Fai seung dat yin

Although most of Hong Kong's top talent has left for Hollywood, there has been a wave of interesting films from new directors like Patrick Yau who directed this sombering drama. The tune of the film shifts from drama to comedy to action back to comedy and finally to tragedy. The top performances were given by Simon Yam and Lau Ching-Wan as Police officers who are in love with the same woman. Expect The Unexpected along with The Longest Nite(1997) and The Odd One Dies(1997) show the emergence of another great director from Hong Kong. Expect The Unexpected(1998) is one of the best films in Hong Kong in the last ten years.

What makes this movie different from other Police dramas is it focuses more on the relationship the members of the Crime Unit have with each other and less with action scenes. Expect The Unexpected reminded me of the films of Takeshi Kitano in that like in his films the violence is sudden and tragic. The ending took me by surprise, but also impressed me because of the courage Patrick Yau had in filming this scene. The ending of Expect The Unexpected makes the finale of John Woo's The Killer(1989) look like a happy ending{This was the second time that Patrick Yau ended a film in irony(The Longest Nite(1997) was the other time)}. A good moment in the movie is when the waitress at the end is waiting for Lau Ching-Wan as she watches the news to learn of the Fate of the Hong Kong Crime Unit.

About the only thing unexpected about this movie was how muddled and uneven it was. So much so that the surprise ending lost all of it's impact. In fact, it seemed tacked on, almost as if it belonged in another movie. Actually, it felt like there were two movies sandwiched together -- a goofy romantic comedy with a violent cop drama. Because the romantic triangle became silly and childish, it was hard to take the ending seriously. It's too bad because there were some good things in it such as Lau Ching Wan. The idea (randomness of life, etc, etc) was good. The execution wasn't.

A police unit, led nominally by Simon Yam and smokey-eyed Lau Ching-Wan, pursue two gangs, each heavily armed and dangerous, not least of all to themselves. Expect the Unexpected begins conventionally enough, but a nudge to the plot here, a detail of characterization there, and the odd bit of unexpected humour, and before long the story is in territory at once familiar and unfamiliar. For the viewer the results are nothing less than exhilarating, like seeing an over-familiar genre through fresh, new eyes.

One interesting touch for a HK film released in May 1998: the mainland Chinese in one gang had come to Hong Kong due to economic difficulties back home. (One government, two systems in effect?)

Cacine Wong's routine and seemingly off-the-cuff soundtrack was the only really jarring element to Expect the Unexpected (the effects of low budget filmmaking in HK being pretty much a given these days). Other film scores by Wong include the very good spaghetti eastern-sounding Peace Hotel, co-written with Healthy Poon, and the equally good neo-noirish Too Many Ways to be Number One.

Your best chance of seeing Expect the Unexpected is on video or in a rep theater. But however you see it, and whether you come in expecting the unexpected, I think you'll be in for a pleasant surprise.

Expect the Unexpected(1998) is a supurb police thriller that reminded me a little bit of Dennis Hopper's Colors(1987). It is good at looking at the friendship and working angle of a police unit. The movie deals with a crime unit who are after two sets of jewel thieves. The ending is one of the most surprising ones that I've seen. Expect the Unexpected's finale is something you will never see in a Hollywood action or buddy film anytime soon or in the near future.

This flick starts off as a typical Hong Kong cop movie, with a dream team of post-unification stars as the good guys: Patrick Yau (who also directs), Lau Ching-Wan and Eric Tsang. There are all the staples -- nasty villains, a beautiful love interest, lots of gats blazing. But you know what? The predictable plot falls apart and leaves you agape, wondering what will happen next -- and the ending... well, I'll let you see the end for yourself.