Prior to this past week or two of movie watching, I’d have to say that Resident Evil: Retribution was almost the best one I saw in 2012 (guilty pleasure and fun). I still have a lot to catch up and right now, I’m saying that 2012 movies kicked some serious ass. It was the year of amazing animated films and then we had the record-breaking The Avengers, then yesterday I reviewed The Bullet Vanishes and says that its been a while I’ve seen something so awesome in the Hong Kong industry. Hong Kong entertainment has successfully regained my hope in it. Cold War was a masterpiece, okay? Wait, wait…I’m getting ahead of myself!
Director: Sunny Luk, Longmond Leung
Cast: Aaron Kwok, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Kar Lok Chin, Charlie Yeung, Ka Tung Lam, Andy On, Terence Yin, Andy Lau, Michael Wong, Eddie Peng
The Commissioner of Hong Kong Police (Michael Wong) is away for conference to talk about Hong Kong raising itself to be called the safest city in the world through their technology and security systems set up and protocols. Shortly after their departure, one of their emergency unit vehicles have vanished off the grid and no tracking devices on the 5 officers and the car itself could be located, while at the same time, a building explodes in the middle of the heart of Hong Kong. The police has to now find the balance between not ruining their safest city reputation but not threatening the citizens either. Normal protocol is that the Deputy Commissioners usually take over the role as Acting Commissioner to lead the assignment. Right away, Deputy Commissioner Lee (Tony Ka Fai Leung), responsible for the operations takes the reins and summons everyone to an emergency meeting to start reacting with project “Cold War”. However, Deputy Commissioner of management Lau (Aaron Kwok) forces him off due to his connection to one of the missing officers being his son Joe (Eddie Peng) and takes over the operations instead to prevent him from overreacting and treating the situation too subjectively, especially if this was now considered a kidnapping and possibly a terrorist attack.
Deputy Commissioner Lau and Lee fighting for the role of Acting Commissioner
The plot thickens as we hit the continuing plot that enters, but if I told you all that, then what would be the fun of you watching it, right?
This crime thriller is intense as hell! My brain is overloaded by how to even start describing this. Its smart and fast-paced. There will be some twists in the story especially seeing it has a 2 level plot line, that happens where you won’t even guess and then some that you probably might see but still be wowed afterwards. The story is pretty incredible and held up by literally *almost* everyone in the entertainment business. Most of them are veteran actors and if they aren’t, they will possibly one day get there. On the contrary, both directors are green and its their first directing effort but their days working in as art director and assistant director really helped them out. My mind was totally absorbed and my eyes were glued to the screen. There was some action that had me on the edge of my seat and then some parts that had me wondering who was behind all this. I mean thats the first thing we, as the audience, and the police want to figure out, right?
Aaron Kwok as Deputy Commissioner/Acting Commissioner Sean Lau
A lot of you may not know Aaron Kwok but he was red-hot at the same time as Andy Lau. He was the youngest of the four singers to reign in the industry in the 90s. I loved this guy for a time even more than I loved Andy Lau as a singer. When Aaron Kwok first started in movies, he didn’t do that many. He was in Future Cops (which I reviewed HERE) but it was more of a cameo. In the past 8-10 years (I have a lot of catching up to do on Hong Kong movies), he’s been staring in a lot of action thrillers. I have a few that I haven’t seen sitting on my shelf but I’m pulling them out and watching them pronto. This guy was amazing. Pllus, there’s this whole having brushes of grey hair showing that makes him even more attractive. There’s this thing that he does with his eyes to emote that is hilarious but also intensifies the whole situation. Its awesome! He was totally in the role and man, to see him become such an outstanding actor makes me so proud.
I talked about Andy Lau before! Hey, whats he doing here? He has a cameo as the Security official and comes out in 2-3 scenes. What more do I have to say about him. He’s great. Now, if we look at Tony Ka Fai Leung who plays Deputy Commissioner Lee, there is really nothing to say. He’s a Hong Kong equivalent Academy Award Best Actor so his skills are top notch. I’ve always seen him doing gangster roles or slimmy perverted husbands (like in the horror movie Dumpling). Seeing him as a police officer was a shock but at the same time, he proved to me that he fit the role even with his strong and stubborn character. As much as there was a clash with the internal police HQ with the management and operations, they both had amazing sparks every time they hit the screen together.
“We Serve with Pride and Care”
On the image above, its to point out, this is the 3rd Chinese movie in a row that I’ve watched with Kar Lok Chin. This guy is not particularly on my radar but from 1995 to his two movies in 2012, I can see now that he’s changed his acting style and especially in this one, he has earned my respect. This guy came out from doing stunts and in this one, he gets to show off some of it again and goes all Bruce Willis (making fun of himself getting old). On top of that, on the left standing up, we have Ka Tung Lam. I’m not sure if anyone knows him but this guy has grown also. I haven’t seen him in movies in a while (maybe its because I stopped watching it) but he always does these jerk roles but he is quite convincing at them. One other person I’d like to mention made me jump with absolute joy was the cameo of Commissioner played by Michael Wong. I haven’t seen the guy in ages. I used to love his movies, so I was super excited about it 🙂 I kept going through the movie hearing his voice and being like, “hmm, that voice is so familiar. Who is it?” Then BAM, there is he! *sorry, excuse the minor fan girl moment*
Awesome crime thriller with so many intense moments. Loved the whole cast, maybe a bit less the young dude up there, but he was still pretty good. Its officially my favorite movie of 2012 🙂 I don’t really see how anything else could’ve been better! I’m not going to go on with it because I’ll keep have fangirl moments. I’m pretty sure they will have a sequel so GO SEE IT (if its accessible to you)!
I’ll leave you and go to my corner and continue drooling over this movie 😉
Tranquil Dreams 