Behind the Shadows

私家侦探

China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 101 mins.

Directors: Li Zijun 李子俊 [Jonathan Li], Zhou Wenru 周汶儒.

Rating: 6/10.

Moody private detective drama, from the team behind Dust to Dust, isn’t as strong on interior tension or involving psychology.

STORY

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sep 2023. Originally from Hong Kong, where he was a busy private detective, Ouyang Weiye (Gu Tianle) moved to KL when he married Malaysian Chinese Guan Yongxin (Zhou Xiuna), at the insistence of her mother. A private detective for 20 years, he has become frustrated since moving to KL from working on minor cases like missing persons and adultery. Relations with his 38-year-old wife have cooled, with them rarely talking. After a fallow period, he suddenly gets three cases: to find Weng Jiawen (Huang Shiqi), 26, the missing fiancee of a young man, Shao Zhiyong (Chen Liyang), who suspects she may have found another man; to follow the no. 1 girlfriend, Betty (Yang Siyong), of a gang boss who suspects she may be double-timing him; and, finally, to follow the lover of three months of a travel agent, Ge Weiming (Guan Dehui), who suspects her of infidelity. The surprising thing about the third case is that the photo of Ge Weiming’s lover is none other than Ouyang Weiye’s wife, Guan Yongxin. Because she would probably spot him trailing her, Ouyang Weiye gives the case to a student who sometimes helps him out, Gintama (Xiao Xiaojie). Meanwhile, the body of a strangled woman, Li Yu’na (Lin Peiqi), is found in an abandoned house for migrant workers. In charge of the case is young police detective Chen Kangmin (Liu Guanting), who collapses one day at work from the stress of his wife, Zhang Ziling (Zhang Jiawen), being in an intensive care unit since a car crash. When Ouyang Weiye shows Betty some video he took of her with her secret lover, she isn’t fazed at all; she tells him that, if he shows it to the gang boss, she’ll tell the boss that Ouyang Weiye used it to try to sleep with her. A friend who is monitoring Weng Jiawen’s mobile phone tells Ouyang Weiye its location when she finally turns it back on. Hiding outside the address at night, Ouyang Weiye sees a masked man turn up and Weng Jiawen open the door. But suddenly Ouyang Weiye is summoned by a call from Gintama that Guan Yongxin has just entered a hotel with Ge Weiming. Ouyang Weiye storms over and drags her out of the hotel room; in the car home the two have a huge row, with her saying she wants a baby before it’s too late and him saying he’s been all but broke since moving from Hong Kong to KL. Meanwhile, the exhausted Chen Kangmin is informed that another woman has been found strangled – Weng Jiawen. Ouyang Weiye informs Shao Zhiyong, who is upset but doesn’t blame the private detective; but Ouyang Weiye realises he let Shao Zhiyong down when he could have prevented his fiancee’s death. He then remembers he took a picture of the killer’s car-number plate, so takes the information to Chen Kangmin, who’s then informed by his staff that the number plate is false. Chen Kangmin files away Ouyang Weiye’s statement, which he really doesn’t seem interested in. But then Ouyang Weiye remembers something from that night which could identify the killer. Frightened, he hides out at the flat of his petty-gangster friend, Clawy (Huang Haoran), in whom he confides. Ouyang Weiye decides to begin his own investigation into Weng Jiawen’s death, with help from a private detective friend, Feeble (Zhang Zhaohui) – an investigation which puts Ouyang Weiye and his wife in mortal danger when the killer finds out.

REVIEW

Many of those behind the camera of crime drama Dust to Dust 第八个嫌疑人 (2023) reunite for Behind the Shadows 私家侦探, which has a different cast but a similar preference for psychology over standard action. Where Dust was headlined by Mainland comedian/film-maker Da Peng 大鹏 [Dong Chengpeng 董成鹏] in a dark, scene-stealing performance, Shadows is headlined by Hong Kong veteran Gu Tianle 古天乐 [Louis Koo] as a bespectacled, shambling, thin-skinned private detective who suddenly finds his life on the line. It’s a clear attempt by Gu – who part-funded the film – to try something new from his usual Hong Kong crime dramas; but though his performance is largely successful, the script as a whole is not up to the standard of Dust’s, in either psychological or emotional complexity. In the Mainland it took a feeble RMB72 million, compared with Dust’s very decent RMB439 million.

Like Dust, the film is entirely Mainland financed but its director(s), scriptwriter and most of the crew are from Hong Kong, as is the cast this time. Where Dust was set in the Mainland, Shadows is set in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, with dialogue in both Mandarin and Cantonese. Most importantly it reunites director Li Zijun 李子俊 [Jonathan Li] with screenwriter Zhou Wenru 周汶儒, who this time also gets a directing credit. Li and Zhou had lightweight backgrounds prior to Dust and since then have clearly wanted to capitalise on that film’s change of direction for their careers; their creative producer is, again, the experienced Zheng Baorui 郑保瑞 [Soi Cheang], a notable director in his own right for whom Li had earlier worked as an a.d. Where Dust waited four years to get a release, Shadows, which was shot in and around KL during Sep-Oct 2023, has had a faster journey to the screen.

The Chinese production title for the film was 尾随, literally “Tailing” – which now makes up most of the humdrum work of Ouyang Weiye (Gu), a private detective (the meaning of the film’s final Chinese title) of 20 years’ experience. Originally from Hong Kong, where he claims he was very successful, he had moved to KL when he got married and has since been scraping a living with adultery, missing persons and pet-finding jobs. As well as his wishfully-titled International Detective Agency, his marriage to Guan Yongxin (Zhou Xiuna 周秀娜 [Chrissie Chau], easing into more mature roles) is also on the rocks. Then suddenly, Ouyang Weiye gets three adultery cases that completely change, as well as imperil, the lives of him and his wife.

All of the action is in the film’s second half after the serial killer is revealed and starts tracking down Ouyang Weiye when he realises the private detective is after him. The first 45 minutes are all crowded exposition, introducing the main character, his personal frustration at being reduced to menial jobs like adultery cases, and then suddenly getting three jobs in close succession, one involving his own wife. Looking very different from his usual svelte image, Gu is good in the slouchy role but not all sympathetic; and in the early going, Zhou is reduced to tolerant looks when he goes into sulks rather than being given any dialogue that could open up her character. She finally gets a major scene – to which both she and Gu rise well – a half-hour in, as the two have a massive row one night on a motorway.

The physical threat that Ouyang Weiye faces in the film’s second half partly brings the couple together again, but this angle isn’t developed in any major way. The other problem is that the second half doesn’t contain enough tension to carry the action along – the fault of Zhou Wenru’s screenplay and the utilitarian score rather than veteran Hong Kong action supervisor Huang Weiliang 黄伟亮 [Jack Wong]. For a start, Zhou’s script doesn’t come up with a convincing enough motive for the killer’s murder spree, and the unevenly structured film has no clear dramatic arc, constantly moving between the main character, his wife, the stressed-out detective in charge of the murders (icily played by Taiwan’s Liu Guanting 刘冠廷), and various other private detectives (including Zhang Zhaohui 张兆辉 as an eccentric old pal) and acquaintances (Huang Haoran 黄浩然 as a petty criminal and Yang Siyong 杨偲泳, notable, as a feisty bar girl).

The technical package is good, led by the moody widescreen photography of Hong Kong’s Tan Yunjia 谭运佳 (The Empty Hands 空手道, 2017; Always Miss You 下一任： 前任, 2019; Dust to Dust).

CREDITS

Presented by Wishart Media (Xixian New Area) (CN), Beijing Gutian Film & TV Production (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Beijing Ultra Comedy Culture Communication (CN).

Script: Zhou Wenru. Photography: Tan Yunjia. Editing: Zeng Yujian, Yan Tingting. Music: Ou Leheng, Liao Yingchen. Art direction: Li Qingyu. Costume design: Ye Jiayin, Luo Peisha. Sound: Pan Keqiang, Nopawat Likitwong. Action: Huang Weiliang [Jack Wong], Huang Junming. Visual effects: Lin Hongfeng, Lin Junyu (Free-D Workshop).

Cast: Gu Tianle [Louis Koo] (Ouyang Weiye), Zhou Xiuna [Chrissie Chau] (Guan Yongxin), Liu Guanting (Chen Kangmin, police detective), Huang Haoran (Fengzhua/Clawy), Yang Siyong (Betty), Zhang Zhaohui (Kuilao/Lao’er/Feeble), Huang Shiqi (Weng Jiawen), Chen Peiyong (Shilang), Guan Dehui (Ge Weiming), Chen Liyang (Shao Zhiyong, Weng Jiawen’s fiance), Hong Hairui [Ang Hai Swee] (Chun), Xiao Xiaojie (Yinhun/Gintama), Zhang Jiawen (Zhang Ziling, Chen Kangmin’s wife), Cai Weixiang (Chen), Lin Peiqi (Li Yu’na), Zeng Wenwei (Li Yu’na’s husband), Chen Peijiang (Chen Kangmin’s superior), Lv Rui (Chen Guorong, Zhang Ziling’s lover).

Release: China, 31 May 2025.