SYNOPSIS:
In the 1960s and 1970s, Hong Kong was a corrupted
place where law existed only in theory and an anti-corruption
agency was created to solve these problems. The leader of
the corruption practices is Senior Inspector Lak (Tony Leung)
who soon becomes increasingly arrogant. The Hong Kong governor
set up an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)
to deal with the corruption and Yim (Bowie Lam) is in charge
of arresting Lak. Through sheer perseverance, they successfully
bring down the corrupted police force.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Wong Jing may not be the best filmmaker in
Hong Kong, but he certainly is the most prolific, writing,
producing and directing at least two or three films in a year.
The fertility of the Jing factory comes at a cost, since many
of his movies are only slightly better than ripped-off crap.
But it’s hard not to regard “I Corrupt All Cops”
with more respect- easily his most ambitious film in years
and also an unusual venture for Wong Jing into semi-serious
territory.
This is a film about the origins of Hong
Kong’s famed ICAC, the powerful anti-corruption agency
who has been immortalized in several TVB drama series. Wong
Jing’s telling goes right back to the 1960s and 1970s,
examining the impetus that led Britain to set up this taskforce,
as well as its subsequent tenacity in cleaning up the colony’s
corrupt police force, which ultimately led to its revered
status today.
The first half of “I Corrupt All Cops”
sets the backdrop of the state of the police force then- the
head of the corruption syndicate a brash, egotistical senior
inspector Lak (Tong Leung), aided by his middleman cum loan
shark collector Gold (Wong Jing in a trademark smarmy performance),
and loyal right-hand man Gale (Eason Chan). There’s
also Unicorn (Anthony Wong), a lowly detective under Lak’s
command whom he has little regard of.
Being Wong Jing, the writer-director focuses
much of his time on essentially two vices- corruption and
promiscuity. Under pressure from Lak to deliver, Unicorn rounds
up innocent folk and pins unsolved crimes in order to meet
some KPIs. Under pressure from Lak’s wife, Gale finds
himself married to nine wives, his multiple marriages a cover
for the women whom the wife finds Lak with.
Only in the halfway mark does Wong Jing introduce
the ICAC, led by a stoic-looking Yim (Bowie Lam) and filled
with fresh university graduates easily cowered by the mean,
dirty-handed police they are meant to police. So Yim recruits
Unicorn into this fledging outfit, Unicorn’s inside
knowledge and street-smart tactics an immediate boost for
the morale and efficiency of the ICAC.
It’s not easy juggling the multitude
of characters in “I Corrupt All Cops”- from the
first half, Lak, Gold, Gale, Unicorn, and in the second half,
Yim and the rest of the ICAC- as well as the relationships
between them. And this is precisely where even the veteran
Wong Jing flounders. Clearly spreading himself too thin, Wong
Jing glosses over the events of the second half, indeed the
very difficulties and challenges that the ICAC faced in cleaning
up this so-called “empire of corruption”.
So much so that the 112-minute movie feels
rushed, uneven and unfocused all at once. Yes, the very notion
of this film- delineating the setup of the ICAC- becomes reduced
to a mere sideshow in the presence of too many parallel story
threads running through the various characters. Luckily then
that the heavyweight cast each shine in their respective roles-
especially notable is singer Eason Chan who displays an admirable
dramatic intensity to hold his own against the rest of the
A-list cast.
Certainly,
“I Corrupt All Cops” is one of Wong Jing’s
most daring, and also perhaps his best, film in recent years.
It is best appreciated as entertainment masquerading as serious
drama, for to regard it as anything else would no doubt diminish
its merits. Anyone hoping for a deep, meaningful insight into
the establishment of the ICAC should wait for a filmmaker
of a different pedigree to approach it. Interested, Andrew
Lau?
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Just
the trailer.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
disc’s visual transfer is excellent, vividly bringing
to life the detailed 1960s and 1970s Hong Kong backdrops of
the movie. The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio has enough life (and
bass) to give the action scenes that added oomph.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING:
Review by Gabriel Chong
Posted on 31 August 2009
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