Jessica Bausch

This was my first Chinese drama and, honestly, I wasn't expecting much. But WOW. This is now one of my favorite movies of all time (and I'm picky). Even with the subtitles I could tell that the script was well written. The cinematography was really well done as well. I immediately felt a connection to the two main characters. Zhou Dongyu portrayed her character beautifully. Jackson Lee especially impressed me when I found out that he was only 18 during his role! Say what?? Some of his expressions actually made me cry even though it usually takes a lot to make me cry during a movie. Overall, I highly recommend this. SMOKING: Yes ALCOHOL: None (if I remember correctly) SEXUAL CONTENT: None, but there is a scene in which Bei intimidates Nian to make her think that he's about to rape her (he doesn't) Most suitable for 16+

I had really high expectations for this movie, partly because it was full of actors I recognized and also because I love serial killer dramas. But this was a bit of a let down. I'll tell you why: 1. As someone who can stomach gore pretty well and actually prefers these types of movies, some of the scenes in here kinda crossed the line. I can understand making a scene sick and gruesome for the sake of moving the plot along or to make you empathize with the victim, but the level of gore was unnecessary - there's no need to dramatize torture/rape scenes to this extent. If you like violent movies, I suggest 'The Man From Nowhere' or 'Strangers From Hell'. Those ones don't fetishize rape/hurting women like this one almost does. 2. Speaking of women, umm.... where are they?? Out of the dozens of cast members, I saw TWO female cast members and they both played victims with hardly any lines or screen time. I don't think I've ever seen a movie with so few women. 3. I know the comments are praising the acting, but I honestly didn't think it was that great. I was expecting a lot from this cast, but V.I.P. proves that just because a movie has an all-star cast, it doesn't mean the acting is guaranteed to be good. Most of the acting was unconvincing (especially whenever the American character was involved. Why do Americans in Kdramas act so dumb? And why are their lines always so awkward?).