FILM REVIEW, MAD DETECTIVE - Published Deathray Magazine September 08

Title: Mad Detective
UK Release Date: 18 July 2008
Cert: 15
Running time: 89 mins
Directors: Johnny To and Wai Ka-Fai
Writers: Wai Ka-Fai and Kin Yee Au
Starring: Lau Ching Wan, Andy On, Kelly Lin
Rating: 8

Strapline: A maniacal detective claims the power to see people’s “inner personalities” in this outrageous, genre-smashing crime flick from Hong Kong giants Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai

Inspector Bun’s first actions on screen are to do battle with a hanging pig corpse, then blithely demand a fellow police officer to zip him up in a suitcase and kick him down a flight of stairs. He emerges from the suitcase, zombie-like, brushes himself down and stares at the camera with sombre, puffy-eyed aggression. Hey presto: The Mad Detective. In the first ten minutes directors Johnny To and Wai Ka-Fai seem to have shown us their full hand. But not to be fooled. Posing as a decadent splurge of absurdist violence, ‘Mad Detective’ reveals itself as a disturbingly complex and challenging piece – as appealing to art house circles as to those of us seeking thrills and spills.

Lau Ching Wan is darkly mesmeric as Bun, whose unorthodox crime-solving technique is based on his ability to see people’s “inner selves”. Booted out of the force for giving the chief of police a freakish retirement gift – think Van Gogh and cringe - Bun is plunged into a reclusive depression. But when a missing police gun is linked to a series of heists and murders, fresh-faced Inspector Ho (Andy On) is eager to enlist the super-sensory powers of his old mentor. The focus of the case inevitably turns on Bun’s own psyche, as Ho uncovers the mystifying relationship between Bun and his wife (Taiwanese actress and model Kelly Lin) along with the detective’s penchant for burying himself alive.

Inspector Bun’s “special gift” is an open invitation for Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai to wreak serious havoc on the HK crime genre, as suspects and colleagues shift from their “real” self into their “inner” personalities, manifested in characters like the greasy-lipped Fatso or The Boy. Fans of To’s earlier work may mourn the loss of solid, fast-paced action in ‘Mad Detective’’s unrelenting cinematic trickery. Still, some astounding set pieces arise, not least in the stunning denouement, where Bun and Ho stalk the villain’s motley crew of seven “inner personalities” through a psychopathic smoke-and-mirrors landscape.
It is Lau Ching Wan’s Herculean performance as Bun that makes genius out of what could easily have been a flamboyant mess. With an offbeat irony swiftly becoming a trademark of To and Ka-Fai collaborations, his character brilliantly skewers the heart of the macho crime-genre protagonist. Along with sidekick Inspector Ho, we follow Bun’s crazy antics, we doubt, we hope - and are finally won over, to crack a wild-eyed grin as the credits roll…

Fact: Inspector Bun calls the paranormal phenomena "gwai", translated in the English version as “inner personalities”. The Cantonese word in fact has a meaning closer to “ghosts” and Bun later explains that he literally sees these visions as "the devil inside".