Gatao: The Last Stray (2021)

Just your usual gangster film, but worth it for the romance

Gatao: The Last Stray is a Taiwanese action-romance film directed by Jui-Chih Chiang and starring Rexen Cheng (The Victims' Game) and Nikki Hsieh (Meet Me @ 1006).

In many ways it's just another predictable gangster film, but the romance and great chemistry between the leads makes up for where the rest of the film is lacking.

It's worth watching this for the romance alone in my opinion, it's very sweet. The chemistry feels very natural and convincing and it makes the rest of the film bearable, even nice to watch.

The plot itself is very predicable and easy to follow, in many ways it lacks depth and could've used a more interesting and dark approach. The fights were underwhelming and unrealistic which took away the feeling of true danger for the viewer. I also think that the ending could've been more emotional to feel more satisfactory.

I recommend you to watch this without any expectations like I did. If you're after a good gangster flick then you should probably look elsewhere.

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Great Chemistry, Classic Mob Ending

This is my first time watching anything mob-related. It really isn't my genre as there aren't many "happy" endings because of the "mob life." But Netflix recommended it to me, and it looked interesting enough AND I was extremely happy when one of my favorite Taiwanese actresses was the love interest of Lin Yu Qing.

I was instantly pulled in by the chemistry that Qi and Yu Qing had, regardless if it was a bit insta love on her part, but once they started their romance, they genuinely loved one another and wanted to give each other the world. Unfortunately, due to Lin Yu Qing's upbringing and his "family life," their relationship suffered in other ways.

But there was this one intense scene where Qi and Yu Qing were arguing about opening up and being there for one another in every way, even if they didn't support what they were doing, and it was raw and authentic and it showed love.

The ending broke my heart and it made it hard for me to fall asleep as I watched it before bed and was trying to wrap my head around "why" even though I knew why.

Overall, really good! The story was very interesting, and I loved the family aspect of why people did what they did, but I was heartbroken - if the South City's son-in-law decided he didn't want to cause problems for everyone, we would have gotten a completely different ending. Which overall kind of turns me off about mob dramas as one guy can mess everything up for everyone else and change their happy story to a sad one.

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