Cold War

The ending of the story can be more circumscribed. Such a film should also be organized by the relevant departments to have a look at it and give the fat-minded animals a unique education in law popularization.

Honor is a major aspect focused upon during this Chinese action drama, which visually conveys the integrity and competent nature of the Hong Kong police department's ability to wage war on crime, and efficaciously ensure the safety of the city's public.

Out on the streets of Hong Kong one night, a van carrying five members of the police force, not to mention a wealth of tactical equipment, unexpectedly vanishes off the grid. The hijackers behind this daring plot immediately demand a ransom, and though the attackers are starting a war with the police, an equally hard battle is taking place between the investigating officers. Lau (Aaron Kwok) is Management's youngest Deputy Commissioner, while Lee (Tony Leung Ka-fai), an older gentleman, is the Deputy Commissioner of Operations, both with widely differing points of view.

While Lau wishes to negotiate, Lee, whose son Joe (Eddie Peng) is one of the five officers held for ransom, is ready to bring the entire force of the Hong Kong police department down upon those who would dare assault them. The reputation of these high ranking personnel is on the line, and with the Commissioner soon to retire, one of these two men will be crowned the next leader of the Hong Kong police - and what happens over the course of this investigation will shape their history.

The two aforementioned leads, alongside Gordon Lam as Albert and Chin Kar-lok as Vincent are strongly portrayed as dutiful officers. Moreover, Aarif Rahman as Cheung, the lead ICAC officer assigned to investigate the procedures taken to thwart the hijackers is deserving of being mentioned for his equally adept performance. At the same time though, I found his character to be rather unlikable due to his attitude, which seems awfully confident, to the point of being egotistically pretentious.

The focus on these characters leaves little room for Charlie Young, who portrays Phoenix, the head of the public relation branch of the police, or Grace Huang, who plays probationary inspector May, despite their loyalty's been clearly outlined. Moreover, the inclusion of Ma Yili and J. J Jia as the wives of Lau and Vincent, both of whom had barely a minute's screen time, was unnecessary, although were clearly included to show an alternate familial side to these hardworking characters. If the developers adamantly wanted the wives to be included in the plot, I believe additional screen time and emotional dialogue would have beneficially increased the impact.

Visually, Cold War is quite sublime, the film taking advantage of its setting, Hong Kong been visualized as the technologically powerful, secure environment the police claim it to be, with a number of great aerial shots revealing the grandness of the metropolis. Not only this, those portraying the officers in the film are accompanied by the luxurious attires they continuously wear, making them appear as competent and dedicated as they continuously seem.

Despite the front cover's insinuation that Cold War is an action film, it is in fact a dramatic thriller. Despite the movie beginning with an explosive start that immediately catches your eye, the action scenes are incredibly infrequent, the most captivating aspects of the movie been its intelligent and thought provoking script, that is continuously twisting like a snake, as the characters attempt to unravel the conspiracy they have unwittingly fallen into. However, Peter Kam's score, much like the cover, offers a similar assumption regarding the film's genre, and despite its entertaining properties, the over the top orchestral soundtrack, when used in conjunction with events that are neither eventful or action oriented, seems unnecessary.

As the film progresses and the antagonists behind the plot are slowly revealed, the lacking background behind what caused them to orchestrate the attacks is rather unsatisfactory in a film which contained such an effective build up. With the exception of the lead instigator, whose motivations we are able to comprehend, the film's finale is less wowing than I would have imagined from a film that really keeps you pinned to the screen, and rather, my attitude towards the end was more like 'uh, so that's how it is, eh?' Furthermore, at the film's conclusion, text appears on screen notifying the viewership that this is definitively 'the end', which contradicts not only the visuals, but the dialogue which suggests there could be more to come. This anti-climatic conclusion inevitably falls short of whatever expectations audiences would have acquired over the course of the film.

Despite being entertaining and intelligent, with great acting all around, superb visuals, and the rare, but still well executed fight scene, Cold War is a movie that keeps you attentive, yet will leave you wanting a finale better fitting a feature of its caliber.

COLD WAR is a Hong Kong police thriller spearheaded by an all-star cast who go some way in making it surprisingly compelling viewing at times. The story begins choppily as a van full of low-ranking police officers disappears, the cops presumably kidnapped, but gradually we figure out that this is less about action heroics than the internal politics of the Hong Kong police division. Aaron Kwok and Tony Leung lead the way here and both are very good indeed, particularly in one crucial scene that showcases their acting skills. The worst thing is the direction which could be better, but it doesn't detract from a fun little film.

Touted as "the next INFERNAL AFFAIRS", COLD WAR is a bold, if heavily flawed action thriller that gives a fresh perspective rarely seen in a cop genre by showing an internal conflict between a group of high-ranking police officers struggling to solve a case.

The movie opens fast and furious, beginning with a sudden explosion at a crowded movie theater. Following immediately is a separate scene where an arrogant drunk driver speeds through the Hong Kong's freeways and ends up crashing his car pretty badly. An EU (Emergency Unit) van loaded with five cops arrives at the accident scene, which is reportedly being hijacked and vanishes from police radar. Despite all the so-called expensive and sophisticated technology at their disposal, the police can't even track down their own van. Apparently one of the five cops that ended up being kidnapped by masked hijackers is Joe (Eddie Peng), son of Deputy Commissioner of Police from Operation Division, M.B. Lee (Tony Leung Ka-Fai).

While the Commissioner of Police (Michael Wong) is out of the country, Lee has been appointed as acting commissioner and leads the rescue operation code named "Cold War". Lee's strategy is an all-out aggressive attack with "non-negotiable" policy against the kidnappers, but Deputy Commissioner of Police from Management Division, Sean Lau (Aaron Kwok) disagrees with his harsh decision and demands the situation to be evaluated thoroughly before any proper action is taken. Lau also suspects that Lee is overreacted especially since his son is being kidnapped as well. As the internal conflict is mounting up, Lee continues to bark his authority all for the wrong reasons when he harshly refuses to let his Head of Police Public Relations Branch, Phoenix Leung (Charlie Yeung) to release info about the kidnapping news to the public. The particular situation prompted Lau to step in with some top-brass supports from his best friend, Senior Superintendent Vincent Tsui (Chin Kar-Lok), Senior Superintendent Albert Kwong (Gordon Lam) and Secretary of Security for the Hong Kong Security Bureau, Philip Luk (Andy Lau) to overturn Lee's position so he can replace him as the new acting commissioner.

Once Lee is forced to step down, Lau immediately takes charge and proceeds on negotiating with the kidnappers who demands a huge amount of money or else. However, Lau's attempt to deliver the ransom money goes terribly awry and even leaves one of the crucial police officers dead. Now most of the money goes missing.

At this point onward, both Lee and Lau become prime suspects under the investigation of ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption), which is lead by a young ICAC investigator Billy Cheung (Aarif Rahman). According to Cheung, he has a reason to believe that Lee or Lau has something to do with the missing money and the overall conspiracy of the kidnapping case. Now the biggest question is: what really happens? If the synopsis above does sounds confusing to you, that's because first-time writers and directors Longman Leung and Sunny Luk stuffed way too many plots in a compact 102 minutes! Not to mention their script is overly convoluted, which is filled with lots of loopholes and questions that might frustrate a lot of impatient viewers throughout the movie. Then there's Kwong Chi-Leung's hyperactive editing which can be annoying at times especially with too many overlapping scenes (particularly during the rapid-fire, dialogue-heavy moments) that seriously demands the viewers to play some catch-ups. The second half, which involves the ICAC investigation between Billy, Lee and Lau as well as the elaborate conspiracy theory, is a serious head-scratcher when viewers tries to connect all the dots together.

Despite all the glaring flaws, COLD WAR remains good enough to watch for. Kudos still goes to Leung and Luk for their ambitious move to present a cop thriller out of the ordinary, even though their executions are somewhat haphazard. As both being a first-timer, their directing efforts are still spotty in places. But it's hard to deny that Leung and Luk does possess some impressive feats in their overall directions.

The movie is benefited from lush production values and spectacular aerial shots (particularly the way how they framed the angle of skyscrapers), while the overall technical credits are equally top-notch. Except of course, some of the CG here are patchy (particularly in the climactic scene involving fireworks on the roof of a tall building). Peter Kam's music score is frequently intense throughout the movie.

Action scenes are adequate enough, particularly for the exciting shootout/car chase scene at the freeway overpass.

The cast, in the meantime, are rock-solid. Aaron Kwok gives a perfectly restrained performance (thank heaven he's not overacting like he used to!) as the calm and confident Lau, while Tony Leung Ka-Fai is especially a standout as the no-nonsense Lee who seriously deserves an acting award nomination (His scene involving him and Aaron Kwok barking at each other in the police headquarters, and another one where he coolly outwitted the two young ICAC investigators in the interrogation room, are downright memorable). The rest of the supporting cast are equally great, including Charlie Yeung, Gordon Lam, Aarif Rahman and even the cameo appearance from Andy Lau.

COLD WAR ends with a cliffhanger finale that screams a sequel. If the sequel is really made sometimes in the future, here's hoping that Longman Leung and Sunny Luk manage to polish their rough-on-the-edges direction and their overstuffed screenplay into a more balanced approach. As for now, COLD WAR stands as one of the best Hong Kong movies of the year.

It systematically introduces the operation and coordination of the management office, the operation office, the public relations section, the ICAC and other public sectors after the emergency. At the end, we can see how depressed Hong Kong people have been in these years. I like this story very much. I dig one piece at a time, but it's too messy to tell. Many plots and characters don't go down well, and the story is not smooth.