... is ultimately ruined by a totally stupid, cheesy and unnecessary homophobic subplot, first, when one of the colleagues of the inspector tells him in the car 'Everyone at work thinks you're gay' and later on, how the chief of police is portrayed, they could as well have made a complete screaming and gesticulating drag-queen out of him.
This is what really irritated me to the highest degree and gave me want to throw up, because otherwise, and even later on, Johnnie To's direction and handling of the plot was excellent, the story was involving, even moving to a certain degree and the action extremely well- handled.
Moreover, that aforementioned subplot is completely useless, because it definitely does not contribute to the story, and is totally OUT OF CONTEXT for what affects the SUBJECT MATTER of the film. Those scenes should have been deleted.
I am otherwise definitely a great admirer of Johnnie To's films, and I do not put the blame on him for this obnoxious element.
However, when I checked who the writers of the film were, I found out that there were two French screenwriters and only one Chinese So I suddenly said to myself that it was definitely not surprising. So my suggestion would be that these two french bastards stop polluting Hong Kong cinema with filthy and disgusting Western clichés!!! As I said before, without this disgusting subplot, i would have given a 10 tho this film because both Ching Wan Lau's and Andy Lau's performances are perfect, and the plot is otherwise almost flawless.
I substance this is what drove me to give this film a 1, a thing I deeply regret, but unfortunately, there are, however, things I do not tolerate, and think (but this is a personal opinion) should not be so easily overlooked.
This is what really irritated me to the highest degree and gave me want to throw up, because otherwise, and even later on, Johnnie To's direction and handling of the plot was excellent, the story was involving, even moving to a certain degree and the action extremely well- handled.
Moreover, that aforementioned subplot is completely useless, because it definitely does not contribute to the story, and is totally OUT OF CONTEXT for what affects the SUBJECT MATTER of the film. Those scenes should have been deleted.
I am otherwise definitely a great admirer of Johnnie To's films, and I do not put the blame on him for this obnoxious element.
However, when I checked who the writers of the film were, I found out that there were two French screenwriters and only one Chinese So I suddenly said to myself that it was definitely not surprising. So my suggestion would be that these two french bastards stop polluting Hong Kong cinema with filthy and disgusting Western clichés!!! As I said before, without this disgusting subplot, i would have given a 10 tho this film because both Ching Wan Lau's and Andy Lau's performances are perfect, and the plot is otherwise almost flawless.
I substance this is what drove me to give this film a 1, a thing I deeply regret, but unfortunately, there are, however, things I do not tolerate, and think (but this is a personal opinion) should not be so easily overlooked.