Apart from its inventive depiction of the weaknesses that tough guys try to hide, Mad Detective is a slight work from the wildly prolific To.
Mad Detective(神探)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Hong Kong · 2007
1h 31m
Director Johnnie To, Wai Ka-fai
Starring Lau Ching-wan, Andy On, Gordon Lam, Kelly Lin
Genre Action, Crime, Thriller
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Detective Chan Kwai Bun has the supernatural power to see people's "inner personalities.” He is invited back to active duty to investigate the disappearance of a fellow officer whose weapon has been used in multiple robberies. However, when Bun and the missing cop's partner go after a suspect, he suspects something else at play.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
A neat idea that doesn't quite hit the bull's-eye.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
If the insanely inventive and entertaining Mad Detective weren't so weird -- and in Cantonese -- hordes of action geeks would be lining the block to see it.
Fleeting confusion and bizarre literalization aside, though, Mad Detective is an effective mystery story, with an oddball hero--like TV's Monk, but far crazier--and some moments of visceral violence that raise the stakes.
Mad Detective is equal parts gonzo inspiration and overwrought indecision. It could be called "The Lunatic From Kowloon."
Doesn't always make sense, and you cannot always tell what is real and what is imaginary, but viewers will be having too much zonked-out fun to care.
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