Just so...so bad

Great Film overall

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The literal translation of the title of this movie is: the last madness.This movie, like most Chinese crime movies describing contemporary Chinese crimes of its time, is based on the true story that really happened in real life. However, only the 2nd half is told, because the government censorship would never allow the 1st to be told.The truth is that in the era of reform, other business made rapid economic expansion and accumulated considerable amount of wealth, but for jails and law enforcement, there was no way to make such profit, especially for those in the remote locations that is far from market. The jail administrators introduced the idea of accepting criminals' family's "contribution" in exchange to reduction of sentencing. Once the central government found out about this, such practice was banned but the money the family "contributed" cannot be returned and for those who cannot be released early like those before the ban, they were enraged and hence, the escape of convicts, like the one described here in this movie.Obviously, one cannot expect anything to be passed by the governmental censorship so only the second half of story is shown.