Reset; or, Time and Time Again
Rainbow rangers transcend through time and space.
Time-travel flicks are always fun to watch, at least to me. When
I saw the teaser trailer for Reset (a.k.a. Fatal Countdown: Reset) in early 2017, I knew that I couldn’t give
this one a miss. However, a whole year passed and I somehow forgot about the
film. Thankfully, I checked it out during Christmas time and now I’m ready to
discuss this Chinese science fiction masterpiece.
Release Info
Directed by: Chang Starring: Yang Mi, Wallace Huo, Hummer Zhang, Liu Chang
Language: Mandarin Original Title: ιζΆθ₯ζ Runtime: 106 min
Synopsis
It’s the year 2025. Various research labs across the globe
are exploring the possibilities of travelling back in time to parallel universes.
One of such facilities is the Nexus Corporation, which already performed
experiments with animals. Xia Tian (Yang Mi), one of the project’s leading
scientists, tries to divide her time between work and home as she is taking
care of her small son Doudou (Hummer Zhang). All of a sudden, Doudou is
kidnapped by a henchman from an American corporation (Wallace Huo) who orders
Xia Tian to bring him all the research data or her son will die. Xia Tian
complies, but Doudou is ruthlessly killed anyway. Devastated mother attempts to
travel 1 hour and 50 minutes back in time so as to save her child.
Help yourself by helping yourself helping yourself
When the movie started, I wasn’t expecting anything exceptional.
I was just hoping for a good film with forgivable CGI effects, but, oh boy... I’ve
got say that Reset is actually gobsmackingly amazing! The thriller-like beginning
already kept me on the edge of my seat. When Xia Tian jumped into this
hub/gate portal, which disintegrates every human body cell… Like wow! Just
talking about this movie makes me wanna go back in time and re-watch it again!
Everything in this movie is a near perfection: the script,
well-crafted characters (even the supporting ones), performances, the special
effects, and the music score. Director Chang (also known as Yoon Hong Seung) did
a splendid job. In addition, this film was also produced by Jackie Chan. At first,
I was like: Yeah... his company gave the money and he just slapped his name on the
credits, but now I’m convinced that he must have had some input into the
creative process.
In terms of performances, I know I shouldn’t write something
like this in a review, but I can’t help it. I just fell in love with Yang Mi.
Her performance of a mother willing to do whatever it takes to save her son is
a triumph! Within the time span of about 40 minutes, she goes from
Ellen Ripley in Alien (1979) to Ellen Ripley in Aliens (1986) effortlessly! Her
interpretation of Xia Tian makes her character one of the most tragic time
travellers in movie history.
Additionally, Wallace Huo is a great addition as a
bad-to-the-bone killer. I mean, this guy is willing to kill a kid and blow up
the lab full of people just to get the job done. His motivation is eventually
explained at the end of the movie (no spoilers here), but he’s still a very
dark villain with many issues. Also, Hummer Zhang convincingly played Doudou (it’s
always very hard to find a good child actor).
With regard to disadvantages... there are only three minutes
of stupidity, just because the scriptwriters wanted to provide a double twist.
Thankfully, the scene does not last long and it does not affect the overall
reception.
Recommendations
If you enjoy time-travel movies, I strongly suggest that you
jump into your DeLorean, buckle up, and check out Reset as you’re in for a
great film (in fact, one of the best time-travel films). I can only hope that
the Chinese will make more science fiction pictures (with Yang Mi starring
in them). To sum up, Reset is an outstanding showpiece, which casts into the
shadows Hollywood’s failed attempts to make outstanding stories with strong
heroines.
Overall score: 8/10
