No Doubt if Pang Brothers are the productive and busiest filmmakers in Asia right now, just count how many movies they had produced lately. After Danny Pang solo project “Forest of Death” released in the home cinema market, now it’s time for the brother, Oxide Pang, his new movie “The Detective” which has just open widely in Asia last October, now is getting packed to home cinema version and “The Detective Hong Kong Version DVD” has scheduled to release this November 22, 2007. The movie was made a strong opening when its release in Hong Kong and other Asian country cinema, it does also get quite good reviews from some of the film critics. Starred by Hong Kong romantic pop idol for many years, Aaron Kwok, who’s now turn to be a characterize actor, started when he get best actor award for his best performances in “Divergence” and “After This Our Exile”.The story moves around Tam (Aaron Kwok), a broke private detective. One day, a man with nickname Fatty requested Tam to spy on a lady named Sum who wanted to kill him. This guy left Tam a picture of the lady and his offer with less of information. Tam could not refuse to accept the enticement of Fatty’s offer and then he begins the investigation. First Tam tries to collect some clues of Sum’s whereabouts from store keepers where Sum was appeared on the photograph. Tam is told to looking for Sum’s mahjong playmate, which may be able to help him. When he arrives at the first playmate’s home named Ming, Tam is dazed to find out that Ming hung himself at the living room.
In Ming’s cell phone he finds a few photos and recognized Ying, another mahjong playmate in the store. Tam believes Ying is innocent but gather clues that Ming’s business associate, Fong may be involved. Tam goes after the clues and found Fong’s address, but Fong also found dead in his house. Tam’s friend, police officer Jack verifies both deaths are suicide cases due to huge debts. But the most contradicting and puzzling part which Tam has found that large amount of cash are establish at the two victims’ residences. Becomes more intrigued with this complicated case, his investigation finally bring him to Fatty who’s actually the two victims’ common business partner and his real name was Choi.
Choi who strike with panic wanted to kill himself and before he leaps off the building of his apartment, he uttered ‘leave me alone!’ with a frightened face. Tam gathers that all these suicides are not normal with more and more victim falls in the hand of the “invisible murderer”. The detective must run against the time to protect the next target and uncover the mystery or curse behind the recent deaths, with the photo as the only clue.Product Details:
Product Title: The Detective (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Actors: Aaron Kwok, Liu Kai Chi, Jo Koo.
Directors: Oxide Pang
Format: Widescreen (Anamorphic), Color, NTSC
Language: Cantonese, Mandarin
Subtitle: English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese
Audio Specs: Digital Surround 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0
Region: Region 3 South East Asia (including Hong Kong, S. Korea and Taiwan)
Number of discs: 1
Country Made: China (Hong Kong)
Genre: Suspense-Thriller
Feature Film Running Time:
Distributor:
Release Date: November 22, 2007 (Order your copy now!)
Another Theory of The Detective:I've said before that the works of the Pang brothers are hit and miss, then again it's not always easy to think up of original creative work to wow an audience each time. I enjoyed their earlier film "Bangkok Dangerous
", and in between they did the popular Eye franchise movies. While recent works like "Re-cycle" and "The Messengers" for Hollywood were mediocre at best, I can never forget "Diary" which was below par at best. Sometimes in trying to hard to surprise an audience with smart twists, it ends up backfiring and dragging out the final act, and unfortunately that's what happens to The Detective, essentially an Aaron Kwok vehicle in an almost one man show for the most parts. If you think he didn't deserve his acting award for “Divergence” then this other detective role provided him the necessary platform for him to show off his range of skills in handling dramatic material. Not since Inside Man did the opening credit sequence song got me grooving to the beat. Thai song Me Panda provided the perfect start to The Detective, accentuating the Chinese title that Kwok's character is a C+ grade private investigator at best, as he operates and lives in a grimy home office in the gritty streets of an unnamed Thai city, definitely not having made it big. The introduction plays out like typical detective noir, where potential business comes knocking, and provides the catalyst and spark to everything else that follows in the investigations.
Kwok's Tam is obsessive in his doggedness to get to the bottom of mysteries, though often his theories get debunked through very obvious and superficial logic. And as a reward to the audience, proving these theories is where the fun begins, as you get engaged in this investigative journey with Tam, and through his eyes, sieve through the multitudes of red herrings, courtesy of the numerous supporting acts, that get thrown your way. Most times it involves some pursuit, and I felt that the repetitiveness of it all within the same sequence took away some of its shine. But what was top notch was the building up of anticipation. Here's where the Pang bag of tricks gets dipped into again, with tight camera angles complimenting the gorgeously gritty, dirty surroundings, and punctuated with excellent sound design that builds perfect tension. You might identify these tricks as the usual from their horror movies, but when translated over for a crime thriller, they work just as well, if not better this time round. The mystery that plays out might be just plain straightforward and ordinary, if not for the sound to add an extra dimension. And here's where I found some issue with the billing of the movie as a supernatural thriller. On its own without any supernatural elements, it will probably still work, though that's not what you come to expect from a Pang brother(s) work right? However with the karmic and the spiritual worked in and for the most parts being absent from the narrative, it somehow lent itself to drag the ending a tad too long, and repeated some of the obvious just to reinforce, or in an extreme, force fitted these elements in. Without these references, I felt there were enough nice touches within the development and revelation of the mystery, though it did sag somewhere in the mid section before picking itself up again.
The Detective is still recommended for the visuals, sound design and Kwok's charismatic one man show, and I must add it does have a pretty nifty special effects shot during a revelation which impressed me. It tied up the loose ends pretty much, and while I don't see there being a sequel, there certainly is much potential to the character. (Review by Stefan Shih which taken from Moviexclusive)
Source: YesAsia
", and in between they did the popular Eye franchise movies. While recent works like "Re-cycle" and "The Messengers" for Hollywood were mediocre at best, I can never forget "Diary" which was below par at best. Sometimes in trying to hard to surprise an audience with smart twists, it ends up backfiring and dragging out the final act, and unfortunately that's what happens to The Detective, essentially an Aaron Kwok vehicle in an almost one man show for the most parts. If you think he didn't deserve his acting award for “Divergence” then this other detective role provided him the necessary platform for him to show off his range of skills in handling dramatic material. Not since Inside Man did the opening credit sequence song got me grooving to the beat. Thai song Me Panda provided the perfect start to The Detective, accentuating the Chinese title that Kwok's character is a C+ grade private investigator at best, as he operates and lives in a grimy home office in the gritty streets of an unnamed Thai city, definitely not having made it big. The introduction plays out like typical detective noir, where potential business comes knocking, and provides the catalyst and spark to everything else that follows in the investigations.
Kwok's Tam is obsessive in his doggedness to get to the bottom of mysteries, though often his theories get debunked through very obvious and superficial logic. And as a reward to the audience, proving these theories is where the fun begins, as you get engaged in this investigative journey with Tam, and through his eyes, sieve through the multitudes of red herrings, courtesy of the numerous supporting acts, that get thrown your way. Most times it involves some pursuit, and I felt that the repetitiveness of it all within the same sequence took away some of its shine. But what was top notch was the building up of anticipation. Here's where the Pang bag of tricks gets dipped into again, with tight camera angles complimenting the gorgeously gritty, dirty surroundings, and punctuated with excellent sound design that builds perfect tension. You might identify these tricks as the usual from their horror movies, but when translated over for a crime thriller, they work just as well, if not better this time round. The mystery that plays out might be just plain straightforward and ordinary, if not for the sound to add an extra dimension. And here's where I found some issue with the billing of the movie as a supernatural thriller. On its own without any supernatural elements, it will probably still work, though that's not what you come to expect from a Pang brother(s) work right? However with the karmic and the spiritual worked in and for the most parts being absent from the narrative, it somehow lent itself to drag the ending a tad too long, and repeated some of the obvious just to reinforce, or in an extreme, force fitted these elements in. Without these references, I felt there were enough nice touches within the development and revelation of the mystery, though it did sag somewhere in the mid section before picking itself up again.
The Detective is still recommended for the visuals, sound design and Kwok's charismatic one man show, and I must add it does have a pretty nifty special effects shot during a revelation which impressed me. It tied up the loose ends pretty much, and while I don't see there being a sequel, there certainly is much potential to the character. (Review by Stefan Shih which taken from Moviexclusive)Source: YesAsia
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