A Cambodian hitman named Pang (Edison Chen) is
hired to come to Hong Kong to kill a woman lawyer. He was trained with a number
of other orphans to become assassins by pitting them against one another inside
a cage where they fought to the death – the ones who are still alive when
they become adults are single-minded killers with no regards to life and
have no hesitation in killing. His target is in a restaurant having dinner,
but first he gorges on food before calmly going over to her table and shooting
her point blank in the head three times. He grabs a steaming dumpling on his
way out.
The police soon arrive and among them is Wai
(Sam Lee) who isn’t held in high regards by his supervisor for his surly
and disrespectful manner. His partner (Lam Suet) tries to cover for him,
but other than the fact that Wai’s father is also a cop he would have been
kicked off the force long ago. But he has good cop instincts. He quickly
follows a hunch and tracks the killer down to a small cheap eatery, but in
the ensuing melee his partner gets knifed and a few diners are killed – and
in the end Pang escapes. Much of the remainder of the film is simply the
police chasing after this killer – but they simply are unable to adapt to
or comprehend his remorseless murderous personality. Wai breaks off on his
own to track the man down and becomes completely obsessive and brutal in
his search as he leaves behind him a trail of viciously beaten bodies.
Two other threads are woven into this basic story
– Wai’s father is in a coma after being shot and Internal Affairs is investigating
– and it is Wai’s difficult relationship with his father that drives his maniacal
behavior – the other thread is oddly a romance. Pou-soi perversely plays
around here with one of the touchstones of Hong Kong film – the romantic assassin
and the woman they fall for and who becomes their soft spot of vulnerability.
Pang comes across his soft spot when he seeks refuge in a hut in a garbage
strewn landfill and witnesses her being sexually abused by her father. The
woman is nearly mentally challenged but after killing the father, Pang takes
a liking to her and her to him and they decide to go to Cambodia together.
Even more strangely, this freakish relationship manages to draw in your sympathy
as the two of them find love for the first time in their barren cruel lives.
The film never pauses for a moment but is a tense dark head hammering experience from the beginning to its mouth agape “only in Hong Kong” over the top ending. On occasion Pou-soi shows some puckish humor such as his choice of song during the gore finale – “You are My Sunshine”- but be prepared for an assault on your senses and many moments of involuntary wincing. It’s a terrific piece of filmmaking on many levels – cinematography, music, editing, atmosphere and yes – even acting – but it is by no means a film that is easy to enjoy. It is like being face to face with a cobra for 90-minutes waiting for it to strike. Speaking of acting – Sam Lee who has of late often been relegated to secondary or goofy roles takes this one in his teeth and burns with an intensity that he hasn’t shown since his early efforts. It is hard to judge the performance of Edison and I worry that I am not always fair to him – but he is certainly serviceable as the monotone blank faced killer and thankfully there was no opportunity for his “dawg” like English. Whether another actor could have brought deeper levels to this character is difficult to say – but perhaps in his corner is the fact that when the two opponents face off in the end you really feel conflicted as to how you want the film to end.
