That Demon Within

魔警

Hong Kong, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 111 mins.

Director: Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam].

Rating: 6/10.

Part horror, part crime thriller is an unsatisfying mix that’s much too bitty.

STORY

Hong Kong, Kowloon, the present day. Following a shootout in the street between a gang of masked robbers and the police, the leader of the gang, Han Jiang, aka Demon King (Zhang Jiahui), is traced to a flat, which the police storm. Han Jiang escapes and staggers heavily wounded into a hospital where the policeman on duty, Wang Weiye (Wu Yanzu), who has the same rare blood type (O-), offers to help with a transfusion. Wang Weiye, 35, is an experienced, by-the-book beat cop, but has been transferred from precinct to precinct due to “personality issues”. He’s been given a second chance by his chief, Guo Peiqiong (Chen Sixuan), who likes him. Mo (Lin Jiahua), a senior inspector who’s been pursuing Han Jiang, is furious with Wang Weiye for helping to save the ruthless criminal, but has no choice but to let Han Jing go, as he has no hard evidence on him. Han Jiang escapes from the hospital, contacts his gang members – led by Wen, aka Broker (Liao Qizhi) – and proposes another robbery, in Dajiaozui [Tai Kok Tsui], west of Wangjiao [Mong Kok]. The gang is cornered on a flyover and in the shootout Wang Weiye is almost killed by an explosion. Han Jiang refrains from shooting him, saying, “You once saved my life”. Guo Peiqiong sends Wang Weiye for counseling by her sister, therapist Guo Zongyi (Chen Zhijing), who learns of Wang Weiye’s strangely close relationship with his aged grandmother (Feng Subo) and his past with a bullying father (Qi Guanjun). Subsequently, Han Jiang is confronted by the rest of his gang, who want a cut of some diamonds that he clandestinely stole during the first robbery. Han Jiang manages to escape, but then Wang Weiye, who believes he’s somehow inherited Han Jiang’s evil personality via the blood transfusion, and is being goaded by him to commit horrendous acts, pursues the investigation on his own. He tracks down the fractious gang and starts to set them against each other in their desire to get hold of the diamonds.

REVIEW

Crime thrills meet local ghostly superstition in That Demon Within 魔警, the darkest movie to date by Hong Kong action ace Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam], which tries for a blend of psycho-horror and police antics with very mixed results. With the exception of the splashy The Viral Factor 逆战 (2012) and MMA drama Unbeatable 激战 (2013), Lin and regular writer Wu Weilun 吴炜伦 [Jack Ng] have focused on more character-driven action movies the past few years, starting with the tenebrous Beast Stalker 证人 (2008) and including the almost as good The Stool Pigeon 线人 (2010). In Demon the duo supply the setpieces expected by their audience – a jaggedly-shot opening shootout in the street, another on a flyover, and an explosive finale in a petrol station – but the heart of the film is a psychodrama, not an action thriller.

With a plot that takes considerable concentration to stay abreast of, Wu and Lin here push the envelope every which way, piling on the red herrings and scrambling the editing in a deliberately confusing way. It’s a challenging, occasionally gripping but ultimately not very satisfying mixture that only barely makes sense and relies on a simple trick that’s finally explained in flashback.

From the opening titles, through early scenes of the masked gang led by Han “Demon King” Jiang (Lin regular Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Nick Cheung]), Chinese masks throw out big plot hints about everything from devil/spiritual possession to not trusting in appearances. (The film’s Chinese title, meaning “Demon Cop”, goes even farther.) Initially the focus is on Han Jiang, portrayed as a ruthless, spaced-out gangster, but, as he staggers half-dead into a hospital and is given blood by security cop Wang Weiye, the centre of the drama shifts over to the latter, played with creepy impassiveness by Chinese American Wu Yanzu 吴彦祖 [Daniel Wu]. By-the-book beat cop Wang Weiye, we soon learn, has “personality issues”, plus a cruel upbringing under his father and a close relationship with his granny, and, as he separately goes after Han Jiang and his quarrelsome gang, the script and ghostly visual effects lead the audience to believe that he’s now bound to Han Jiang in some kind of evil blood tie.

In only his second collaboration with Lin after Hit Team 重装警察 (2001), the often bloodless Wu is actually well cast here; but the movie’s bitty construction makes his role more of a directorial plaything than a fully realised character one can engage with. The screenplay leads the viewer up one false alley after another while piling on the violence and stygian atmospherics: in individual sequences, Lin shows he’s still one of Hong Kong’s grittiest action directors but the film lacks a clear dramatic arc to bind everything together. An equally big problem is the experimental score by Hong Kong musicals composer Gao Shizhang 高世章 (The Great Magician 大魔术师, 2012), which is sometimes effective (pumping brass, musique concrète flourishes) but more often distracting, especially given its prominence on the soundtrack. Along with the moody photography by Lin’s regular d.p. Xie Zhongdao 谢忠道 [Kenny Tse], Demon comes too close to sensory overload for its own sake.

Zhang, one of Hong Kong’s most reliable actors, disappears for long stretches during the second half and his absences rob the movie of its bipolar structure. Supporting roles are strongly sketched – especially Lin Jiahua 林嘉华  as a grizzled police inspector and Liao Qizhi 廖启智 [Liu Kai-chi] as the gang’s number two – but aren’t enough to carry the film alongside Wu’s tortured cop. Female characters generally have little to do in Lam’s action movies, and Mainland actress Chen Sixuan 陈思璇, as Wang Weiye’s sympathetic chief, makes only a passing impression.

CREDITS

Presented by Emperor Motion Pictures (HK), Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK). Produced by Film Fireworks (HK).

Script: Wu Weilun [Jack Ng], Lin Chaoxian [Dante Lam]. Original story: Lin Chaoxian [Dante Lam]. Photography: Xie Zhongdao [Kenny Tse]. Editing: Tan Jiaming [Patrick Tam], Peng Zhengxi [Curran Pang]. Music: Gao Shizhang. Production design: Li Jianwei. Costumes: Huang Jiabao [Stephanie Wong]. Sound: Chen Weixiong, Zheng Yingyuan [Phyllis Cheng]. Action: Guo Zhenfeng, Gu Xuanzhao. Car stunts: Wu Haitang. Special effects: Chi Ruitian. Visual effects: Lin Hongfeng, He Junyang, Lin Chunyue, Yu Guoliang, Lin Jiale (Free-D Workshop).

Cast: Wu Yanzu [Daniel Wu] (Wang Weiye/Dave), Zhang Jiahui [Nick Cheung] (Han Jiang/Demon King), Liao Qizhi [Liu Kai-chi] (Wen/Broker), Chen Sixuan (Guo Peiqiong/Liz), Feng Subo (Wang Weiye’s grandmother), Lin Jiahua (Mo, senior police inspector), An Zhijie [Andy On] (Chen Zhibin/Ben), Chen Zhijing (Guo Zongyi/Stephanie, Guo Peiqiong’s sister), Li Guolin (Zhizha’en/Effigy), Ou Jintang (Tangguan/MC), Qi Guanjun (Wang Weiye’s father), Wu Haokang (Guang), Liang Zhuoman (Huaziyang/Rookie), Lan Jing (Chanter), Liu Weiming (Undertaker), Jiang Haowen [Philip Keung] (Xu, police sergeant).

Premiere: Berlin Film Festival (Panorama Special), 8 Feb 2014.

Release: Hong Kong, 18 Apr 2014.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 21 Feb 2014.)