Review: Mad Detective

PLOT:
Inspector Bun (Lau Ching- Wan) is an unorthodox but brilliant detective- who’s forced to leave the department after having a nervous breakdown, and cutting his ear off in front of the chief of police. His old
protégée, Ho (Andy On)- convinces the reluctant Bun to consult on the disappearance of a police detective- who’s gun has been used in several killings.

REVIEW:
Johnnie To is one of those filmmakers that’s always interesting. While his films are occasionally hit and miss, even his failures are fascinating. MAD DETECTIVE reunites To with two formerly frequent collaborators- co-director Wai Kai Fai- (who worked with To on many of his finest films- their last collaboration being 2003’s interesting failure- RUNNING ON KARMA), and actor Lau Ching-Wan.

Despite my love of Johnnie To, the real reason I wanted to see MAD DETECTIVE was for Lau Ching Wan. After a great run of films in the late nineties- it looked like Lau Ching Wan was the next Chow Yun Fat. Several of his vehicles- like THE BIG BULLET, FULL ALERT & RUNNING OUT OF TIME were amazing- but his career completely fell apart at the turn of the century. While he remains a top box office draw in Hong Kong- his films have since lost their international cachet, as he makes seemingly nothing but silly romantic comedies. His last big action film was RUNNING OUT OF TIME 2- but that film was a piece of crap, and has to be one of the worst sequels ever made. I looked forward to MAD DETECTIVE because it seemed as though Lau was finally getting serious again. Alas- MAD DETECTIVE is not the film I was hoping for.

The big problem with MAD DETECTIVE is that it doesn’t know where to put it’s focus. Way too much time is spent with Andy On’s character- who’s not the slightest bit interesting, and more time should have been spent examining Bun’s fragile mental state. Lau Ching Wan plays the role brilliantly- but at times it almost seemed like he was a supporting character in his own film. I mean- the film is titled MAD DETECTIVE- not MAD DETECTIVE’S LAME PARTNER.

Despite it’s short comings- I still think MAD DETECTIVE is a film worth seeing. Lau CHING WAN is great, and there are a few brilliant sequences- such as scene where Bun has himself buried alive in order to put himself in the right mental state. I also loved all the scenes between Bun & his imaginary wife- who represents the wife that left him due to his mental illness.

While the film was certainly flawed- it was still fairly interesting, and entertaining. Johnnie To is a true master of his craft and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next (which- if the rumors are true- is a remake of LE CERCLE ROUGE with Chow Yun Fat & Tim Roth- which I pray ends up getting made).