The Beast Stalker

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.

This is the best Hong Kong cop thriller I have seen since "Infernal Affairs" and "Triad Election." All three films suggest critiques of Mainland China's relationship to Hong Kong chilling enough to raise them to a level of art. I expect a remake soon, although I don't think it will be as good as "The Departed."

For those with no interest or awareness in contemporary Chinese politics, "Beast Stalker" works perfectly well as a thriller. But with a little reflection many contemporary Chinese films like this can be decoded as profound commentaries on the current situation in China every bit as trenchant as Sixth Generation dramas. This is a golden age of Chinese cinema. Don't underestimate what you see.

"Hong Kong action flick specialist Dante Lam's one-two punch THE BEAST STALKER and THE STOOL PIGEON are essentially manufactured by the same team. Both wrestle with the guilt conscience of police officers, one for his own accidental doing, the other over his maneuver towards at-risk informants, they are exemplars of Hong Kong cinema in the noughties, recruiting actors from mainland China into the indigenous milieu, and striving for a morally correct guidance (both are requisites to secure a lucrative Chinese market release)."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks.

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

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.