X
- 2021
- Unrated
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 37 m
- 2021
- Unrated
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 37 m
Summary Sister Tse comes from China to New York via a human smuggler known as a snakehead. She gains favor with the matriarch of the crime family and rises the ranks quickly, but success isn’t the only reason she came to America. Sister Tse needs to reconcile between personal success and her family.
- 2021
- Unrated
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 37 m
- 2021
- Unrated
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 37 m
Snakehead
55
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Where to Watch
Summary Sister Tse comes from China to New York via a human smuggler known as a snakehead. She gains favor with the matriarch of the crime family and rises the ranks quickly, but success isn’t the only reason she came to America. Sister Tse needs to reconcile between personal success and her family.
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 5 Critic Reviews
55
40% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
40% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
20% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 5 Critic Reviews
55
40% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
40% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
20% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Snakehead entices you with a lurid premise, but the empathy that shines through the cracks of its tough exterior is the real surprise.
There’s far more of Snakehead that works than doesn’t, and Leong shows a serious flair for crime dramas. Together with Chang and Wu, the talents of the film are for an electric trio, including stars worth watching and a director very much on the rise.
The decision to avoid having the characters speaking Chinese saves the trouble of subtitles but it also makes the drama feel generic, another pulpy sub-Scorsesian urban nightmare with episodes of spastic violence, the constantly throbbing soundtrack, the use of slow motion, and wide-screen, colour-saturated camera work.
Leong’s documentary realism is powerful – if tough on an audience – but his fiction skills are erratic in a film that relies too heavily on Sister Tse’s narration, much repeated flashbacks and heavy exposition of the characters’ motivations.
Wu plays Dai Mah with a no-frills abandon that often makes her feel like the film’s protagonist, but even her performance can’t overcome the narrative missteps.
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Awards
VC FilmFest - Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
• 1 Nomination