Mad Detective ( Hong Kong, 2007 )

If you like complex story-telling movies like Memento, Irreversible and Inception, then add Mad Detective to your list.

Language : Cantonese | Staring : Lau Ching-Wan, Andy On, Lam Ka-Tung | Direction : Johnie To | Country : Hong Kong | Year : 2007

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Please don’t come into a stereotypical conclusion, by seeing police, bullets, chase sequences in the poster of this film. If this is a routine cop-film, this shouldn't have featured in FilmBulb. As promised before, FilmBulb tried to breach the Great Wall of China, but can’t get into the mainland, so just passed through Hong Kong. Mad Detective is directed and produced by Johnie To. Released in 2007, this film went on to win many awards in the screenplay category.

Plot ( Spoilers maybe )

Inspector Bun (Lau Ching-Wan) has an unusual way to solve cases. He literally puts himself in the shoes of a criminal, we see an example in the opening scene- He lets himself inside a big suitcase and asks his fellow detectives to roll it through the stairs to identify a killer in a murder case. This answers why the name of the film is Mad Detective. 

Bun (Lau Ching-Wan)

The actual story begins when a young detective Ho Ka-On (Andy On) seeks Bun’ help in solving a “missing person” case, but Bun is now not with the police department. The missing person is a police officer Wong and the suspect is another policeman Ko Chi –Wai (Lam Ka-Tung). 

Ho (Andy On)

Bun agrees to help Ho, in spite of his imaginary wife, May Cheng, asking Bun not to work on the case. Wait, did I say imaginary, yes, initially we (& detective Ho Ka-On) assume that Bun has lost his wife and he just makes up an imaginary wife, but as the story move on we see that Bun has this special abilities to see the inner personalities of others. 

Bun sees seven-personalities in the suspect Ko Chi-Wai and he also sees a week-kid personality in Ho Ka-On. The rest of the story is how Bun solves the mystery of the missing person.

Ko Chi-Wai's Seven personalities 

My experience

You can’t see this film once; it takes two viewing, at least for me, especially when you are viewing through sub-titles. No wonder, why this film got accolades for screenplay, because after Bun team with Ho to solve the case, the personality thing comes up. So whenever Bun sees a character, we are forced to see their respective personality. 

First viewing for me was a half-digest. I ate the food (film) again, because I sensed this was a good one to re-watch. I’m sure you can find some after effects inside you after seeing this film. After effects is in seeing the hidden personalities in others. There is a small Indian connection in this film; one of the characters is an Indian.

“I’m sure you can find some after effects inside you after seeing this film.

The orchestration of the climax is very innovative, when see all these personalities are reflected in the mirrors, but in reality it’s different. If you like complex story-telling movies like Memento, Irreversible and Inception, then add Mad Detective to your list.

Trailer