11-02-2025, 12:00 PM
This has been in my queue since it came out. Criterion is losing a lot of its Johnnie To flicks this month so I finally got to it (it's available on Netflix too so it was a silly motivation).
Johnnie To can be quirky (Heroic Trio) and violent (Drug War) and this flick is just so - well, more quirky than violent unless the ample vomiting is violent. Lots of barfing scenes. Andy Lau plays Johnston, a blind cop that relives crimes to solve them. He's partnered with Ho, a hawtty cop who is enamored with his deductive skills. She tasks him with finding a childhood friend that she rebuffed because her mom & grandma were murderers. The crime leads to a serial killer and lots of silliness. The episodes where they reenact crimes are played for slapstick, somewhat in dreamlike flashbacks. Johnston eats a lot of good food. His deductions are preposterous and absurd. I predicted the end when the camera lingered on a random character - such an obvs tell. It got a lot of noms in HK award festivals, probably due to the rep of To & Lau, but none were deserved. A disappointment.
Not D00M worthy at all.
Johnnie To can be quirky (Heroic Trio) and violent (Drug War) and this flick is just so - well, more quirky than violent unless the ample vomiting is violent. Lots of barfing scenes. Andy Lau plays Johnston, a blind cop that relives crimes to solve them. He's partnered with Ho, a hawtty cop who is enamored with his deductive skills. She tasks him with finding a childhood friend that she rebuffed because her mom & grandma were murderers. The crime leads to a serial killer and lots of silliness. The episodes where they reenact crimes are played for slapstick, somewhat in dreamlike flashbacks. Johnston eats a lot of good food. His deductions are preposterous and absurd. I predicted the end when the camera lingered on a random character - such an obvs tell. It got a lot of noms in HK award festivals, probably due to the rep of To & Lau, but none were deserved. A disappointment.
Not D00M worthy at all.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse