Gik do chung faan

Ringo Lam has made a decent drama here, not an action film. The only real action sequence comes at the end of the movie, and while it is very strong, the rest of the film deals with the ideas of loyalty, friendship, and morality. The main character is trying to start a new life after just being released from prison, he was convicted of murder at a young age, but after some strings were pulled (without his knowledge) he is free after 12 years. But before he can start this new life, the triad pulls him back in, and wants him to commit another murder, or face the consequences. What ensues is an "on the run", fugitive type story, that has our main character fleeing from the triad, the cops, and his best friend. A pretty solid film that tests the themes that are present in many Hong Kong stories. A tough, gritty film with a great "action" ending, and of course, a strong performance from Simon Yam.

If you are looking for an excellent HK suspense movie, look no further: The Suspect is exciting from the beginning with the voice over full of feeling, through the chases to the action packed gunplay ending. You will never be bored, the story is unusually good (it is not a ripoff from Assassins as my friend Stefant21 stated in his review) and the pace is high. The beginning of the movie is not slow paced, as one reviewer stated, there is a lot going on throughout the whole movie but it is true that most of the gunplay occurs during the long and excellent ending.

If you are only looking for gunplay and explosions you will be disappointed. Don't expect a so called heroic bloodshed movie even though the theme of friendship and loyalty is classic to the genre (see for instance The Killer). The Suspect is not so exaggerated as the movies of John Woo, the action and everything else in The Suspect is more realistic but you will still see some blodsquibs.

The Suspect is masterfully directed and the acting is superb in spite of the fact that the actors have to speak a lot of english instead of only cantonese. For those of us that have seen him before it comes as no surprise that Simon Yam manages to make a big impression even though he is not on screen very much, but I was thrilled that the rest of the cast is also unusually good. The characters are multi layered, they are not cartoon figures either black or white and even the ruthless Simon Yam seems to have something good in him, he is not only ruthless and bad. The tone is serious throughout the movie, we don't have to suffer through any ridiculous HK humor. 10/10

Not since Ringo Lam´s Full Alert,have i been so thrilled about an H.K movie that really delivers it goods, Simon Yam is a bad guy we havn´t seen the caliber off in any recent other film lately,he´s totally ruthless. If you expect an ultra violent flick,like Hard boiled or The Killer this is nothing for you. This is just solid,damned fine acting and a good script,eventhough most of it is taken from Richard Donners Assasins with Stallone and Banderas,but this one´s far off better. A must see for H.K movies fans. I gave it a 9 of 10 Other movies in the same genre: Full alert Big bullet(but this one´s ultra violent) Hard boiled The killer Bullet in the head Rape trap(A great drama Thriller) Portland Street blues

Ringo Lam goes over the top in this movie, similar to Heat. The beginning of the movie is slow paced but picks up at high speed by the end of the movie. I highly recommend it to action fans who love John Woo. I find myself confused by the plot during the last stage but that's a minor problem.

This film is worth seeing solely due to Simon Yam's performance. While I picked it up on DVD because Ringo Lam directed it...it's a very minor film with little story, average action scenes and cheap special effects. Simon Yam doesn't have a lot of dialogue but he does get to play a very complex character. While he is ostensibly the bad guy, his basic humanity is omnipresent. His final scene in the film is especially memorable. It's too bad he's never achieved the worldwide success that other Ringo Lam actors have. He certainly acts circles around Mr. Koo. If the lead role of the suspect were played by someone else, such as Tony Leung or the late Leslie Cheung, then maybe the film would be more effective. Stick with City on Fire or the Prison on Fire films for vintage Ringo Lam. Even his first Van Damme film is better.