Blind Detective

Johnnie To's latest film marks a long-anticipated reunion of Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, the rom-com triad has chalked up magical box-office draw and successes in the Aughts (most victorious ones are LOVE ON A DIET 2001, 7/10 and NEEDING YOU… 2000, 8/10), and after a 9- year-hiatus (since YESTERDAY ONCE MORE 2004, 6/10), this "iron triangle" has notched up an inspiring comeback which ingeniously imbues a lighthearted rom-com into an out-of-left-field detective thriller with an adequate whodunit revelation in the end.

For international territory, Johnnie To is mostly appreciated by his grim and stylized portrayal of Hong Kong's crime and gangster underbellies, a patriarch ruling world of ambitious figures seeking for money, women and power, but his collaboration with Lau and Cheng is a consistent offshoot from To and his own MILKY WAY IMAGE COMPANY's prolific filmography, not to mention is his most popular and profitable ones. So the innovation banks on how To would mingle his trademark darker traits into the audience-friendly couple (Lau and Cheng, indicates their 7th on-screen alliance as lovers), which could allure both To's hardcore fans and a wider general appeal from a maturer demography. Judging by the finished film, the tentative stab is a smart move, BLIND DETECTIVE is on its way of becoming To's most money-earning film in mainland China market (previously the record was just freshly held by To's earlier drug-cartel undercover drama DRUG WAR 2012).

A posh Andy Lau, a former police officer who has been blind in lieu of his negligence of his own health in order to track suspects, teamed with a wealthy policewoman (Cheng), who is obsessed with the disappearance of her friend 20 years ago, together they manage to crack a few unsolved cases while put their own lives in danger. For Lau's method of deducing, if you are familiar with the new series HANNIBAL, imaging oneself at the murder scene and incarnating one's identity as the culprit to visualize what had happened is not new, but the mind-cum-body default (Lau is the mastermind while Cheng is the right-hand woman does all the action labor) works wonder here, with Cheng's ongoing crush on Lau, the pair sparks off a flavorful rib-tickling screwball casualness allies with the horrid cases they are working on, a superb visual stunt comes from the mortuary slaughter, gallows humor galore.

Sammi Cheng is burdened with a great quantity of physical endeavor out of her slim frame, furthermore she is exhorted to deliver her career-best stretches as the film demands, i.e. the myriad avatars of heartbroken female victims, and her comical timing with Lau is another linchpin to the success. Lau, an epicure more than a sleuth, is amiable and emits his deadly debonair all over the devil-may-care script. Among supporting roles, mainland players Tao Guo and Yuanyuan Gao are sidelined only as comic relief, while a cocktail of veteran Hong Kong thespians is shortchanged by the brevity of their presence.

Strictly speaking, the process of disclosing the perpetrators is not as cogent as it seems, the hyperbole of Lau's knack (against his blindness) is sometimes pulling audiences out of the picture a bit, but BLIND DETECTIVE is a paradigm of To and his team's great attempt to concoct a genre-blender which is both entertaining and ruminative, it is an earnest piece of work, a precious gem considering the plight of China's mainstream cinema (potboilers are brimful while the market is rising at an exponential rate), Johnnie To, is the last straw of the once-glorious Hong Kong film industry and he is the trailblazer refuses to compromise or pander for the unique policy-oriented requirements, calling for emulators and successors.

Directed by Johnny To. Brilliant, hilarious and nerve wracking.

Everything gets thrown into the plot. Blind detective, betrayed by partner, teams up with a young female cop, a missing teenager, serial killers, a jilted woman, an on-screen birth, thrills and spills.

Hong Kong's Sherlock Holms. Depends on empathy rather than deduction.

As sharp as Zatoichi's blade.

Terrific performances by Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng. Strong supporting cast.

I rarely give a rating of 8/10.

This is one movie I can recommend.

IThe Blind Detective was fairly hard to follow as it jump scene to scene without really giving you a full explanation. We are also exploring multiple cases at once, so sometimes it becomes rather hard to know what case we are talking about. As a result the film becomes a bit convoluted. It is fairly entertaining for what it is (a silly overdramatic Hong Kong comedy]. Andy Lau does give a great performance, not afraid to make himself look wild.

If you want just a silly film with a bit of a mystery, check it out. It's not the worst, it's not the best.

This film can't make up its mind if it wants to be a featherweight romantic comedy or a Seven/Silence of the Lambs-style dark thriller.

Without any funny jokes or a credible or even remotely interesting villain it succeeds as neither. Add an unthinkably daft twist ending and you end up with a very confused mess. If it's creepy, it's not in a good way - the creepiness lies in trying to figure out how Johnny To could possibly think it a good idea to put a subplot about a cannibal serial killer of young women in a slapstick romantic comedy.

It's possible something got lost in translation, but I really can't imagine what kind of cultural insight would make this make sense.

'Blind Detective's' pedigree reads like a match made in cinematic heaven - on one hand, it boasts the reunion of Hong Kong's golden screen couple, Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, after almost a decade; on the other, its creative team made up of Johnnie To and Wai Kar Fai is arguably one of the most successful partnerships in the Hong Kong film industry. Yet it is precisely because of the latter reason that one should know better than to expect a conventional movie - after all, neither To nor Wai have ever liked to be associated with just perfunctory.

And 'Blind Detective' bears that similarly uncharacteristic trait, defying easy genre characterisation by treading right on the middle line between a slapstick rom-com and a crime thriller. It is a very fine balance no doubt, one that proves too tricky from time to time even for a director of auteur status like To, so criticism that the movie is tonally all over the place is somewhat not unfounded. That doesn't mean however that it isn't entertaining; on the contrary, it pulses with its own eccentric beat, and the more you get used to its offbeat tone, the faster you'll begin to appreciate its own unique charm.

To introduces us and his odd couple to each other with an acid attack case that both Lau's retinally-damaged former top cop Johnston and Cheng's junior crime squad cop Ho are on the trail of. Turns out that since losing his sight four years earlier, Johnston has been using his other senses and formidable deductive powers to solve crimes solely for the purpose of earning the associated bounties. Having made acquaintance, Ho engages Johnston to do a little sleuthing for her - more specifically, to assist her in finding a childhood friend with a tragic past called Minnie who disappeared many years ago. Under the guise of working more closely with her, Johnston moves into Ho's apartment - though an earlier scene which demonstrates his solitude living alone suggests that he wants company too.

While Minnie's case frames the nature of their interaction, almost half the movie is in fact spent on other cold cases that Johnston is still chasing the bounty for - and like Ho, we too are taken on a couple of these bizarre diversions. One particularly outlandish case has Johnston attempting to piece together a murder scene in a morgue with some generous help from Ho, the re-enactments played for broader-than-broad laughs with a hammer, a motorbike helmet and a TV set thrown in. Johnston's technique is to attentively reconstruct the crime scene, which given his disability, makes Ho a useful companion to participate in these elaborate and occasionally over-the-top sequences.

At least for the middle section, Wai's script tends to meander, not least for the fact that it tries to add in some unnecessary subplots including Johnston's crush on a tango dancer (Gao Yuanyuan) and his rivalry with Szeto. Only towards the last third does Johnston get down to business on Minnie's case, the trail of clues leading them to a love triangle in Zhuhai involving a pregnant woman (Eileen Yeow) and a teppanyaki chef (Ziyi) as well as to a psychotic serial killer responsible for the deaths of several missing young women over the past few years.

Even then, those familiar with To's rigour in shooting well-detailed procedurals like this year's 'Drug War' may not be used to what appears to be a lack of storytelling discipline here. To plays it fast and loose, seemingly reluctant to exert tighter directorial rein over Wai's slackly constructed plotting; yet seen through a less critical perspective, To in fact gives as much, if not more, weight to the relationship between Johnston and Ho as to the central mystery, each of the distractions in fact deepening their quirky but no doubt romantic attraction.

Just as in most Wai films, there is a moral at the end when the truth about Minnie's disappearance is revealed, a cautionary lesson if you will about the consequences of being blinded by one's own stubbornness. Viewed through this lens, Johnston and Ho's earlier encounters gain some meaningful significance - ultimately, both Johnston and Ho have also been guilty of refusing to let go of their respective baggage from the past, and it is with each other that they learn to recognise the importance of moving on. Yet it is a point that may be lost on many audiences, who are likely to be frustrated by the alternating mix of madcap laughs and overdone acting.

Yes, while there is little doubt of the palpable chemistry between Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, both are guilty of crossing the line into histrionics at times. Lau is arguably best during his character's quieter and more introspective moments, in particular when he visualises himself communicating with victim and suspect alike in dreamlike fashion; unfortunately, his real-life interactions tend to consist of him flailing and shouting exaggeratedly. Cheng is thankfully more subdued most of the time, and amply demonstrates her gift for physical comedy especially during the crime scene re-enactments.

It's hard to imagine any other screen couple in the roles of Johnston and Ho, which is another way of saying that the movie probably would not work with someone else in Andy and Sammi's shoes. And by virtue of that, this genre mash-up is unequivocally their show, which in the hands of Johnnie To and Wai Kar-Fai, is quite a different creature from the usual Hong Kong comedies or for that matter detective thrillers. The combination of both makes for a deliberately uncharacteristic tone that is both weird and wacky, but there is still an undeniably idiosyncratic charm about it that deserves an appreciative audience.

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