An inventively twisted tale from directors Johnnie To and Wong Ka-Fai (Fulltime Killer, Running On Karma, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts). Finally the Hong Kong thriller is back on form – Korea watch out!…

Part of a long-running series of collaborations between directors Johnnie To (Election, Exiled, Heroic Trio) and Wong Ka-Fai (Peace Hotel), Mad Detective is the latest of their inventive takes on genres following such films as Fulltime Killer, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts and Running On Karma. And with one of their favourite stars, Lau Chin Wan (Lost In Time, Victim, The Longest Nite), at the helm, it’s perhaps their most successful partnership yet…

Lau stars as retired Inspector Chan Kwai Bun, a once brilliant detective with an exceptional track record for solving case, but his increasingly peculiar methods and behaviour saw him leave the force soon after offering a superior officer (Eddy Ko in a welcome cameo) his ear, Vincent Van Gogh style.

Years later Inspector Ho Ka On (Andy On, Invisible Target, Election 2, Fatal Contact), who served with Bun shortly before the incident, tracks him down to ask for his help on a case. Police detective Wong has been missing for 18 months since he and his partner Ko Chi-Wai (Lam Ka-Tung, Election, Exiled, Infernal Affairs) confronted a suspect. Since then Wong’s gun has been used in several armed robberies.

Since leaving the force Bun’s methods have become no less bizarre, indeed he now believes he can see peoples ‘inner personalities’, or hidden ghosts, that reflect their real traits and motives. He also speaks to his ex-wife, a construct of his own imagination, as his own wife left him months before. Suspecting Chi-Wai from the start, he sees seven different personalities surrounding Chi-Wai, from the gluttonous ‘Fatso’ (Lam Suet) to the cunning brain (Jay Lau).

Ho becomes gradually more concerned about Bun’s sanity, fearing him completely deluded he begins to doubt all his theories and ignore his warnings. But just because Bun is insane doesn’t mean he not right…

It’s by no means the first time we’ve been presented by an unhinged detective with an uncanny knack to solving cases – from Sherlock Holmes through Zero Effect’s rock and roll wannabe to TV’s agoraphobic Monk, ticks and quirks have been exploited to create characters whose very detachment from humanity makes them its most perceptive judges. Only rarely have their methods been so dangerous, or played with such aplomb!

Certainly it’s another fine performance by Lau Chin Wan, who for too long has long gone seemingly unnoticed by audiences in the West. He presents us with such a fully-formed character as Bun it’s hard not to want to see more of him, pitching his character note perfect to convey the dark humour of the script with his peculiarly under-developed social skills. (And for that reason alone you may well find the conclusion a little unsatisfying!)

Undoubtedly the finest character actor in Hong Kong, and therefore by default a contender for the world, Lau has often cut a less photogenic lead than Tony Leung or Chow Yun-Fat. Yet from the very beginning, even in his smallest or most unlikely roles, he has stood out with exceptional performances – often far more worthy than the films themselves. Think of him as a latter day De Niro – when he was still good!

Don’t look for any major revelations in Wong Ka-Fai and Au Kin-Yee’s script. It’s not about the ‘cleverness’ of last minute twists, but rather a study in characterisation with an almost nihilistic view of humanity and how little it can take to corrupt a seemingly morale person (especially when their career is on the line) – a recurring theme in both Ka-Fai and Johnnie To’s work. It is, however, a delightfully rounded script, full of great lines and imaginative ideas. Together To and Ka-Fai bring it to life with nice, claustrophobic cinematography by Cheng Siu-Keung. And like most of Johnnie To’s movies, the editing is tight with an under 90 minute running time, though again, you may well ultimately wish it was longer.

Noticeably it steers clear of the sentimentality so abundant in Asian cinema and particularly in Hong Kong. Indeed, with it’s Canto-pop-ballad avoiding soundtrack, you almost feel that the directors are definitely targeting a wider international audience, namely the West. Despite that Mad Detective performed very reasonably at the Hong Kong box office, even though it was rated a Category III – that death knell for audience figures much like an 18 in the states – as there was one cut Johnnie To refused to make.

Mad Detective is a superb, inventive thriller that proves that Hong Kong can still call the shots against upstarts like South Korea – even if it doesn’t quite fulfill it’s potential and definitely leaves you wanting more!

(But – without giving too much of the plot away – if Hong Kong cinema has proved nothing else, there is very little that can get in the way of a franchise…!)

Mad Detective opens at the ICA, London on 18 July and is on limited release around the UK, with a DVD release later in the year. Click here for more details on where it will be shown.

Not a lot of Zen, but really – what were you expecting?…

Back in the early nineties few films were as synonymous with the Hong Kong film industry as Sex And Zen. It introduced a generation to the ‘category III’ movie – and boy, it must have been some introduction! The sex scenes were shot with the same techniques and style as the popular ‘wire fu’ action films of the time, like A Chinese Ghost Story and New Dragon Gate Inn. There hadn’t been anything quite like it – and really that’s still true!

Young scholar Mei Yeung-sheng (Lawrence Ng, Centre Stage, The Peace Hotel) is a skilled philanderer, or at least that’s how he would like to think of himself, laughing off Buddhist monk Cotton Sack’s philosophy that you reap just what you sow. He leaves behind his beautiful wife Huk-Yeung (played by the amply, ahem, gifted Amy Yip, Miracles, She Shoots Straight) on a quest to show he can sow as many oats as possible.

Only life is not that simple. Yeung-sheng finds he’s hardly the best endowed of his peers, helpfully pointed out by skilled flying thief Chor Kun-Lun (Lo Lieh, 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Killer Clans, The Magic Blade). Yeung-sheng decides he’d like to be literally hung like a horse, thanks to a surgeon skilled in animal transplants, Dr. Tin Chan (Kent Cheng, Crime Story, Once Upon a Time in China). Only that doesn’t go so well. First the horse’s capacity for alcohol far exceeds the surgeon’s expectations, meaning it doesn’t fall unconscious as expected. Then as Dr. Tin tries to re-attach Yeung-sheng’s manhood, his dog runs off with it.

But that’s only the start of Yeung-sheng’s troubles, as he finds out that there’s more to monk’s words than simply conservatism…

If the inspiration for Sex And Zen, Li Yu’s sensational Ming Dynasty text The Carnal Prayer Mat was meant to titillate rather than educate like the Karma Sutra, then director Michael Mak (Island Of Greed, Butterfly And Sword) stays true to that intention, if somewhat playing down the novels moral dilemmas. With its soft focus on breasts (particularly Miss Yip’s) and (ultimately) moral standpoint, it has more in common with the movies of Russ Meyer. It only really lacks any strong female leads – apart from Madame Ku (Carrie Ng, Naked Killer, Police Confidential) – as you might expect from an Asian film.

The sex isn’t really explicit, and is so outrageously stylised as to be beyond offensive, even when ‘props’ are used – such as a flute or the novel way of holding a paint brush! It’s even sexy, well, kinda. It’s that winning combination of wuxia pian style and, well, sex, that makes the film so successful, watchable even. Forgetting the content for a moment, the whole thing looks so beautiful.

Which doesn’t mean that it’s gross-out moments can’t still out-gross anything teen comedies like American Pie or Farrelly brother movies have thrust in our direction since.

Released within month’s of the equally notorious Naked Killer, it helped kick-start the popularity of the ‘category III’ genre, finding an audience for earlier films like Erotic Ghost Story and Robotrix, both also starring Yip, and inspiring others that followed. But few ever came close.

Oddly, it’s a delight to finally see this movie on DVD in the UK. The remastered quality from this Hong Kong Legends release really is top notch, and seems to be a real commitment from them to make all the classic movies that appear to have been forgotten for so long finally available (between releasing the entire Jackie Chan back catalogue, that is!).

If you’re the sort that enjoys the odd Russ Meyer moment, then this is for you…