Ching yan

A better than average H.K. thriller - even with the "Over the top" acting and special effects.

With the usual convoluted plot and moral high ground for the "good guys", it seemed it might be a tight squeeze to tie up all the loose ends by the end of the picture. But, in the end, everything is nicely bundled and the emotional resolution is accompanied by the satisfaction of knowing how all the principals fit together.

There may be a remake by Tarentino, but he'll be hard pressed to find a kid as cute as the one in this flick. (All the kids are cute in this one!)

While writers and directors are well known for using other people's ideas and techniques, there is no greater flattery than direct copying. It is said that the remake of Psycho in 1998 was done shot for shot, for example; yet that effort garners barely 4.5 here at IMDb, a losing score for me to watch.

Beast Stalker is not a remake of anything, yet it takes a key ingredient from Amores Perros (2000) – an horrific car crash – that sets the scene for the subsequent action and reaction amongst and between the players. As with Amores Perros, without the crash – a visceral metaphor for the ways in which people interact and impact upon each other in daily life – there would be no plot and no movie called Beast Stalker.

That plot circles around four players, essentially: Sergeant Tong Fe (Nicholas Tse), a tough, go-getter cop who rules his team with an iron will; Ann Gao (Jingchu Zhang), a government prosecutor determined to bring a top criminal to justice for murder during an armed robbery; her daughter, Ling (Suet-yin Wong) who is kidnapped to force Ann to falsify crucial evidence against the top criminal; and Hung King (Nick Cheung), presumably the 'beast' of the story and kidnapper of cute little Ling.

The story really begins when Tong Fe, three months after the car crash, is at the school from which Ling is kidnapped and as Ann arrives to pick her up. Hung King gets away with the girl, and Tong Fe promises Ann that he will find Ling. The hunt is on...but time is of the essence: the trial of the bank robber/murderer is in 24 hours.

For reasons that are best explained in the movie, Tong Fe decides to act alone. A lucky break allows him to narrow his search to a specific set of cramped apartments which he begins to scrutinize and search in a variety of ways; and during which, he is eventually assisted by a couple of his police colleagues and a plucky Ling who is able to get location information out by cell phone to Tong Fe and her mother. As night falls, Tong Fe zeros in on an apartment brilliantly lit by a giant, red neon advertising light, and when he spots Ling through a window, he knows he'll be able to keep his promise to Ann. Or so he thinks.

The final act that brings closure for the players I'll leave you to enjoy without spoiling it. Suffice to say the suspense, action and excitement are well worth your time, and are as good as it gets. Better yet, the epilogue is, absolutely, emotional dynamite; so don't miss it.

Technically, the production is brilliant: well paced and well photographed, although it suffers from too many, repetitive zoom shots; but the editing is stunning in parts, particularly the slo-mo action in the crash. If you've seen some of the slo-mo explosions in The Hurt Locker (2008), you know what I mean. Coupled with appropriate flashbacks to fill in various back-stories, the entire filmic experience is well-structured and easy to follow.

Finally, though, a word about the title: considering the overall thematic thrust – personal redemption – the title is, I think, misleading at best. Hung King, as the main antagonist, has unselfish and even laudable motivations that drive him to commit a terrible criminal act. And likewise, none of the protagonists – Tong Fe and Ann Gao, particularly – are squeaky clean, either. Moreover, as we all know, given appropriate stimulus and context, anybody can perform a heinous crime, offensively or defensively. All of which raises an age-old question: does the end always justify the means? Think on that when you see this one and especially when you get to the epilogue.

Give this offering a good eight out of ten.

Recommended for all, except young kiddies (too much violence).

January 3, 2013

Just saw Dante Lam's Beaststalker at Seattle International Film Festival and loved it. Can anyone tell me why he chose that title? In other words, what is the significance of the name "Beaststalker"? I haven't seen "Beast Cop," but is there some kind of convention or genre in HongKong cinema that would explain it?

To anyone who hasn't seen this film, I highly recommend it. The performances are outstanding, it's a real emotional roller-coaster, and is very cleverly put together. Here's hoping that the Americans don't try to remake it, as it would lose its real punch. The only good remake I've ever seen was "The Departed," and even that one didn't live up to the HK original.

BEAST STALKER is one of those wonderful films – a crime movie with real heart behind it. The story may be hackneyed and predictable and the plot twists might be anything but, but in the end this film is a triumph because it gets to the real darkness and emotion behind the subject matter. Police procedurals and crime thrillers have long been popular in Hong Kong, but many of them are inevitably slick and soulless, providing entertainment but without real depth to back it up. Not so BEAST STALKER.

The overall story is one of kidnapping, but there's much more going on with the film than that. Both heroes and villains are painted with the same level of painstaking care, so that in the end the film becomes all about character rather than cliché and the latest effort to make the hero look cool in front of a slow-motion explosion. The acting is a triumph; Nicholas Tse bags the fairly predictable role of the tortured cop and does a good job with it, but it's Nick Cheung as the would-be kidnapper who really shines. Cheung could easily have been over the top or theatrical in his turn as the film's villain, but instead he comes across as an all-too real person. He's one of the most interesting bad guys I've seen in a film, and he ignites every scene he takes part in with his dynamic performance.

Of course, at the end of the day this is still a thriller, and director Dante Lam makes sure we don't forget it. There are car crashes, fist fights, shoot-outs and foot chases, and all of them are portrayed with the maximum excitement. This is the first time I've seen a film of Lam's, and I love his cinematography: he sets the scene in long shots before moving in close and staying in close whether dialogue or action is playing out. It adds a level of realism and catapults the viewer into the film in an effective, engaging way. On the strength of BEAST STALKER I'm already eager to track down more of the director's work.

Sometimes what you're looking for is right in front of you. Sometimes you really have to look for it. In this case our main hero is trying to figure out who's responsible for a crime and what went down. Now some may think they know way before him, some may be right, but that is not what is good about this movie. It's the action and the actors that help the story and the movie itself.

There are some fancy elements in this that help create something exciting for the viewers. Suspense is high and it keeps it at a steady level. Good stunts and action scenes too