Plot: Pang (Edison Chen) – a Cambodian pit fighter turn assassin travels to Hong Kong and brutally executes an older woman, when awaiting his escape he is caught up by two cops. The cops Wai (Sam Lee) and Fat Lam (Lam Suet) attempt to apprehend the crazed assassin he ends up driving a screw driver into Lam’s neck, killing him brutally. Pang now at gun point from Wai and his fellow officers he gives himself up allowing them to arrest him. When returning to the station Pang manages to get out of his handcuffs and causes the car to crash letting him escape back into the streets of Hong Kong.
Distressed by the death of his partner finds himself under investigation from Internal Affairs for unknown reasons, but he thinks it is because of his dad (also a cop). After being shot in the back Wai’s father lies in a coma, no one really knows what’s happened, but there are rumours that Wai’s father has been for dealing drugs on the side. With thoughts of his father, his co-workers and his own unstable life Wai sets out to stop the killer Pang from escaping.
Review: Soi Cheung delivers a vicious cop thriller which really puts both leading actors to the test and heck did they pass. Edison Chen is completely transformed from boy to man in his role as Pang. Sam Lee’s character progresses from Man to Monster by the credits roll. Leading lady Pei-Pei (who bares an uncanny resemblance to Sympathy for Lady Vengeance’s Lee Geum-ja) plays the difficult role of this warped young isolated woman, to whom is saved by Pang. The gave off similar qualities to Chan Park-Wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance mainly because you felt both sympathy and hate for both leading characters, left with being unable to decide who really is the enemy?
The fights in the movie are violent and gritty, no styles just all out street fighting. In Hong Kong the action is all modern what I mean is that they use guns to fight each other with, but by the time they are in rural Cambodia the two men settle their differences in a knife fight. Soi emphasizes the intense brutality of the fights by adding sound effects of animals roaring, it does give the fights a little more edge to them, although I can see where viewers are coming from if they think this is a little over doing it. The ending fight does pan out a little further than it should of really with the amount of cuts and stab wounds each person takes you do find it a little strange why they are still alive, but don’t take everything too seriously it’s best just to relax your mind and enjoy the film.
Notable appearances in this movie include Lam Suet for the first twenty odd minutes as Fat Lam, in his time he manages to speak Cantonese, Thai and some very broken English. Lau Yiu-Cheung and Eddie Cheung take up roles as fellow officers of Sam Lee’s troupe, they both do get their moments to shine within the running time.
Final thought, a fresh yet grubby Cop thriller which is the must see movie of the moment and is definitely worth a watch!
