Mad Detective

This movie is quirky, weird and everything else that can not be considered mainstream. But it's also fun, light, heavy, violent, romantic and many other things ... amongst others too: Original! Or maybe unique and refreshing are more accurate words.

If you are not familiar with the work of Johnnie To, maybe this isn't the first of his movies to watch. There is "Running out of Time", there is "Fulltime Killer", PTU and many others! If you like them, then you can try this movie too. But again, it's off-beat, it has a main character who is very ... strange to say the least and it has a very crazy idea (or many crazy ideas) behind it all ... I won't go into details, but this movie and how it was made (shot, edited etc.) is simply great! If you allow yourself to enjoy it's sheer craziness

"Mad Detective" starts promisingly. It shows that Johnny To has hit on a premise that allows his movie to not make sense without that perhaps being too much of a problem. However it falls apart towards the end and becomes just as maddeningly obtuse as all his other movies, the novel starting point hurting the movie in the final act.

Bun is a detective with a supernatural gift - or is he just crazy? - that lets him see a person's "true personality". He is fired after he cuts off his own ear and tries to give it to his superior.

Some time later, a policeman has gone missing and his gun has been used in murders. Bun is tracked down to find the culprit.

Most of the above I had to check Wikipedia to find out. I remember the ear cutting bit, the fact that Bun has a "gift", and some of the other stuff. That's the thing with Johnnie To: details of crimes the characters are investigating and the motivations of the characters are always really sketchy, and the ending always requires you to understand stuff you don't.

I think the problem with "Mad Detective" is its style. At first you feel liberated when you realise much of what you see on screen isn't supposed to be real and probably isn't supposed to make sense. You're seeing what the Mad Detective, Bun, sees. But in the end you realise you actually needed to be able to tell the difference between the real and the fake, and the movie doesn't give you enough help in this regard. There should have been a clear stylistic difference between the figments of Bun's imagination and those things that exist outside of his mind, or his second sight.

What felt like an illuminating device only ended up adding more confusion than the usual To film.

Mad Detective had been touted as the long awaited re-team of Johnny To and Wai Ka Fai, who together have made Running on Karma back in 2003. The return of Lau Ching Wan to a To-Wai movie (since My Left Eye Sees Ghosts) is also more than welcome, and Mad Detective to me lived up to its hype, despite having certain obvious recycled elements from To's earlier films.

But this doesn't mean that the movie felt familiar. Sure, the iconic elements of a To movie were all there, including the saga of the missing police handgun, and the oh-so-stylish Mexican stand-offs (that we've seen in recent To movies in Exiled and Triangle) and the inevitable resolution, though how this one panned out, deserves the loudest of applause for its edge-of-your-seat-who-comes-out-unscathed revelation. And the end result is both satisfying, for a movie that had engaged through all its minutes, and yet frustrating, though the good thing was that there isn't any cop-out edits just to satisfy censors or sooth faux morals.

Mad Detective tells the story of Bun (Lau), who is termed as the title says because of his extremely unorthodox methods to solve crime - he re-enacts them at the very venues they are committed, getting into the minds of the criminals, and through this manner, able to identify who the perpetrator is. Needless to say his crime solving rate is high and he beocomes a legend, until a crazed moment saw him cut off his right ear to present to a departing boss, and with that, an early discharge letter from the Force.

The story fast forwards 5 years later, with detective Ho (Andy On) investigating a case of a missing cop and his gun, which was found to be used in a series of armed robberies. While suspicion is strong on the partner Chi-wai (Lam Ka Tung), there is absolutely no shred of evidence linking him to the crime. In his desperation, Ho turns to Bun, very much against protocol, and enlists his help in solving the case.

That's basically it, as we see in more detail what Bun's abilities are in depth. He's part profiler, part sage, and to many, all insanity with his constant talking to himself, and banged up attire sans socks. What I thought made it a close to perfect thriller, was that it constantly kept you guessing whether Bun is indeed what the title is, if it had taken a leaf out of Oxide Pang's creation of the C+ Detective with some supernatural moments, of if it was solely a disorder of the mind. If it shows you compelling evidence that you deem is a smoking gun, in no time are you presented with doubts that will cloud your judgement. You're given a glimpse of how the method in the madness works, and more often than not, find yourself second-guessing all the time, just like how Ho does.

And to that effect, I would warrant a guess that some in the audience will be left perplexed and confused, but my advice is not to give up on it. There are many wonderful moments especially when Bun's ability is fleshed out for the audience to see, and as such provided plenty of cameo appearances like Lam Suet and Cheung Siu Fai, playing personalities that were personifications of an inner man's thoughts, desires and fears. A pity though that not all personalities shown were provided screen time to do something more. A cautionary tale too about not judging a book by its cover, as even uncanny abilities to read a person might not be able to sniff out something that's regressive and well concealed, the true intentions of anyone.

Lau Ching Wan took a long hiatus before returning to the big screens here (since The Shopaholics, and the lovely My Name is Fame only made it straight to disc), and this comeback is nothing short of majestic in having him in his element, doing almost a one- man show if you will. You laugh at his antics, cry at his predicament in being so dogged in his persistence, admire his unorthodox methods and philosophy approaching investigations (to use emotions), yet cry along in pity when you suspect he's slowly degenerating into madness. Lau has charisma enough to make you empathize with his Bun, into a character you root for, despite his obvious difference. Andy On holds his own as the greenhorn investigator well enough in scenes opposite Lau, while Lam Ka Tung is just plain menacing as the accused, expressing his frustration in being the prime suspect, being both the cat and the mouse in the hunt for the truth.

What I admire about the movie, is how a simple idea can be branched into something complex, but yet within grasp, so hats off to the writing-directing team of To and Wai Ka Fai. In essence, this is a story that is told with its cards close to its chest, providing great balance in letting the multiple cats out of the bag at the right time. Simply superb!

Johnnie To & Wai Ka-Fai's Mad Detective is a film that turns the Hong Kong crime genre upon it's head. Based around the simple concept of a man that can see everyone's hidden persona's, Mad Detective is anything but formulaic and right from the very start dissuades any notion that this is just another flashy HK crime flick. Lau Ching-Wan stars as the eponymous Mad Detective, Inspector Chan Kwai-Bun, a brilliant detective forced into retirement when his methods and actions become a little too bizarre. Alongside him Andy On plays young Inspector Ho who tries to enlist the aid of retired Inspector Bun to solve a complex murder case involving a missing police officer and a suspect with multiple personalities.

What follows is a highly ingenious, highly inventive and above all, highly entertaining piece of cinema. Paced perfectly, this viewer sat on the edge of his seat, intrigued and enthralled in equal measure and delighting and the simple, unrestrained freshness of this film and it's premise. Lau Ching-Wan plays his part exceptionally well as the oddball Inspector Bun, throwing all semblance of logic out of the window as he investigates the case, but it's a straight faced performance; there's no comedy here as the plot and it's characters take themselves very seriously. However, despite this it's hard not to find humour in some of the scenes involving multiple personalities, and whether this was the directors intent or not, it does provide a handful of light hearted moments that help to break up this complex and down-right weird film into more palatable pieces.

Overall, if you're looking for a crime film that's as inventive and intriguing as it is enjoyable, you can't go wrong with Mad Detective. See it now before Hollywood does an inevitable remake.

The story follows a somewhat not-so-sane Hongkong police detective Bun (Lau) who, after solving a crime in "his own way" during the opening sequence of the movie, cuts half his ear off, gets suspended from the force and has to lead on his miserable private life, mainly communicating with the creations of his own mind. As some years have passed, another cop in HK police gets missing in action and Ho (On), a former member of Bun's investigation unit, gets the case and decides to call Bun for help.

The flick is (as title refers) a bit on the side of madness. Though, it doesn't truly get deeply attached to the theme, offering a light view of one side of it. Seems that directors Johnny To and Ka-Fai Wai decided to rule out everything that would "ruin" the picture for audiences more on the side of police-thriller. Bun's tendency to descend to schizophrenia is opened to the viewer quite early in the film and also simply, making it clear that it's just a part of film we wouldn't miss. So everything is opened up for the viewer, just enjoy the story (which doesn't offer too much) and enjoy the acting. A bit of non-linear scene-switching, but that wouldn't bother anyone who doesn't still live in 60's.

Bun's character is the star of this film and Ching Wan Lau plays the role well. Comic at times (a super-cop with half an ear and - during most of the film - a bloody bandage wrapped around his head, looking like a bum after a weekly party) but mainly socializing with inner world of himself and - as he states he can see the 'inner personality' of people - those around him. Especially the lovely relationship with his imaginary wife: everything that's worthy to love in her, everything feminine, was hooked to the image of his mind, so when the real wife (now an ex) finally showed up, the only qualities left for her were those of a mean bitch's.

The film would've been quite Hitchcock's style, if the schizophrenic part of Bun had been left unveiled for a longer period of the movie (as the master hinted to play with the audience, not only caress them). What bothered the most - these god damn in fashion hair cuts - why do the characters have to look like the cover picture of some fashion magazine? It's one of the weakest links in almost all modern Asian movies.

3/5