Divergence
Reviewed by Lee Alon
Just like its Hollywood contemporary, the fabled
jewel of the east, also known as Hong Kong, shovels mouthfuls of filler in
the general direction of its loyalist audiences. And similar to fluff done
anywhere else, HK's variety also comes in the irritating form of polished,
well-supervised products with at least acceptable technical merits and yet
little beyond.
We recently had two mega-stars like Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung suffer through
the mediocre episode Jiang Hu, further thrashing the over-strained underworld
genre, and here comes a Benny Chan flick to additionally burden the cops
and crooks theme with uninvited baggage. At least in Chan's case the memory
of capable actioner New Police Story still lingers, so we'll forgive him
the helming of Divergence and its, in essence, vacuous content and pretty
embarrassing conclusion. You'd be right in expecting more from Chan and his
writer cohort Ivy Ho (who previously penned classic July Rhapsody), but nonetheless
both failed to come up with any worthy goods this time around.
Presumably, Divergence gets its moniker from the three main personages operating
inside the film's confused and unfulfilled promise. Suen (Aaron Kwok) is
a sarcastic police officer working various, rather high-profile cases, at
least one of which we witness going bad with the baddie under Suen's protection
buying the farm in a gruesome fashion courtesy of the second main character,
a hitman known simply as Coke (Daniel Wu, who lost some weight and much appeal
in a role that's beginning to smack of typecasting). Coke's success and Suen's
misfortune set in motion a series of events that supposedly want to point
out the ironic nature of life, the universe, and whatever the people counting
box office returns happen to report. The terminated criminal that Suen was
sheltering leaves a mean triad boss (Gallen Lo) feeling a whole lot better
about things, but ultimately lands everyone in more trouble since the latter's
enemies soon move to equalize by retaliating against his family.
This sort of complication doesn't make Suen's life any easier as he tries
to focus on capturing renegade Coke and his sultry female accomplice (done
by mainlander Ning Jing). Defending the underworld elements is attorney
To Hou Sung, done by our favorite hunk Ekin Cheng, and here completing the
triumvirate of male leads. Although silent and reserved, To quickly gets
on Suen's nerves, and not just for his application of the law as an excuse
for things one would sooner sweep under the floorboards. There's another
element figuring in, further showing us how intertwined the trio is and why
even minute occurrences can have repercussions much later down the line,
hence Divergence. The factor in question is naturally a woman, and one who
perhaps has been missing for the better part of a decade. It's the apple
in the eye of cop Suen, an ex called Fong, portrayed with minimal gusto by
gorgeous Angelica Lee. The disgruntled cop obsesses over his former lover
and her vanishing all those years ago, even though we don't see much of their
relationship other than contrived, hokey memory sequences and Kwok's miserable
cry fest moments as fortified with extra-dumb instances of pseudo-animalistic
howling. Was there really a need for such mundane clichés?
As if that wasn't enough, someone had the brilliant idea of encumbering Suen
with several idiotic attempts at self destruction, resulting in him miraculously
surviving and changing cars about as often as you do socks. Must have been
quite the improvement in HK auto insurance since we last looked into the
matter. Plus, the music people, bless their souls, thought it prudent to
include one of the cheesiest collections of sentimental overtures one has
heard in a long, blissfully quiet time. It's all enough to make you reach
for the hurl bag.
And as we sit through the travails of Suen and his struggle with shadows
of the past, it becomes apparent none of the main characters gets enough
space to mature and grow, thus the various pieces never click. This trickles
down to supporting figures like Ning Jing and too-prolific Eric Tsang as
a jolly, noodle-slurping police medical examiner who never loses his appetite
no matter how grisly the stiffs. Ha ha but not all that funny, thank you.
Not even the action itself lives up to whatever high expectations you may
have of this project, if any. The fighting's pretty lame and basic, there's
little gunplay, and the car chases seem to use the same beat up Mazdas you've
seen in scores of older HK movies. But probably the biggest disappointment
comes when the thing finishes, with characters coming out of nowhere to reach
an easy, convenient and utterly ridiculous ending that somehow explains the
various "enigmas" you were supposed to fuss over during the plot. But of
course there was no fussing at all, seeing as how can anybody care about
a story lacking in so many departments to begin with?
At least for Divergence Angelica Lee looks her best
yet, so for all thus inclined mayhap there's some incentive to watch yet.
On all other counts, Divergence misses the mark big time, leading down paths
of inadequacy any film buff needn't even consider following.
Rating: 4/10
Directed by Benny Chan
Starring Aaron Kwok, Angelica Lee, Ekin Cheng, Daniel
Wu, Ning Jing
2005, Cantonese/Putonghua, 95 minutes
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