Project Gutenberg (2018)

Project Gutenberg is the kind of sleek Hong Kong crime thriller that reminds you how exhilarating a well-told caper can be: stylish, propulsive, and built around the deliciously tactile idea of art used for crime. Felix Chong directs with a confident, glossy rhythm—gunfire, neon, and moral gray zones—while the cat-and-mouse mystery keeps tightening its grip, always feeling one step ahead without turning into nonsense. Chow Yun-Fat brings effortless charisma and old-school star power, and Aaron Kwok grounds the film with a nervy intensity that makes every conversation feel like it could be a trap. If you’re allergic to twisty plotting or heightened genre theatrics, it may feel a bit showy, but if you want an entertaining, sharply performed ride that looks fantastic and moves like a bullet, this one earns your time.

Project Gutenberg clearly wants to be a slick Hong Kong crime puzzle with big-star swagger, glossy action, and a cat-and-mouse mystery about identity and obsession. When it’s in “craft” mode—counterfeiting details, tense interrogations, Chow Yun-Fat’s cool presence—it’s genuinely entertaining and competently made. The problem is the story keeps piling on twists and contrivances until it starts feeling more like a writer showing off than a mystery that actually holds together, so if you’re allergic to implausible plotting, you’ll be rolling your eyes. If you can treat it as a stylish, melodramatic thriller rather than a credible crime story, it’ll go down fine; if you need airtight logic, this isn’t your film.