The Beast Stalker

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

Tagline: Dante Lam is back in form…

Review by Neo: Ever since directing Beast Cop, Dante Lam seems to have gone brainless, but with exactly a decade onwards, Lam is finally delivering in Beast Stalker. Although the material does not bombard anything about freshness, there is no reason to be negative, as there are plenty of moments of reasonable excitement to make it one of the better lights of 2008 HK Cinema. While Beast Stalker is by all means dark, it is also lighter than Beast Cops, especially when taken into account of the somewhat redeeming finale. A good film by all means, but on the scale of Lam's best efforts (Neo mentioning Beast Cop for X number of times), it pales. Luckily, the above is more of a positive comment than negative, as any film worthy of comparison with the aforementioned flick cannot be too bad.

Even the current reviewer is annoyed by how many times, Neo have somewhat mentioned the word, Beast Cop. For god sake, this is not a promotional fest of former great movies, but rather looking at the future of HK cinema, with a view of the past. Years, ago back in Tiramisu, Nicholas Tse portrayed himself as a somewhat capable actor and from there, he has gone from worst to bad. Luckily, Tse has finally come of age and the result is showing in a somewhat pleasing display of serious acting chops. Still, there are a lot of cons that would require mentioning, like moments of Tse being angry or frustrated comes of more laughable than convincing. Without being a pessimist there is a lot to cheer about Tse's latest display and Neo can safely claim it as one of his best display since Goddess of Mercy.

There is no question that Nick Cheung is one heck of an actor and his steer away from comedy is certainly one of the best career moves for Cheung. It has been noted, that Neo first realise his potential as a serious actor way back in 1998, when he was actively involved in TVB. His role as a good guy turned villain was menacing and in recent years, Cheung has shown that Neo was right about him. Here, his villainous turn is by no means the typical carbon copy, but rather multi-dimensional and the result is menacing, interesting and absolutely captivating. Cheung has come a long way and perhaps award recognition is just around the corner.

There is a saying when all actors are in their best form, the film usually works. Well, to be honest, there is no such saying, but it does rings quite true. Luckily, good things usually come in three and surely one of the better actresses in recent years, Zhang Jing Chu (The Protégé), can do no wrong. After Neo acclaiming her as Best Actress for her immensely scene stealing role as a junkie mother in Protégé, Zhang does not disappoint and she handles her role with ease, While by no means on the same class as her performance in Protégé, it is still more than adequate enough to allow the audience to relate to her character. An actress to watch in years to come and the scene when she realise she has indirectly caused the death of her own child is just captivating to endure.

Director Dante Lam loves brutal straight forward, fist to fist fights and he makes good use of this to further enhance the realism of the work. Beast Stalker works because; Dante Lam tries hard to focus on the characters and allows them to flourish. All in all, Beast Stalker is suitably dark, filled with three capable performances and a redeeming finale to round it out. While it is true that the film falls short of reaching the dazzling heights in Beast Cop, it is great news to announce that director Lam is back to what he does best and finally approaching the sort of form that seem to have eluded from his wane, for the last decade. Basically, cutting all the above crap, it really just requires the following line: a film that Neo recommends viewing … (Neo 2009)

I rate it 8/10

• www.thehkneo.com

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.

Many Hong Kong thrillers suffer from over styled over produced (by Hong Kong standard) and over acting. I feel like this one has none of those and it has a good story and direction to back everything up. Nick Tse is a pretty boy but this flick he plays a man all right. The film was released in 2008 and I just caught it in 2020. I have no expectation after seeing too many thoughtless glossy productions, but this one is an exception and a pleasant surprise.

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.