Murder
Director: Lawrence Cheng
Year: 1993
Rating: 8.0
Evoking the name
of Alfred Hitchcock is perhaps unfair – few suspense films can come within
shouting distance of the Master’s finest work – but while watching “Murder”
it was impossible not to think of him. Similar to Hitchcock, this film is
wonderfully paced, cleverly scripted, beautifully filmed, contains some sterling
camera movement, stunning décor, a touch of black humor and it keeps
you wondering till the final shot. Hong Kong is not particularly well known
for it's suspense films – the writing generally tends to be too unfocused,
hurried and genre switching – but director Lawrence Cheng keeps this film
moving straight ahead from beginning to end without a misstep or a whimsical
detour.
The film is filled with a deliciously nasty group of individuals. Do Do Cheng
and Damian Lau are in name a married couple, but in reality they come closer
to two rattlesnakes living together – and trying to avoid the other one’s
deadly sting. Do Do is a completely immoral lawyer without an emotional sentiment
in her briefcase, while Damian is a greedy money launderer for the triads.
If they didn’t hate each other so much, they would almost be perfect for
one another.
Do Do takes on a nurse, Deannie Yip, as
a client who is being accused of negligence by a doctor – who in fact ordered
her to give the shot to a now comatose patient. Do Do illegally fixes the
case for the doctor (and receives a nice check) and Deannie is fired from
her job and has to pay huge compensation to the family of the patient. Damian
has taken on HK$10 million from a particularly dangerous triad head from Thailand
to clean through the system.
He comes home one evening to discover that Do Do has found the money and
won’t give it to him. In a rage he shoots her in the head – and thinking
her dead – fixes the blame on someone else. In fact Do Do isn’t dead – but
the head wound has left her without her memory, in a state of confusion and
most oddly it seems to have drained her of all her hateful venom.
The hospital hires a temporary nurse to take care of Do Do – and in a classic
shot – the nurse leans into the camera view over a sleeping Do Do and says
with sarcastic bitterness “Hello, aren’t you dead?” It’s of course Deannie
Yip – who does her best to make life hell for Do Do. It's hard to know where
to place your sympathies - Do Do so richly derserves it, but she is not the
same person anymore. So Damian has a few issues to deal with – a wife he
tried to kill and whose memory is slowly returning in bits and pieces, a
missing $10MM that he can't find, some restless triads, a frightened partner
(Lawrence Cheng) and a cop (Wong Kam-kong) who is very suspicious. It makes
for a delightful narrative.
As good as the production is – this is a film that needs great acting performances
to pull it off – and it gets them. Do Do is simply brilliant – going from
as nasty a creature as one can imagine (from her make-up, to her posture,
to her clothes - it is perfect) to her new persona, Damian is authoritative,
cold, charming when he has to be and very believable - but the highest
accolades have to go to Deannie. She steals every scene she is in with as
good and personable a performance as you will see – funny at times, touching
at times and scary at times. This is a terrific film in every way.
In checking Cheng's other directorial work,
I am surprised to see only three other films listed - Never Ending Summer,
She Starts Fires and He and She. Considering what a sure hand he shows here,
that is a real shame.