The Suspect
Ringo Lam puts together an intriguing political
thriller that is laced with action throughout. This type of film is somewhat
unusual for HK as it is rare for their films to delve into the political
arena. Not that this one has an agenda and it takes place not in HK, but
in the Philippines.
Louis Koo stars as Don Lee a 16-year-old triad
punk who gets orders to go to the Philippines and assassinate an enemy
of his boss, Brother Hung – played by Simon Yam. He accomplishes this,
but is caught and spends twelve years in prison. The movie begins when
Koo is released, but during his time in prison he has become a changed
man and wants nothing to do with his old life. While in prison his only
visitor and friend was Julian Cheung Chi-Lam, another disciple of Brother
Hung.
A chauffeured car is waiting for Koo, it takes
him to the Presidential Suite at a 5-star hotel, and a beautiful prostitute
is waiting for him. Life is looking good. Too good in fact. In the morning
the phone rings and it is Brother Hung telling him that the fun is over
and that there is a rocket launcher under the bed. He must use it to assassinate
a leading political figure who is appearing across the street right at
that moment. Koo can’t do it, but it turns out his friend is in another
room and he can. Koo though becomes the suspect and is soon on the run
for much of the film trying to stay alive and prove his innocence.
It is complicated though because he still has feelings of loyalty to his
old mentor and to his friend. With the assistance of reporter Ada Choi,
Koo stays on the loose .
It felt as if Lam didn’t have much of a budget
to work with, but he is able to create a constant state of tension and
there are two large scale action scenes which are terrific – great pacing,
realistic and excellent camera work. The film, also, had some twists
and good fleshed out characters. The performances from Koo, Cheung, and
Yam are very good. In particular I liked Yam. His part is fairly small
- we don't see him until the 50 minute mark - but even though he is a cold
blooded manipulative political figure (one interesting side story is Yam
trying to raise anti-Chinese sentiment among the electorate to help his
candidate), he still shows great loyalty and concern for his protégé,
Cheung. It makes him very human for a few moments.
