Legally Declared Dead

As I sat down to watch the 2019 Hong Kong mystery thriller "Sei Yan Mou Ho Yi" (aka "Legally Declared Dead"), it was because the movie had Anthony Chau-Sang Wong on the cast list, and also because it was a Hong Kong movie that I hadn't already seen.

Initially, I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into here, as I had never heard about the movie from writer and director Kim-Wai Yuen, nor read the novel from Yûsuke Kishi.

And I will say that "Sei Yan Mou Ho Yi" was watchable, for sure. However, it wasn't a particularly outstanding foray into the Hong Kong mystery thriller genre. There are far better and more enjoyable movies out there. But writer and director Kim-Wai Yuen did manage to put together a movie that is sort of adequate enough for a single viewing.

Personally, I found the storyline to be somewhat lacking ingredients to really make it a worth-while movie to sit through. Not enough interesting or thrilling things happened throughout the 109 minutes that the movie ran for. And ultimately, then several things in the storyline wasn't making much of any logical sense.

The acting performances in "Sei Yan Mou Ho Yi" were good though, especially Karena Kar-Yan Lam and Anthony Chau-Sang Wong. I wasn't particularly much a fan of Carlos Chan, in the leading role. And it was a nice touch to have Kai-Chi Liu in the movie as well.

"Sei Yan Mou Ho Yi" is watchable for a single viewing, and that is about it. I am not going to ever return to watch it for a second time, simply as the storyline barely had enough contents to support the first time watching it.

My rating of this 2019 mystery thriller "Sei Yan Mou Ho Yi" lands on a five out of ten stars.