Before completing my Barbenheimer viewing by seeing Barbie (also reviewed) on the big screen,I decided to check the local CEX, where I found a title by film maker Ringo Lam that I had not heard of before, being sold for 50p. This led to me staying alert for the viewing.
View on the film:
Crushing the bright neon colours of his past films the moment Pao almost accidentally kills a biker ,(motorbikes being a major recurring motif in the works by the film maker) co-writer (with Yuen-Leung Poon, and working for the first of two times with the director, Wing-Kin Lau) / directing auteur Ringo Lam & cinematographer Andy Lam (who also co-edited with Angie Lam) reunite after Touch and Go (1991-also reviewed) to unleash a bruising, brittle atmosphere, where subtle muted colours lay bare the anxiety hanging in the air over the upcoming The Handover.
Superbly hanging the camera outside the car for long tracking shots, Lam drives the audience down to the bustling streets of Hong Kong for break-neck Action set-pieces, exploding in scatter-gun whip-pans and jump-cuts circling crisp wide-shots which display the fantastic stunt work, which Lam crunches with eerie dissolves, as Pao and Kwan lay in purgatory.
Handling all his determination to make this plan a success, Francis Ng gives a bruising performance as Kwan, whose calculating over figuring out the next move the police will make, is expressed by Ng with coiled body language, which springs up into fury, as Ng voices Kwan being left a loner, (a major recurring theme in Lam's works) gazing into the abyss.
Trying to do everything by the book, Ching Wan Lau gives a smashing performance as Pao, whose armour Lau has burn at the edges with fear, as it sinks into Lau that Kwan is prepared to walk all over his personal space.
Featuring a character who openly references the upcoming The Handover, the screenplay by Lau,Poon and Lam brilliantly have the event hang over all the characters, with the Heroic Bloodshed safety net of Lau's family life being torn apart by Kwan, who opens up a new, unthought of territory for Lau, via getting him in a cat and mouse mind-set, where each time Lau scratches and tries to turn this into an open and shut case, Kwan steps up with new threats, which makes clear that despite their shared desires, there is no easy escape for Kwan and Lau from remaining on full alert.
View on the film:
Crushing the bright neon colours of his past films the moment Pao almost accidentally kills a biker ,(motorbikes being a major recurring motif in the works by the film maker) co-writer (with Yuen-Leung Poon, and working for the first of two times with the director, Wing-Kin Lau) / directing auteur Ringo Lam & cinematographer Andy Lam (who also co-edited with Angie Lam) reunite after Touch and Go (1991-also reviewed) to unleash a bruising, brittle atmosphere, where subtle muted colours lay bare the anxiety hanging in the air over the upcoming The Handover.
Superbly hanging the camera outside the car for long tracking shots, Lam drives the audience down to the bustling streets of Hong Kong for break-neck Action set-pieces, exploding in scatter-gun whip-pans and jump-cuts circling crisp wide-shots which display the fantastic stunt work, which Lam crunches with eerie dissolves, as Pao and Kwan lay in purgatory.
Handling all his determination to make this plan a success, Francis Ng gives a bruising performance as Kwan, whose calculating over figuring out the next move the police will make, is expressed by Ng with coiled body language, which springs up into fury, as Ng voices Kwan being left a loner, (a major recurring theme in Lam's works) gazing into the abyss.
Trying to do everything by the book, Ching Wan Lau gives a smashing performance as Pao, whose armour Lau has burn at the edges with fear, as it sinks into Lau that Kwan is prepared to walk all over his personal space.
Featuring a character who openly references the upcoming The Handover, the screenplay by Lau,Poon and Lam brilliantly have the event hang over all the characters, with the Heroic Bloodshed safety net of Lau's family life being torn apart by Kwan, who opens up a new, unthought of territory for Lau, via getting him in a cat and mouse mind-set, where each time Lau scratches and tries to turn this into an open and shut case, Kwan steps up with new threats, which makes clear that despite their shared desires, there is no easy escape for Kwan and Lau from remaining on full alert.