Sin yan

Dante Lam has found something of a creative muse in writer Jack Ng of late, and their latest "The Stool Pigeon" marks their fourth straight collaboration together. It is also crafted out of the same mould as their earlier "Beast Stalker", "Sniper" and "Fire of Conscience", and audiences who have enjoyed the morally ambiguous characters and their dilemmas in these male-driven films will certainly enjoy this latest.

Reuniting the duo of Nick Cheung and Nicolas Tse from "Beast Stalker", Lam reverses the good guy-bad guy roles played by Cheung and Tse earlier. In this film, Cheung is on the right side of the law- he plays Detective Don Lee, a cop with his conscience wracked by guilt from the fate of his last stool pigeon (or slang for 'informant'). Jabber (played by Lam regular Liu Kai-Chi) was almost slashed to death after his cover was blown, and Don counts himself responsible for making the executive decision that blew Jabber's cover.

Tse is the ex-convict Ghost, whom Don seeks out to be his new informant after police receive word that a wanted robber Barbarian (Lu Yi) is back in town for another heist. Ghost needs money to pay off his father's debt to a loanshark, and reluctantly agrees despite being fully aware of the risks. For a good first hour, Lam meticulously sketches out the relationship between Don and Ghost- opposites in the eye of the law, but forced by circumstance to befriend and even trust each other.

A scene where Don teaches his fellow officers how to manage their informants illustrates this conflict beautifully- he tells them they have to win the trust of their stool pigeons so they can get as much intel as possible, but not to get too friendly at the same time for they may have to make difficult decisions in the line of duty. It is an unenviable position that Don himself knows personally, and many of the film's most poignant scenes come from Don's regular visits to Jabber who has since become a vagabond.

Besides delineating the complex relationship between police and informant, Lam also takes care to develop his characters. Don's frequent visits to a dance studio hint of a personal tragedy that is only revealed later; and Ghost's feelings for Barbarian's girlfriend, Dee (Kwai Lun-mei), only make it more difficult for him to extricate himself later on. The characters in Lam's films have always been flawed in one way or another, but the attention that Lam pays this time round to his two central characters- Don and Ghost- ranks among one of his best.

Amply deserving of praise too are Cheung and Tse. Having won Best Actor at both the Hong Kong Film Awards and Golden Horse Awards for his role in "Beast Stalker", Cheung turns in a wonderfully subtle performance here that conveys his character's anguish both in his line of work and his personal life. Because Cheung's acting is more restrained here, Tse gets the chance to be in the spotlight- and he more than delivers in a nuanced portrayal that fleshes out Ghost's struggles tiptoeing on the fine line of the law.

Lam brings the intricately and impeccably plotted first half to a head in the next hour of the film, and audiences familiar with Lam's films may naturally be expecting big-scale action sequences like those in "Sniper"or even "Fire of Conscience". But perhaps surprisingly, he doesn't give his audience the kind of visceral gratification this time round, and some may find his unusual restraint a little frustrating.

Not to say that he has lost his flair- an exciting foot chase down the tight cramped aisles of Hong Kong's street markets culminating in a midday car chase will set to rest any such doubts- nor that this isn't a taut thriller. It is both, but Lam often ratchets up the tension before an impending action scene and then defuses it without his usual signature guns-and-bullets extravanganza.

It is still no reason why you should miss this thriller. While it doesn't feature as much by way of action as one would expect from a usual Dante Lam film, its strong character-driven drama still packs a solid punch. At a time when the Hong Kong film industry seems inundated by big-budget China co-productions, Dante has stuck to his guns to deliver a gritty true-blue Hong Kong cop thriller set entirely in the iconic streets of Kowloon. In a year of lean offerings from Hong Kong, this will probably go down as one of the year's best.

I have no intention to watch this movie in the cinema if not because of having read 2 or 3 reviews up here. Someone even give it a 10 !! I am not a fan of HK actions. My Internal Affairs dvds are still unopened.

The story - The opening subplot before the main title makes a perfect opening for this movie but as the movie moves along, there are just too many ACCIDENTS, CO-INCIDENTS and INCIDENTS beside the main plot that makes the audience feel that the scriptwriter don't know how to end the story or because they are not confident enough, thinking that more to see will please the audience. In this case, it certainly spoil it. Many subplots like Cheung's past with his wife, his dancing class, the ending part of the opening informer, the cops tailing someone to the car park, how Nicholas has met the boss's girlfriend before, etc. They are all unnecessary. They could be much better ways to show the characters or carry on the story. There are also too many situations that are UNBELIEVABLE too, making the audience to lose excitement. At the end, you only want to know what will happen to Nicholas Tse and his sister as they have the most sympathetic characters.

The direction and styling - Can easily tell the director is a big fan of Wong Kar Wai. A different colour bar scene, the night train scene,the music, some old English and Chinese songs styling. They are all like ideas from WKW movies but without William's editing and Doyle's jerky camera-works. .

The acting - Overall good. Nicholas's acting has really matured. He made the character so special like no one else can replace him there. The Taiwanese actress is also good. The actor who played thug Taiping is outstanding. Cheung is also good but the director let him show-off in the wrong scenes.

I think the director should emphasize more on the scenes between Nicholas and Cheung and between Cheung and his boss(near the end) instead of putting in so many unnecessary subplots and happenings that spoil the movie's concept.

Without those flaws, I would have given it a 8 or 9 but at most 7 now. Anyhow,if you have enjoyed such movies from HK, go for it.

First off, let me say that Nick Cheung's performance was great. He has a few scenes where he really needs to show emotion, and he shines. Sadly, I would say this film is a little forgettable. It's a tale that we have seen told similarly in movies such as "Infernal Affairs" and "City On Fire" (especially the latter, with the jewelry store robbery and the warehouse standoff) but isn't done quite as well. It has a few highlights, such as the car chase with "White Christmas" playing in the background, or the jewlery store robbery, or even the fight in the abandoned room filled with chairs and tables, but other than those memorable moments, the rest seems like filler. It also contains a few side plots that seemed a bit cliché and unnecessary. It's entertaining, sure, but in the end, it will blend in with many Hong Kong films with similar plots.

The term/title itself gets explained in the movie, which you should watch if you like Hong Kong action cinema in general. While most people are looking for the new John Woo (movie) or the new Johnnie To (movie), a veteran filmmaker almost slipped under the radar. And it would be a shame if you'd miss out on this one.

Action packed, but still with character driven plot(s), this will not let you rest easy. There is always moral dilemma involved and of course it is difficult to watch our hero go through some of the trials and tribulations he has to go through (and maybe not all that is supposed to be good, is actually good). That is another thing that you either love or hate. Thank you Dante Lam for this excellent movie

"In STALKER, Nicholas Tse plays a straight-arrow police sergeant, pitched against Nicky Cheung's ruthless, one-eyed kidnapper; whereas in PIGEON, the shoe is on the other foot, Cheung is a righteous police detective and Tse is the debt-ridden, ex-con stoolie he needs to protect from a dangerous gang of armed robbers. Both actors show confidence and versatility in their dual transitions. Cheung excels in a beastly, menacing presence in STALKER that the audience has never seen before, then morphs into a bespectacled, spiffy officer of the law whose reticent appearance dissembles his inner conflict; Tse is a single-minded redemption-seeking hot-head in STALKER, sometimes he can be schmaltzy, but goes low-key and quietly affecting in PIGEON where he really catches audience off guard for a maturer performance that elicits our commiserations."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks.