Undercover Blues
Reviewed by YTSL
In the first few minutes of a 2000 film that
he co-produced (with Peter Chan Chi Keung (who oughtn’t be confused with
U.F.O. doyen, Peter Chan Ho San), Ray Lui intones that “the world has changed
faster than me”. Twice during the crime drama whose script he co-wrote
(along with Edward Pang), Simon Loui is heard to similarly say that “I
haven’t changed but the world has changed”. Far less opaque in meaning
and implication for me though were those statistics -- none of which I
feel any particular reason to think of as entirely unfounded -- brandished
before this movie drew to a close that told of it being so that:
At any one time 250 of Hong Kong’s 34,000 police officers are involved
in undercover work; and upon their completion of these assigned undercover
stints, 50% of the individuals involved return to more conventional policing
duties, 30% of them decide to leave the police force while the remaining
20% end up really joining the Triads, are killed or...vanish.
UNDERCOVER BLUES centers on the efforts of four
undercover policemen sent on a 48 hour mission to retrieve another undercover
operative feared to be in particular danger upon his going to Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia to take part in effecting a major drug deal for his Hong Kong-based
“boss”. When word is received that the deal involved HK$50 million
worth of “ice”, some people start to suspect that the possibly “lost” young
undercover, Joe Wong (who is played by Daniel Wu), had given in to temptation
and genuinely crossed over to the criminal side. However, this thought
is not one that Frankie Chan, the high-ranking cop put in charge of this
special operation (and portrayed by Ray Lui), is willing to entertain at
the outset.
One reason given for this is that orphan Joe seems
to be Frankie’s main protege. Another is that up until two months
ago (i.e., before Joe went undercover), the two of them had been firm friends
who hung out quite a bit together. Fred (who is menacingly essayed
by Simon Loui), is someone else in the rescue party who could be considered
to be a friend of Joe. Unlike Frankie though, he is less certain
of Joe’s ability to stay on the straight and narrow. After all, like
Fred pointed out to the senior officer, what’s involved in this particular
drug deal were amounts of admittedly illegal goods and cash whose monetary
amount was way more than any policeman could possibly think to legally
earn in his entire working life, if not lifetime. If he were in Joe’s
position, Fred told Frankie, he would take the merchandise and money and
run.
Neither of the two others on the 48 hour mission
seems to have specific opinions about whether or not Joe is a good cop
turned bad. Or, at least, we are spared their musings re their brother
officer (who only briefly crossed paths with one of them and is a complete
stranger to the other). As such, Simon (a not 100% “clean” erstwhile
undercover policeman who comes in the form of a bleached blonde Mark Cheng)
and Charles (a solid guy played by Wong Hei who also has the case of the
UNDERCOVER BLUES, courtesy of his police work having caused him marital
problems) really do seem to be just there to do a job at the request of
Frankie, who had handpicked this squad of four.
Seeing as the Billy Chung directed effort’s focus
is as much about the four undercover policemen sent on assignment to Malaysia
as well as the operation they undertake, I can see why comparisons have
been made between UNDERCOVER BLUES and Johnnie To’s “The Mission”.
However, as far as this (re)viewer is concerned, that which also features
appearances by Jessy Meng (as the estranged girlfriend of Frankie who the
group encounters by chance in a nightclub that Joe’s trail had led them
to), Chapman To (as the Hong Kongers’ Malaysian contact) and Blackie Ko
(as the man named Lo Hung, AKA Spanner, whose “business” Joe had been assigned
to learn more about) is really not in the same league at all with the Milkyway
Image production. Perhaps I would have felt differently if the budget
offering’s cinematographer had not had such an irritating propensity to
saturate the picture(s) with moody blues and related greens. As it
stands though, I consider this tightly-plotted movie with an interesting
premise to be -- in more ways than one -- not colorful enough for my liking.
My rating for the film: 5.5