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Don’t come into Johnnie To’s latest opus expecting
much of a plot or any character development – that was clearly not the
point of this film. To seems intent on stripping this police yarn down
to the bare essentials – action, movement, logistics and a rapid fire pace
– and he jettisons anything resembling fat or filler or background. It
reminded me somewhat of Tsui Hark’s “Time and Tide” in which Tsui seemed
primarily concerned with a few action set pieces and his ability to capture
it on camera in a kinetic fashion. Here To goes even further - there
are basically two large set pieces that completely dominate the film and
To looks to be fascinated by the simple logistics of keeping the film moving
and capturing the complicated set pieces in a manner that generates excitement
and makes sense to the viewer. It is the core of an action film with little
else around it. I am not sure To entirely succeeds in his mission but it’s
an entertaining attempt. Literally right from the beginning To announces
his intentions with the film by doing his first set piece without a single
edit.
It lasts for six and half minutes, which may not
sound like a long time – perhaps not if it is in “My Dinner with Andre”
– but this is a bravura extremely complicated shot in which the camera
is constantly on the go and where timing is very critical. It begins with
an opening shot of a few tall buildings against the skyline and then pans
down to the street in which a man walks up and enters a building and goes
up to the third floor – the camera stays outside and elevates up to the
window and peeks into a room full of men who are gathering to leave – they
depart and the camera moves back down and sneaks up on a car halfway up
the block in which two cops (Nick Cheung and Hui Siu Hung) are staking
out the apartment. The gang comes out the door on to the street and a car
backs up to pick them up – the camera pans into and around the cop car
as Cheung signals other cops that the bad guys are moving, but two patrolmen
walk up and begin questioning the gang and want to know what is in the
bag and the camera returns to this scene. That is the spark that ignites
the gun battle that follows as the camera swirls up and down the block
capturing the shootout from various perspectives and angles – at one time
going back to a ledge on the building in which a gang member is shooting
from above and then jumps down – the gun fire is heavy but there
are only a few casualties – finally a police van drives up to block off
the bad guys but instead they shoot their way into it and drive away as
they fire a rocket at the cops – it explodes and the cops go flying. Edit.
Applause.
The chase and hunt begin. Nothing is known
as to who they are or really why they are here – that is unneeded – and
there is no introduction to Cheung and his squad – and there really never
is. We know little more by the end of the film than we do at this juncture
– there is no time for formalities – bad guys are loose in the city and
the cops need to find them. Soon another altercation breaks out between
Cheung’s men and the gang, but they again elude them by jumping into an
ambulance and escaping. Before doing so though news cameras capture a patrol
cop who came unknowingly upon the shootout begging for his life with a
gun in his face. This scene is played continuously on television and the
usual talking voices condemn the cops for showing cowardice in the face
of death. With this PR black eye the police commander (Simon Yam) asks
for suggestions and one of his subordinates, Kelly Chen, suggests that
they can win back the confidence of the public by using/manipulating the
media to show their courage and skillful tactics.
When Cheung tracks the gang down to an old labyrinth
of an apartment building, Kelly is put in charge of the operation and the
media onslaught – such as pushing earlier wounded victims or the families
of the dead cops on to TV interviews to get public sympathy. It becomes
a PR war as much as anything – capturing the crooks almost becomes a side
issue – it's looking good on TV that matters. All the cops have been equipped
with small cameras that capture the action inside and send these images
back to a van where it is quickly edited by a HK film director (was Wong
Jing available?) and fed to the media. In these days this truly doesn’t
seem so unlikely.
Inside the building a game of deadly cat and
mouse begins as cops – Cheung’s men and other cops - try and track the
gang down, but in a building that seems to go in endless circles with multitudes
of apartments and exits it is like a roomful of mirrors in which you are
as likely to shoot yourself or your own men as the crooks. Richie
Jen in easily his best film performance as the cool as a cucumber fast
thinking gang head decides to use the media to his advantage and after
taking Lam Suet and his two children hostage, Ren uses their computer to
send pictures he captured on his cell phone to the press showing the cops
being beaten. Still with the building swarming with cops and closing in
on them, Ren needs to look for one last avenue of escape.
Though this is a very solid film that kept me
intently watching throughout, there are some clear weaknesses. The main
issue is that for a film that is almost a continuous series of gun battles,
they weren’t all that interesting – they lacked intensity or maybe the
body count felt too low for all the firepower that was used. Even the first
set piece for all its technical prowess to admire (and it really is amazing
the more times you watch it) wasn’t really very cinematically exciting
from a dramatic perspective – there are other reasons that action films
use edits other than technical difficulties – to express emotions with
close-ups, to build anxiety and a sense of danger, to slow down time –
shooting it in real time as To does is fascinating but it is almost like
watching it on the news – you never feel close enough to smell the gunpowder.
The other potential complaint one might have
is with the cast – To neglects his usual main players with the exception
of character actors Hui Siu Hung, Maggie Siu and Lam Suet and goes with
Cheung, Chen and Ren – three actors that have never been accused of being
mainline thespians – and it's hard not to wonder what the film would have
been like had he used Lau Ching-wan, Anthony Wong, Francis Ng and Ruby
Wong instead. Ren is fine for the most part – not particularly menacing
but he gives his character some charm and depth with little effort but
neither Cheung nor Chen bring much charisma or soul to their roles. But
again that was probably not what To really wanted – this was an exercise
in camera movement and logistics – perhaps using his more experienced actors
would have detracted from that and almost forced him to bring more unwanted
drama into the film.
This is a fine addition to To’s existing canon
of police/criminal films – not near his best but he continues to experiment
and try different things and is still the best around at this type of work
– his series of crime films going back to his early Milkyway days is a
stunning group of films overall and are an achievement that really deserves
academic study someday. As a follow up to PTU it is interesting to note
how the police are treated. For that film To received a beating from some
critics for sending the message that police brutality was an ends to a
good mean. Here again he clearly sides with the cops and displays them
all in good form – tough, resourceful and brave – and even Kelly’s character
who seems to be a plastic PR apparatchik turns out to be made of the right
stuff by the end.
My rating for this film: 7.5