Nam yee boon sik

Director Benny Chang's fast paced crime thriller follows three Hong Kong cops relentlessly pursuing a ruthless gang of highly skilled crooks and murderers.

More entertaining and absorbing than you might expect, it's not often that action films which are over two hours long can hold the audience's attention for the duration, but in this case the film rarely retreats from the explosive opening scene. Perhaps it dwells for too long on the inherent good nature of the police officers, and there are no strong female characters worth noting. However, if it's violence, explosions and a possibly interpretive subtext you're after, this is a film you are more than likely going to enjoy.

Guns, martial arts, explosions, stunts and a pinch of philosophy: Invisible Target is a film almost as thought provoking as it is entertaining. IT

"Invisible Target" ("Naam Yi Boon Sik") was really an adrenaline rush like none other. And it is well-suited for anyone who went through the late 1980s and early-mid 1990s watching Chow Yun Fat movies. There is a lot of action in the movie, in the likes of gunfights, martial arts and chase scenes.

The story is about three very different police officers in the Hong Kong police who are chasing after a group of criminals on a wild chase taking them wide and far around Hong Kong. The officers are heartbroken Detective Chan Chun (played by Nicholas Tse) who lost his fiancée in an explosion during a robbery of an armored truck, the arrogant Inspector Carson Fong Yik Wei (played by Shawn Yue) and fresh-out-of-the-academy officer Wai King Ho (played by Jaycee Chan). Who is the mastermind behind the well-orchestrated robbery, and whom can they trust?

"Invisible Target" is driven by a great story that comes off a very plausible and realistic, but it is also driven by the non-stop action, not to mention the vivid and detailed characters.

The people cast for the various roles really did good jobs with their given roles, and that really helped the movie well along.

Being a fan of Hong Kong cinema and having lived there myself, I found this movie very enjoyable, especially because it does show off a lot of aspects of Hong Kong, not just showing the glamour, fluorescent lights and the rich and famous.

I will say that that music score for the movie wasn't all that impressive, and it was not standing out in anyway. It was mostly just faded into the background and hardly noticeable. But towards the end, it ticks over and becomes rather irritating.

"Invisible Target" is highly recommendable for people who enjoy Asian movies and action movies in particular. It is a worthy movie in any movie aficionado's DVD collection.

What can I say that the other rightly so positive reviewers haven't said? Not a lot really.

This was such an enjoyable film. It was reminiscent of the days of old for an Hong Kong action flick....crazy stunts with a second replay (like the old Jackie Chan flicks), plenty of excellent martial arts, explosions and gun play. I felt as if I was watching an early 80/90's film.

What impressed even more was that there was a very strong story to this film. Everything blended nicely. The main leads has good character development and were very likable. The bad guys.....they were bad!! No messing about, no morals...just downright bad.

With some of the so called action movie tosh that America churns out today, the west should start looking to Hong Kong and Korea to take a leaf out of their book to see how things are done (Flashpoint was also very good).

Watch this and you won't be disappointed.

Director Benny Chan and staff do a mighty fine job with their cops and robbers story, Invisible Target. Seven orphans who grew up in battle torn countries take on most of the Hong Kong police force. These orphans mean business as they go about their criminal activities. The movie is almost all kinetic action, chases where the actors seem to jump 20 feet down from roof top to roof top, as the HK police try to stop the gang from getting the loot they are after. There are dull sections,especially when Jaycee Chan is describing his bland philosophy of policing, but, hey, the Chinese censors won't allow movies to be released on the mainland unless they put the police in a good light.

In Invisible Target, you don't see any police (aided by goons hired by real estate developers) clubbing farmers whose land was stolen, so a new factory can be built, enriching the local Communist Party boss who gets an ownership share in the factory. In the Shanxi province that would be the brick factories that used kidnapped children and mentally challenged adults as slave labor. But dealing with life's grim reality in one of the world's great bastions of robber baron capitalism would be too dull for most viewers, besides getting the HK filmmaker in big trouble with the People's Public Security Bureau if he or she ever set foot in mainland China.

So Benny Chan and company go the crime drama route, with shootings, car chases and a great explosion sequence at the start that keys in a major plot element. If there is one thing wrong with this movie, it is another scene at the start where Jaycee Chan's cop gives a ticket to a guy for parking illegally, a big mouth who is out with his young son. When Jackie Chan's cop character in Police Story 2 stopped and ticketed a line of trucks (all Nissan trucks, then and now a Chan corporate sponsor), it showed Chan was no nonsense when it came to his job. Jaycee's parking ticket scene is a crummy way to introduce his character, people nowadays don't like cops or anyone else who gives out parking tickets.

Invisible Target is a good way to spend a little over two hours watching a very well made if improbable crime story.

Three police officers team up to capture a gang of robbers. One (Nicolas Tse) wants revenge for the death of his fiancée in an explosion caused by the bandits after a robbery. Another (Shawn Yue) wants payback for the humiliation caused by these men, who also injured his companions. And the third (Jaycee Chan) wants to discover the connection between the bandits and his missing brother, also a police officer.

I had to make a certain effort to sympathize with them, the script itself is quite captivating, it lacked a hint of humor, these police action dramas are always very serious, except for the tiny scene with the old man who writes the ticket and the old lady, there is little that escapes the brutal realism of the world of drug trafficking, crime, corruption and police persecution, and as such it does not always have a happy ending, despite the sense of justice and hope for equality. Anyway, an interesting film, although almost tiring, but good...