Make no mistake: for certain sections of Hong Kong movie fandom, this Milkyway Image work may well have been the most anticipated cinematic offering of 2007. One reason is that it is the first collaborative effort between master filmmakers Johnnie To (who co-produced and co-directed it) and Wai Ka Fai (who has co-producing, co-directing and co-scripting credits here) since their multiple HK Film Awards-winning Running on Karma (2003). Another reason is that Mad Detective also happens to be the first feature film collaboration between auteur To and reigning HK Film Awards Best Actor Lau Ching Wan since the frequently under-rated My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (2002).

Consequently, I was so happy to attend the crime drama’s premiere that I could forgive the disruption for the first 15 minutes or so by wave after wave of late arrivals into the theatre. This is not to say though that I wasn’t left wondering whether due to those chaotic circumstances the work felt more confusing to me than others might find it to be. Or maybe not – since ample evidence suggests that one of the film’s characters was merely voicing aloud its makers’ philosophy when he stated midway through the movie “The more complicated the story, the better for us.”

Mad Detective, in essence, is about a criminal investigator called Bun (Lau Ching Wan) who is adjudged to have crossed the line from eccentric to insane when, at his chief’s (Eddy Ko on a cameo) retirement party, he slices off one of his ears to offer as a farewell present. Five years after he was hastily dispatched from the force, however, Ho Ka On (Andy On), a detective who had previously briefly worked with him and had been impressed, even if bewildered, by his high rate of crime-solving success, asks for his assistance.

The complex case that had been puzzling the police for some time, and which Bun now starts working on with Ka On, involves the disappearance of one of their own, a cop named Wong (Lee Kwok Lun), and his gun, which has subsequently been used in several crimes. When Ho takes Bun to check out Wong’s partner, Ko Chi Wai (Gordon Lam Ka Tung), things truly begin to take a turn towards the bizarre. In a nutshell, Bun sees that Chi Wai has what the English subtitles refer to as seven “inner personalities” – including a woman who is the brains of the bunch and Fatso (Lam Suet) who is a glutton and cowardly – but the Cantonese dialogue describes as seven ghosts inside the individual!

As the film threw up one startling revelation after another, I started feeling a bit punch drunk by the plethora of plot twists. Adding to the bizarreness of it all is the fact that Andy On has rather obviously been dubbed with a deeper voice than the actor actually has, and that the English subtitles often give a different meaning from the Cantonese dialogue they are supposed to have translated. (As an example, a boyish personality described in Cantonese as “young” appears as “weak” in the English subtitles.)
Those communicative shortcomings aside, it is hard to find fault with Mad Detective’s technical qualities. In particular, the staging and shooting of an extended action sequence involving lots of mirrors and broken glass is admirable indeed. Nonetheless, the disappointing truth is that this technically ambitious work doesn’t quite attain the high standards To and Co have set for themselves, largely because, a character’s injunction to favour emotion over logic notwithstanding, the sneaky suspicion one gets is that this film was made to be intellectually admired rather than passionately enjoyed, never mind loved.

Yvonne Teh