The Detective 2

B+ 侦探

Hong Kong, 2011, colour, 2.35:1, 104 mins.

Director: Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang].

Rating: 6/10.

A notch down overall on the quirky original but with a stronger third act.

STORY

Bangkok, the present day. Chen Tan (Guo Fucheng), who runs an impoverished one-man private detective agency in Chinatown, is asked by his old friend, police inspector Feng Ze (Liao Qizhi), to help investigate the case of Lu Guodong, apparently stabbed to death by his wife after she discovered his infidelity. In rapid succession, prostitute Zheng Meifen is found murdered, with her genitals mutilated, and loan shark Quan, with his genitals cut off. Chen Tan thinks the crimes are by the same person but cannot find any proof or common motive. Next, Qiqi (Li Yun), a teenage drug peddler, is found stabbed in a park, with her tongue cut out. The police arrest the schizophrenic Liang Weiye (Zhang Zhaohui) but are unable to prove any connection; subsequently, they arrest Ling Jiahui (Xu Zhengxi) but a witness cannot conclusively identify him as being in the park at the time of Qiqi’s murder. Meanwhile, Feng Ze’s arrogant young superior, Lu (Tan Yaowen), is becoming increasingly annoyed at Chen Tan’s involvement in the investigation. One night, Chen Tan is chased by a motorcyclist, and later Feng Ze is almost killed by a mysterious black van.

REVIEW

The second leg of [an intended] trilogy centred on a rather hopeless private detective in Bangkok’s Chinatown, The Detective 2 B+ 侦探 recycles most of the distinctive features of The Detective C+ 侦探 (2007). With Guo Fucheng 郭富城 [Aaron Kwok] again playing the dim-witted gumshoe and Liao Qizhi 廖启智 [Liu Kai-chi] his policeman friend, plus Peng Brothers’ 彭氏兄弟 regular Thai d.p. Decha Srimantra supplying similarly desaturated visuals, the film again has a strong central relationship to support an episodic script and a kind of period-noir look to supply atmosphere and keep the eye amused. This time, though, Srimantra’s photography makes less striking use of chiaroscuro and Guo’s character is less quirky and commanding. As a result, though the Chinese title upgrades the detective from C+ to B+, the movie itself is a notch down overall.

The solo outings by director Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang] are always more interesting and inventive than those of his younger twin brother Peng Fa 彭发 [Danny Pang], but their weakest element is still the scripts. The Detective compensated for its lack of true detection with a quirkiness that included a falling piano, a street chase involving an elephant, and various weird characters. There’s little of that quirkiness in The Detective 2, which instead substitutes a series of nasty murders involving cut-off body parts and a parallel story of a traumatised boy and his older sister whose point only becomes clear late on after functioning as a directorial sleight-of-hand. Again, Guo’s detective stumbles along to the solution rather than using any innate skills – the central joke behind both films – but his deductive work (which involves lots of solo musings, studying psychology books and writing on a blackboard) is driven by a priori knowledge rather than real clues.

Where the first film had a strong start, entertaining middle section but a weak finale, The Detective 2 is so-so for its first hour but then develops some real atmosphere and tension in the final 40 minutes, helped by Payant Permsith’s moody music and a strongly played scene by Mainland actress Gong Beibi 龚蓓苾  (Waiting Alone 独自等待, 2004) that triggers the denouement. Guo himself is okay, despite a tendency to lapse into goofiness that undercuts his attempts at serious acting, and Liao is again very good as his put-upon police pal. The “ghostly” elements which featured in the original are notably missing in this follow-up.

CREDITS

Presented by Universe Entertainment (HK).

Script: Peng Shun [Oxide Pang], Peng Baicheng [Thomas Pang]. Photography: Decha Srimantra. Editing: Peng Zhengxi [Curran Pang]. Music: Payant Permsith. Art direction: Nuth Chimprasert. Costume design: Vasinrapee Tanavichealchot. Sound: Bangkok Post.

Cast: Guo Fucheng [Aaron Kwok] (Chen Tan), Liao Qizhi [Liu Kai-chi] (Feng Ze, police inspector), Xu Zhengxi (Ling Jiahui), Tan Yaowen (Lu, police inspector), Zhang Zhaohui [Eddie Cheung] (Liang Weiye), Gong Beibi (Ling Ke’er), Lin Simin (young Ling Ke’er), Liu Yun (Qiqi/Kiki, teenage drug peddler), Wang Ziyi (young Ling Jiahui), He Junwei (Xirong, policeman), Peng Liwei (customer), Ou Xuanwei (Thai police superintendent), Xu Guisan (Uncle Zhang), Yu Bing (aunt), Lersak Theerarangkul (Lu Guodong), Actharnpan Aonjan (Zheng Meifen), Kriangsak Klewkar (rape suspect), Somchai Seaung (Quan).

Release: Hong Kong, 12 May 2011.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 2 Jul 2011.)