Review by Jamie M MacDonald

Uncle (Keung To) has taken over the running of his late father`s shop the Lo Bo Watch Company, the shop specialise in rare and sometimes priceless time pieces. They also run in the back ground black market watches that pass through the shop for high paying clients. Uncle has taken the name of his dad to conduct business; he is not like him in any way. The old school code of honour has gone under his reign. When 3 Picasso watches are to be auctioned off in Japan, Uncle puts together a team to replace them with counterfeit copies. Two old school thieves Mario (Michael Ning) explosives expert and Chief (Louis Cheung) fixer leader plus two new comers Ma (Edan Lui) a watch expert and Yoh (Anson Lo) a safe cracker, all four have their own special talents for the job plus their own reasons for doing the job. When the Moon Watch is spotted by Ma, things take a different turn. Can they all pull together to pull off the job, can they resist the temptation of the priceless Moon Watch also in the safe with the Picasso time pieces?

Canton pop group Mirror make their film debut with this caper heist film that is fun from the start to the finish. It starts off with a gun battle, and then goes back a few days leading up to this gun fight; stick around for the post credit scenes as well. The film is structured very well, it is also very slick. All the acting is spot on, you really are rooting for these guys. It is very well paced and passes really quickly. For me, Chief played by Louis Cheng is the solid character that keeps you in the film, the scenes with him and his fellow thieves are excellently played as he tries to pass on those old school values to the youngsters. Ma played by Edan Lui and Mario played by Michael Ning have some humorous dialogue together, also Yoh played by Anton Lo have fun pulling off a few scams to try and get into the auction. The action scenes are very stylised and the fights are fast and well-staged. No one really stands out as they`re all just as good as each other. The casting of Keung To as Uncle the ruthless nasty villain is great casting, he is too cute as he is being tough, but it works him playing against type and he pulls off some slick moves during the gun battle during the finale. With heist films there is always a plan, what you see and then what is revealed at the end of the film is also done very well.

As I said its a fun caper heist film that is a great debut from all involved and well directed by Yuen Kim Wai, who keeps it tight with no fat al all. I do love a heist film and I really enjoyed this.

THE MOON THIEVES
3/5

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