted badly in the show, all the actors/actresses were befitting to their roles albeit small/big. Ethan has yet again showed that he's really the new blood.

The 140mins spent on the movie was really worth it. Catch it, you won't regret it.

It's laughable that someone had given 3/10.

One of the BEST film in 2023

[justinovoo · 10/10 · 15 November 2023]

I have ZERO expectation when I got into the theater, FULL of surprise when I left. Taiwan's movies are getting better and better.

The chase scenes are tense and the fight scenes are fiery, full of Taiwan's unique characteristics. There was one scene that I really want to scream at the theater, so good so good. (You know which scene I'm talking about if you watch the film, I give you 10 second to think or LEAVE)

The characters are well developed. Every actor did a great job, especially Ethan Juan, Ben Yuen and Yi-Wen Chen.

The story contains Buddhist principles, is meaningful and full of fun. The Chinese name 'Zhou chu chu san hai' has a inspiring story behind. If interested, you can go check it out.

Really worth seeing.

A beautiful mess

[MAX-78 · 10/10 · 19 October 2023]

A twisted comedy thriller, starring Ethan Ruan as gangster who discovers he is only the 3rd most wanted in Taiwan. Well, that's no legacy, so he quickly plans to eliminate his competitors for the crown. Structurally this film is all over the place, but who cares? I can't remember the last time I had so much fun watching a movie. Played 100% straight, the astonishing comedy comes from the premise itself. No matter how brutally intense the film becomes, it's all hanging off the most ridiculous plot - turning the relentlessly violent proceedings into pure hilarity.

Some terrific performances from Gingle Wang, Yi-wen Chen, Lee-zen Lee and the ever wonderful Peggy Tseng. But this is Ethan's film and he's as compelling as always.

Watched an exciting movie

[s-56748 · 8/10 · 1 March 2024]

Wanted criminal Chen Guilin (played by Ruan Jingtian) is at the end of his life, only to find himself ranked third on the wanted list. He is determined to investigate the whereabouts of the top two wanted criminals and eliminate them one by one. Chen Guilin thought that he had become a contemporary elimination of the three evils in the world, but he did not expect that the never-ending greed, anger, and ignorance would be the sin and punishment that one must face in life.

Ruan Jingtian used violence to suppress violence, and Wang Jing made his debut on the mainland's big screen! It's not easy to introduce this movie from mainland China.

Another Laughably Bad and Silly Gangster Movie

[charles-limcw · 3/10 · 2 March 2024]

The pig, snake and pigeon are meant to represent ignorance, aversion and attachment, sometimes also referred to as the "three poisons".

The use of this lofty title is ridiculously laughable given the amateurish scripting and rubbishy plotting.

Had some hope this would be a good gangster action-drama. But within 10 minutes it's clear it's just another stupid showy nonsense filled with tonnes of senseless loopholes.

Even the 'dramatic' scenes are common and tacky, no better than cheap tv soap.

Watch this if you want to see guys 'realistically' bashing up one another just for the sake of it mixed in with doses of tacky badly written melodrama.

If you, like me, expect a tight well-written gangster action drama, then steer clear of this showy violent nothing puke.

A must watch Chinese film 2023

[xiaohei-80112 · 10/10 · 18 November 2023]

This had to be the best Chinese film I watch this year. The chasing fight was intense and brutal , powerful script writing that bring u in character changes. All cast superb in their acting. Bring a lot of memories when it's show the style of classic Hong Kong filming..Too bad this movie not well publize to some Country due to its sensitive content. Taiwan movie really improve year by year , willing to challenge all type of content. Its show to some movie maker u don't have to bring in traffic star or big production to make a good movie. This the only Chinese film I proud to show my foreigner friends in 2023.

Crazy film

[ryanmo-35178 · 8/10 · 29 November 2023]

The start of the story is about a fierce man who killed a gangster and then ran away from the cop while hurt his eye. As his friend told him he had cancer, he decided to go to the police station. As the station was full of citizens to give money back they got from a cash car, he knew that he was rated as third of wanted list he decided to kill them before going to jail! The first one was easier and he released the gal from gum, while another has become a religious leader but it was a fake and bad religion. He once misled and came out from the tomb to killed the leader! And the end is rally wild as he killed nearly all the followers while they were singing and dancing, what a crazy scene! But the action scenes are really ok.

Great movie poster, good actors, good movie

[djlandd · 21 April 2024]

Often enough, I stumble upon movies where I only witness the movie poster and add them solely based on that without going through the movie profile. This was one of that category, I loved the poster, the poster gave me black comedy, thriller, violence vibes and to be fair I was not that far off.

I enjoyed this movie, had a nice interesting and styled on start, moved on with a fine pacing and the ending was good too, something I didn't expected. Two things out of the most that hits me the most when judging a movie is the start and the end, and this film definitely had that, which worked for me. Main character worked wonders for me, the actor portraying it and the character itself. Been a long time since I saw a loner character like this. I loved the actor, will be looking into his profile, hoping he has more thriller/crime genres under him.

Character development subject was poked in other reviews but I feel the story telling for all characters in the movie were apt, it was considerable amount for the main story to progress so I certainly don't agree with others poking on other characters development. The protagonist might not be a saint nor might be the other characters, but I can see the reasoning for everyone's actions. The movie showcases connections between the cop, rescue girl and the doctor, which I feel is sufficient for each of them to get to know the protagonist's doing and reacting to it as they all do in their own ways, from the start to the end.

I feel if someone doesn't buy the protagonist's character then their won't be any interest from the get going failing the movie from start itself. I watched this with subtitles as I am not native but I know how acting depends on the dialogue delivery as well, so from a non-native's point of view, I felt everyone did good in acting. The locations were great, didn't feel cliched or fake.

With that all, I feel the movie deserves to have rating atleast in the 7s, movies like these deserve applaud and I will most certainly do that as it deserves.

Understand the gap between China mainland films and Taiwan Province films through the pig the snake the pigeon!

[w-77742 · 8/10 · 5 March 2024]

Contemporary mainland films have been left behind by films from other regions, you know?

Why do mainland movies always use strict censorship as an excuse for poor production?

This time "the pig the snake the pigeon" can be regarded as a resounding slap in the face to mainland film directors. "The pig the snake the pigeon" has a good balance between the art of the film and human values. The previous story tells about the evil deeds of social evils, which can be regarded as showing the evil in society. But the ending does not end with just a few lines: "Chen Guilin committed several felonies of murder and was sentenced to death." Instead, it clearly presents the entire process of criminals before they are executed, letting the audience know the principle of "do no evil and do all good".

In the end, the villain "Chen Guilin" who seemed to have the halo of the protagonist did not escape justice, but the law respects every natural person. Chen Guilin enjoyed a good meal, smoked a cigarette, and drank a glass of wine for the last time. These are the solemn and solemn laws that the law gives to everyone. The last dignity of a life.

This balance allowed the film to pass the censorship despite such strict film censorship in mainland China. Mainland film directors, please stop using censorship as an excuse. If it's bad, it's bad. Please accept it with an open mind and use this film as a new benchmark. Think about how to balance evil and good.

Except for Article 20 in the Spring Festival episode, I didn't read any others, but "Article 20" confirms that sentence: it looks like homework handed in by primary school students.

It is understood that Spring Festival movies have a lot of trolls and their ratings are falsely high.

A great movie headlined by a great lead performance

[Scotthigginsmre · 9/10 · 7 March 2024]

Incredible movie. I expected a crime drama, and it is that but so many different layers to this movie.

At times very violent, at times quiet emotional, at times funny, at times leaning into spiritual, a hint of a love story and some great action scenes.

I found myself thoroughly engaged in the story, albiet somewhat disjointed and the great performance of Ethan Juan (Chen Kui-lin), the anti-hero of the film.

The end of the movie was both happy and incredibly sad, as Chen Kui-lin seems to find peace, and maybe love, but tragically too late.

Thoroughly recommend. Don't be dissuaded but the very poor review. I get this movie might not be for everyone but I feel sorry for those that trash a movie for no reason.

Another story dreamt up by chat gpt

[binbin181070 · 3/10 · 24 April 2024]

Spoilers spoilers........

The story is beyond ludicrous, a wanted criminal has lung cancer and only six months to live, but he decides to redeem himself by capturing two other criminals who are more wanted than him. All he wants to kill the other two criminals, who cares?

Whilst the acting and cinematography and editing is pretty good, the overall premise is laughable. The characters are written in such a random way that there's no time to develop any connections with them.

I have never seen anyone with stage 4 lung cancer run so fast.

I stopped watching after 56 minutes.

Which was 53 minutes too long.

Give it a miss and read some books instead.

Watchable but with weak and wrong supporting actors

[MovieIQTest · 15 March 2024]

I rarely finished watching most of the Taiwanese movies due to their shallow, childish, naive screenplays, their bad acting with horrible dialogue deliveries in a complete unnatural and fake way of speaking by most of the actors and actresses. This movie, although still inevitably failed to improve the way of speaking the dialogue in Taiwanese Mandarin, at least it's bearable this time.

The cast of the No.1 and No. 2 villains when compared to the No.3, the leading actor who played the protagonist, were neither good enough nor appropriate, not even feasible or realistic. There's no way the No.2 villain, a murderous killer from Hong Kong, most of the time speaking Cantonese, could be so hard to catch. Besides, his physical strength based on his height and weight would not be able to cause so much damages to the protagonist.

The cast of the No.1 Villain is even worse than the No.2, a fragile, skinny con man, who could hide himself on the island and become the preacher and the cult leader. His illegal organization is somewhat copied from the Scientology cult that plagued America. The way he fools and cheats on those naive followers is just too shallow.

The actor who plays the die-hard cop is a great cast. He is also the second worthwhile element that has made this movie feel more humane and realistic.

The watchable value of this movie is completely relied on the leading actor, who indeed performed so believably well. The herb medicine woman cast is not bad, but her Taiwanese Mandarin is still felt a bit forced and unnatural, the formulaic way of speaking by almost all the Taiwanese actors, actresses in movies or in dramas. Their weird and unnatural way of speaking is the fatal weakness of all actors, actresses and even all of those reporters, news anchormen and anchorwomen on TV.

The Pig, Snake and Pigeon

[jackson_ro · 8/10 · 17 March 2024]

An award-winning performance from Ethan Juan that is deserving of all the accolades he has received for this film. The Pig, Snake and Pigeon is a thought provoking film that is daring in both its topic and film making. Three seemingly irrelevant parts glued together by one single premise, and you can see Chen's personal growth, development, hope and despair in each. The emotional value of the film predominantly comes from its very strong cast and their acting. If you dissect the story itself it is a rather simple and not so ground breaking story. Nevertheless, I am glad it made its way into Mainland China, which has become a breath of fresh air for a much needed market.

your evil and goodness are not pure

[Mhanfei · 8/10 · 4 March 2024]

What can I say? The first thing that struck me was that this is a somewhat deeper John Wick, not a simplistic feud cloaked in a deliberately complicated cosmology, and then all the selling points of Keanu Reeves and the so-called aesthetics of violence... This is the kind of story that comes from the crowd and goes to the crowd.

Whereas Zhou Chu in the ShiShuo was a story about the return of the prodigal son from DongWu, this is a story about wanting people to remember who I am. Both are about self-recognition, but obviously the ways of redemption are very different.

The English translation of the movie, the Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon, I don't know what's ZhouChu Chu San Hai , corresponds to the story of anger and obesity. However, the word "angst" appears in the story of the most wanted man in the world. This gives the word a more complex meaning: often, they talk about being a good person, but in reality, they are a thief and a whore.

Under the hypocritical religion of the story, the hero seems to find salvation, but only for a moment.

There is a saying in China Northeast: "Evil men will be hunted by evil men". The reason why you are disappointed with the world is mostly because your evil and goodness are not pure. Chen Guilin in the movie is very pure.

He is pure in both good and evil. Ruan Jingtian's acting has gone up a notch from the Monga era. He brings out this purity of good and evil in the last scene almost to the fullest, almost textbook level. He recognized what's good and evil. Those wry smiles that fill the movie convey very complex emotions, and that's awesome.

The real Chou Chu in the actual story is the women Doctor.

My only question is Mei. What's with the symbol? The scene on the beach completely derailed the story.

The movie is a 7.5 out of 10. Ruan Jing Tian deserves 8 points!

Loved it, but Taiwan seriously?

[brian_spence_ni · 8/10 · 4 March 2024]

This film had me from start to finish. But that finish. I nearly threw up. For a modern country like Taiwan to seriously (are you for real?) have the death penalty. Disgusting. I'm semi traumatised after that ending. Taiwan should end unless they end that penalty. Vomit.

As imdb is enforcing characters, lets go over the plot. The lead is hot, and I mean smoking hot, sick and looking to redeem his awful life. He's people around him who love him but they are either dead or on the way out. He just wants to murder people worse than himself to add meaning to life. And he does a good job doing it. While looking, as I said, smoking hot. I loved how grey many of the characters were. This isn't a caricature kinda film. It's very real.

The most interesting, engaging, well constructed gangster film I've seen in many years

[craignied · 10/10 · 20 March 2024]

Oh my goodness, this was incredible. So well constructed, so well executed, so topical, and with such a tiny and pure love story at its core. Can it stand up to the Godfather and Breaking Bad? I say yes. The acting is extraordinary, the sets are gorgeous yet perfectly apt, the writing is fluid and engaging, and the cinematography is so well done. There's fairly little violence for a gangster film: it's more about character development and backstory with really clever plot twists. What a thoroughly wonderful, entertaining film. I really can't recommend this one highly enough if you're a fan of crime sagas with complexity and depth.

Almost PERFECT!

[nocturnestar · 9/10 · 18 April 2024]

This has to be one of my favourite films in recent years. The action scenes are intense and well designed. The music choice is pretty fitting to the atmosphere and story. The story line is slightly flawed but still decently designed.

About the flaw I want to mention, I believe it is reported that this film was originally about 3-hour long, containing the scene of the cop talking with the protagonist and learned his intention. After that he let the protagonist go. This part of the story is later deleted from the film, which I could see why, but still causes a big gap of why the cop's attitude suddenly changes that much compared with the start of the scene.

However, the flaw is not gonna overshadow how well-designed the story is. It is simple but also intentionally blurred so that everyone can bring there own angles to understand the story. The sensitive scenes are indeed very triggering to some people, but I believe it shows the "necessary evil" that is extremely helpful to the plot, and I was actually excited and supportive towards the protagonist. The end of the film is kinda expected but also enjoyable, creating a dark comedy effect that elevates the whole film.

Overall, this film is not for everyone, but I believe a lot of people that are sick of what is going on in this world will enjoy this.