Anyway, this movie wasn't really on my to-watch list but after being persuaded to check out the trailer which is in Cantonese and lured by the golden couple Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, I decided to give this movie a chance although I have to be frank that I wasn't expecting a lot in the first place.
The premise of the story is pretty simple. Andy Lau plays a former police inspector Johnston Chong See Tun who had to quit after losing his eyesight four years ago and makes a living now by solving cold cases for police rewards. While chasing a suspect who is supposedly in charge of acid attacks in Mongkok, he meets Ho Ka Tung (Sammi Cheng) who admires his ability to solve cases and seeks Johnston's help in finding a friend who went missing during her secondary school days. Along the way, Ka Tung finds that Johnston seems more interested in investigating the cases which will bring him monetary benefits and gets frustrated at him but has no choice to go along with him in order to find her missing friend.
Like what I said earlier, I didn't expect a lot from this movie so I think this mentality did help me in enjoying the movie better. Frankly speaking, the way Johnston solves his cases tend to border on the side of guesswork rather than logical deduction because he puts himself into the shoes and imagines what the victims or perpetrators would do in order to find clues to solving the cases. It did make sense at times but there were some parts when the argument did not really make sense and felt like wild guesses. However, I tried to overlook the discrepancies so if you are able to do so as well, I think you should be able to enjoy the story better. The sole saving grace was that the resolution to Ka Tung's friend disappearance was a bit out of the ordinary so it helped to save some points for the movie.
The highlight of the movie is truly the chemistry between Andy and Sammi. Having worked together so many times, they have developed a strong relationship with each other that it shows in their acting as well. It appears as if they didn't need to put in too much effort and could slip into the shoes of Johnston and Ka Tung so easily. The bickering between their characters felt natural and how they developed a relationship where they could trust each other was very believable. Honestly speaking, with the story being less watertight than it should have been, the leading couple's presence helped the movie to stay afloat and without them, there might have been more brickbats for the movie. The movie's theme song which is a tango tune also seemed to be a representation of the chemistry of the leads because their movements in the movie/song feel as if they are naturally in tandem with each other i.e. when one moves forward, the other moves backward and they didn't need to tell each other explicitly what they were going to do. That kind of chemistry is not easy to build and takes a lot of time to establish which I'm glad to say that Andy and Sammi do have it.
In summary, I think you might be disappointed if you are looking for an intense detective thriller because this is essentially a light-hearted entertaining film. If you are prepared to ignore the loopholes in the story and/or love the leads, this is probably the movie for you. On a final note, I think I might have enjoyed this a bit better if it was in Cantonese. Some lines just don't feel the same in Chinese but that's something I have to live with unless I go to Hong Kong to watch this movie.
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