Amazing that this duo’s last film was the awful Lady Cop & Papa Crook, but Alan Mak is the co-director of Infernal Affairs and Initial D, so I do have some faith in him, and especially with this cast! I am a huge Lau Ching Wan fan, and Like Daniel Wu, Alex Fong, and yes Michael Wong (Yes, he is so bad he is good, and you would think by now he could speak in all Chinese, but no, it is still half English) and Louis Koo Tin Lok has been getting better. This is an enjoyable police thriller set in Hong Kong about a group of police officers who spy for a living. Nothing deep or amazing, but the cast does well, and the story holds together, so this is certainly worth checking out. I still wish that Hong Kong films would allow some wrong doers to not have to pay at the end, which used to happen before the handover, but seems to have ended at this point, much to the detriment of the films.

A trio of cops who specialize in bugs and wiretaps are working with the CCB or Commercial Crime Bureau to investigate insider trading. The cops are Johnny (Lau Ching Wan) who is dating Mandy (Zhang Jinchu, who is amazingly lovely and I first saw in Huayao Bride in Shangrila and then Seven Swords) the estranged wife of his kind of friend, and boss Kelvin (Alex Fong Chung-Sun). Max is the smart kid, who is marrying into money, and now spends at least 3 days a week with the chief of police and his father in law playing gold, when not doing nights on the police force. The final friend is Gene (Louis Koo Tin-Lok) a married man whose son has cancer, and he has 3 other young children, and not nearly enough money, especially once he finds out that his son will be fine, but he won’t last another year. They almost were caught when they planted mics and cameras into the offices they are spying on, but use their brains and get out. They trio do night duty listening to Executive Mr. Low (the great Waise Lee Chi-Hung) having sex with secretary (Quennie Chu) and using their ability to listen to any Cell Phone with a battery in to spy on their feelow cops (William Chan Wai-Ting and Sharon Luk Tze Wan) who are having an affair, though she is the big inspector’s girlfriend. On the job, while Johnny is out for a smoke, Gene and Max hear their mark, executive Mr. Low giving a tip about some stock that is going to go way up the next day, and Gene convinces Max to help him erase the recording, to get money for his family, and Max needs money since his father in law wants him to quit the force and work for him. The next morning Gene and Max go with their life savings to invest in E&T stock, and Johnny wants to stop them, but he is such a nice guy, they get him to go along, because they need the money, and the stock does quickly rise, but then is frozen for illegal trading, and they may have lost all their money.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Now Johnny is in over his head, and already lying to his friends about his affair with Mandy, and then they hear about the big boss (Michael Wong Mun-Tak) going to kill Mr. Low. Johnny can’t stand it, since the run on the stock was partially there fault, so he makes the other two go to save Mr. Low and his mistress on his boat, knocking out the killer, but Johnny’s face is seen by the Mistress, so they end up taking them all hostage until the stock deal can be taken care of after the weekend, and hiding them in Max’s brand new house.

On Monday they go to sell their stock, but amazingly when the stock starts trading, the money goes up and up, and they make a ton of money selling it, and are able to let their hostages go, threatening them to run.

Johny then proposes to Mandy, though he has yet to tell Kelvin. And Gene calls his wife to get her and the kids from the grandmother’s, after they had left when he took all their money out of there joint account.

The cops think that their unit is at fault though, and take all their gear, and Johnny ends up having to lead them as they break into their own HQ to destroy the computer that could incriminate them, while Max convinces the broker to launder the money and take a bribe, ending up with 15 million out of the 25 million they earned.

And the big boss isn’t too happy either, and he goes after and takes Max, and has Gene and his car with his family smashed. Johnny goes to run with Mandy, but Kelvin shows up and shoots her, but then is shot and killed by an assassin sent to kill Johnny.

Johnny gets Mandy to the hospital, and sees Gene lose a leg and arm, and his whole family dies. The Inspector tries to get him to go in, but he sneaks out to find Max, and finds him dead, and is taken to the wilderness and shot while the big boss watches.

A year later, the big boss is making deals, and calling for more deaths, and then has a big speech at a charity event he is hosting, when the cops play the video of him doing illegal dealings and ordering deaths, and Johnny comes up and arrests him. It seems Johnny used the 15 million to pay off his assassin, and the man did not shoot, but shot next to him, and took the money, and Johnny has since worked to take him down.

They go back to the station, but the big boss goes in his own car, making calls to try to save himself, but the car veers away from the police onto an unfinished bridge and we see the driver is Gene, with a missing arm and leg, who drives them both right off the bridge into the water, and to their death!

And Gene is of course saddened by his friends deaths, for the acts that they did.

••••

As I said a pretty enjoyable thriller that looks great, and has a pretty good story, though as I said I would like to see the good guys who did bad things, maybe not have to pay with their lives, but that is how it is has been in Hong Kong cinema since the handover.

Worth checking out, and Michael Wong is as hysterical as ever. I love him talking half in chinese and english, and acting like everyone always understands him all the time, as if he was speaking one language. He is comedy itself, but I like him for some reason. Didn’t even realize he was in the film until I saw his back and heard his unmistakable voice! Oh the comedy.

Damn I want Lau Ching Wan to get more movies like this. He is never better than in Police Dramas!