Overheard

The key deal in the film is about information, and how it is King, and can be used as a tradable commodity from making money, to saving lives. Everyone has a price especially when you're in possession of vital, life-making or breaking, juicy insider news from stock tips to who's banging who, and Mak/Chong had imbued their characters with shades of grey rather than the usual boring black and white type, where on one hand you may not condone what they have done, and yet on the other, you would wonder if given the same set of circumstances whether you will succumb to temptation when the same opportunity presents itself.

Which of course leads us to the perennial question of who watches the watchmen. It is always easy to say, like the chief villain in the film (played by Michael Wong), that an organization is built upon honesty and integrity, but face it, it is a human face that's running the operations, and with human failings and trappings, there's the inherent potential that some hanky-panky could be done behind the scenes. Cases of corporate scandals overseas and locally would already be a case in point, and the story in Overheard pushes all the right buttons in gelling such material all together into one solid, edge of your seat movie.

Lau Cheng Wan (fan here, and good to see him back on the big screen!) plays Johnny, who heads an electronic eavesdropping, oops, I mean, surveillance team with buddies and direct reports Gene (Louis Koo) and Max (Daniel Wu). Together, the trio is responsible for bugging the office of a conglomerate suspected of insider trading and shady businesses. As the story goes, Gene and Max happen to exploit their newly gained knowledge for personal gain, and unfortunately as supervisor with a sympathetic heart, Johnny chooses to play along to protect his subordinates, rather than to bust them wide open to their superiors.

The film moves at breakneck speed, and it also managed to provide that little bit of detail toward the personal lives of the main characters. With Gene, his pressure comes from a critically ill son with insurmountable hospital bills to settle. Max on the other hand wants a personal fortune in order to stand up to his future wealthy father-in-law who looks down on him and his social stature. Johnny too is not squeaky clean morally too, as he's having affair with his best friend (Alex Fong) and colleague's wife Mandy (Zhang Jingchu). And in one key scene late in the film, we see how deeply corrupt he can be through the shift of blame, especially when required to save his own skin. So the stage is set for the devil to whisper inside their ears, to take the bait and go for the kill, participating in the insider trading and throwing away their moral authority as cops sworn to uphold the law.

Which of course means even bigger lies created to cover original fibs, and watching them sweat bucketloads each time things go awry, and they have to do deeper down into the rabbit hole. It made me recall a saying my old principal gave one day at the school assembly, that only the truth will set you free. In this case you'd wonder at which point the characters would decide to make a clean break and own up, and therein lies part of the fun in watching the film, getting equally frustrated with some of them as they go further down the slippery slope.

The casting is something that deserves a mention, as it's one of the chief ingredients in holding the movie together, and engaging the audience's attention throughout. Lau Cheng Wan is evergreen, and has so much charisma on screen, that he could have been just sweeping the road for all that matter, and still has this steely surety that with him at your side, nothing could go wrong. His big brother role to the other younger actors in Daniel Wu and Louis Koo spoke volumes as it got translated down to the story, playing the leader of the pack who decides to haul his flock out of trouble. And all three male leads were extremely believable as buddies who'd stick to one another through thick and thin, and in one scene where they were congregating in a flat when Mandy returns, was just about the best scene to demonstrate this camaraderie. The other scene which had me in chuckles, also related to Lau, was that stock market scene. Lau had propelled too fame through an old television series about stock broking as well, and I thought that was a scene with a well placed insider homage to his roots.

Cinematography was excellent as well, with Hong Kong put under the romantic spotlight at times, and one of my favourites involved a montage sequence which Mak/Chong used to perfection in showing the drudgery, monotony and cyclic fashion of a round the clock surveillance, with fatigue and shift changes all rolled nicely into one. Some may take offense at the way the film ended, but I thought it was quiet poetic justice, and almost brought a tear in my eye considering how the villains will stop at nothing, not even if you're a cop, at ensuring those who take an illegal cut of their ill gotten gains, will get dished some just desserts.

While I would have placed this under the highly recommended watch list, by virtue of this film being badly butchered at one point would mean that I would advise, if you prefer your movies uncut, to wait for the DVD, which of course has the additional bonus of the original Cantonese language track as well. And this theatrical presentation here is just another case in point that for the same PG rating, scenes of gore are more tolerated than a make out session in the office. Go figure.

I recently watched this movie in a long flight and even with the not so perfect environment I viewed this in I have to say this movie was great. So much so that I skipped any sleep and watched part 2 and 3 immediately afterwards in one sitting (a wise decision since those were great too, specially Overheard 2 which was my favorite of the three)

The movie revolves around 3 police officers who work in the surveillance department and are trying to nab a financial firm suspected of being involved in criminal activities and insider trading. The plot while not really unique is executed well. The main focus of the story however is the trio of Lau Ching-Wan (who plays the head of the 3) Louis Koo and Daniel Wu whose character development and the interaction among them makes the story interesting at all times. Their acting was great and realistic and the movie direction really brings out their best. Another screen presence that really makes an impact is Michael Wong who plays the part of a corrupt financial mogul really well. The combination of witty and brutal in his performance and dialogues are very well crafted and add a lot of depth to the movie

Without spoiling too much I would really recommend you try out this movie if you like the crime/thriller genre and like movies with more to it than all the mediocre stuff that Hollywood has been mass producing for a while. Hong Kong really knows how to make great movies and this one's no exception

I saw this movie from DVD just recently.

This is another typical HK movie with an interestingly unusual main plot that could have carried the movie well but like most HK movies, they add in a lot of subplots built on the characters to make the movie's script easier to write or give the audience more value for money. This spoiled the film. Someone having an affair with a colleague's wife; another needs money because the son needs an operation and need even more when discovered he needs an operation too; while the 3rd one need more money so that he don't need to depend on his rich future father-in-law. Then 2 other polices having a secret affair. A stock market scene with someone paying hard to her Lord. Then suddenly all went into further trouble just because someone recognized some's face and all towards the end, a fairytale like ending that is unconvincingly unbelievable, especially on the part of Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo and Micheal Wong. The overall cast acted well except for Micheal Wong, his speech and acting(as usual)was disgusting.

I am very surprised an experienced reviewer could give it a 9/10.

Basically that...

I had seen this a while back and I remember liking it, as a matter of fact I originally gave it a '7' here. So, I wanted to see it again because I remember it being a really clever idea.

It starts out great with some excellent intrigue, but very soon I feel anyway it really gets bogged way down by a TON of drama. I mean, I KNOW these Chinese movies usually include a lot of that and it does give the characters more depth and such. But, in this case, I honestly feel that they really overdid the Drama where about half way through this time, I just didn't even feel like finishing it.

So, it is a very competently made film, and well acted with a nice interplay between the characters. But, like Moviebest's review here, I think that the story became to weighed down and sort of padded out with too much Drama.

So, I lowered my rating to a '6' Still worthwhile, but not quite as sharp as I thought I remembered it.

The film is a breath of fresh air from the typical HK "crime drama" genre otherwise encumbered by formulaic plots, predictable character persona, and inane moral proselytizing. Sadly, it fails to live up to it's own aspirations and ends up defaulting on precisely what it needs to distance itself from.

The story revolves around three members of a police surveillance squad conducting an investigation into a financial investment group involved in criminal fraud. The focus of the plot, however, is actually on the three officers themselves who stumble upon an opportunity to capitalize on the information they gathered during their surveillance. The audience is given insights into the personal issues they are grappling with, the relationship between them, and why the temptation to breach their moral duty and professional obligations is so powerful. The temptation they confront and the attendant reasons that compel them to succumb to it become the very device that turns them into the film's antagonists.

Sadly, the script then makes a wrong turn. Instead of allowing this plot to unfold, it is shelved half-way through the film and becomes a side-plot to a criminal conspiracy involving murder, kidnapping, and revenge, rendering the film from an interesting exploration into a run-of-the-mill crime-drama action flick. None of the actors seemed particularly interested in their roles after that, with perhaps the exception of Michael Wong, who plays the head of the investment group with his usual steel-cold glare and villainous flair. He actually makes an entertaining performance in the latter half of the film when he receives more screen time because no one else seemed nearly as excited to be involved in this project anymore.

I don't know why the film's name was translated to English as "Overheard" since the electronic surveillance devices they used were also visual and not just audio. Perhaps something got "lost in translation", like the intention to produce a complex and interesting film.