SYNOPSIS:
After
reverting from undercover police in the triad, Ken always
feels that all his colleagues treat him with discrimination.
Ken turns to taking drugs to evade his pressure. Ah Fai, the
drug peddler, is his only friend whom he can share his unhappiness.
One day in the presence of Ken, Ah Fai killed a police officer
in order to protect his drugs. To avoid getting himself into
trouble, Ken made a big mistake by destroying all the evidence
by burning the car. But he forgot the most important 'evidence'
- Ah Fai. The more Ken tried to cover up his mistakes, the
more irreparable sins he commits...
MOVIE REVIEW:
Oh dear, yet another Hong Kong production which wants to jump
onto the unbeaten bandwagon which is the Infernal Affairs
series (2002-2003).
It
is no wonder then, when we saw the successful trilogy’s
co-director Andrew Lau playing the producer role for this
unnecessary movie about the undercover triad scene in Hong
Kong.
The
melancholically good-looking Shawn Yue plays a returning triad
undercover who feels that the whole world is against him.
He turns to a junkie friend played by a wacky Sam Lee for
solace, and after one unfortunate incident involving a cop’s
death, things go awry.
We
would like to tell Yue’s character: get a life and move
on, man.
While
both leading men’s performances are acceptably intense,
we cannot forgive the rip-off plot that does not do anything
but give us cliché after cliché. An undercover
cop’s tormented soul? Check. A darkly-lit cinematography
to reflect the character’s tormented soul? Check. A
“surprise twist ending” that attempts to redeem
the character’s tormented soul? Check.
Chung
Siu-hung (Kungfu Mahjong, The Lady Iron Chef) directs this
forgettable genre movie without any surprises here. The only
pleasant moment was when old-school actor Ken Tong turns up
a mob boss. Oh, and when the distributors decided to include
the original Cantonese language track for our listening pleasure
Otherwise,
the 80-minute movie deserves to be aired on one of those weekend
late-night slots, where you can watch it, be entertained by
it for a moment, forget about it, and eventually turn in for
a good night’s rest.
MOVIE RATING:
 
Review
by John Li
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