FILMS/
THE BEAST STALKER
Ching yan
World Cinema
Hong Kong, 2008, 110 minutes
SHOWTIMES
Fri, Apr 24 / 8:45 / Kabuki / BEAS24K
Sun, Apr 26 / 9:00 / Kabuki / BEAS26K
Wed, Apr 29 / 12:30 / Kabuki / BEAS29K
CREDITS
- dir
-
Dante Lam
- prod
-
Albert Lee, Chung Hong-tat, Candy Leung
- scr
-
Jack Ng
- cam
-
Cheung Man-po, Tse Chung-to
- editor
-
Chan Ki-hop
- mus
-
Henry Lai
- cast
-
Nicholas Tse, Nick Cheung, Zhang Jingchu
- source
-
Emperor Motion Pictures, 28/F Emperor Group Centre, 288 Hennessy Rd, Wanchai, Hong Kong. FAX: 852-2893-4309. EMAIL: catchau@emp.hk.
When a stakeout goes wrong, hotheaded, tough-talking police sergeant Tong (Nicholas Tse) dresses down his plainclothes crew. Catching sight of the fugitive, Tong picks up the trail again in a harrowing car chase (orchestrated by Hong Kong cinema’s greatest car stunt director Bruce Law) that ends tragically for lawyer Ann Gao (Zhang Jingchu), an innocent driver caught in the ensuing pileup. Haunted by the consequences of his rashness, and suspended from duty, Tong again crosses paths with Ann when a hit man named Hung (Nick Cheung) kidnaps her daughter. Tong, who learns that Ann is prosecuting a mob boss and resisting pressure to fix the trial, sets out to redeem himself by hunting down the kidnapper and saving Ann’s daughter. But can he control his impulsive temper? Will the police colleagues he once abused now help him? Director Dante Lam’s careful plotting and clear direction elevate this tight thriller into a high stakes cat-and-mouse game fleshed out with solid characters. Whether cop or robber, everyone in this movie has their motive, and as the film progresses, Lam peels back their stories and intersecting fates. The film hinges on the duel between Tong and Hung, but the women provide their own dialectics—the animated Ann versus Hung’s paralyzed wife; the absence and presence of Ann’s two daughters. Each opposition is but one part of a unified whole, and Lam masterfully blends all into one of Hong Kong cinema’s most satisfying films in recent years.
—Roger Garcia
In Cantonese with English subtitles. U.S. Premiere.
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