Vince's Views
Review: Ye Shou Xing Jing (a.k.a. Beast Cops) Dir: Gordon Chan with Dante Lam Starring Michael Wong, Anthony Wong, Kathy Chow, and Sam Lee Chan.
Reviewed by Vince Yim
Proving that North American filmmakers can easily learn much from overseas film markets, director Gordon Chan (best known for a few Jackie Chan films including Thunderbolt) and first timer Dante Lam put together an entertaining package about the meeting of two cops running amok in Triad infested Hong Kong. Combining laughs, action, and a touch of obligatory romance, the film almost tries to hard, yet is still a fun film. One of the main characters, Cheung, is played by Michael Wong, best known for his role in the John Woo's Once a Thief telefilm (and more recently, Knock Off…ugh). Cheung is a straight-laced cop who is imported to the police force in an anti-triad squad. Playing off of him is Tung, played by Anthony Wong, known for the villain role in John Woo's Hard-Boiled. Tung is the opposite of Cheung, the rogue cop that keeps a liaison with the Triads, leaving the open question of who's really in charge. The odd man out is Sam (played by Sam Lee Chan). Best described as the Hong Kong equivalent of Spud from Trainspotting, he is a young cop with weird hair, funny looking glasses, and odd attitudes towards sex (ie: appropriate condom substitutes). While a fun character that guarantees a few laughs during his screen time, he is ultimately a throwaway character. Unfortunately, this plays with the entire nature of the entire film. The film is trying to be too much in too short of a span of time (either that, or too much time is wasted to properly define the film). The film takes on a documentary style (reminiscent of Cops), interviewing each character. Then, the two main characters go off to the underground scene of nightclubs and take drugs and stuff (Cheung mistakes them for Chinese herbs). After some comic scenes where Cheung stumbles around in a drug-induced stupor, he falls in love with the Triad leader's girlfriend (played by Kathy Chow). Much later in the film we have Tung taking a handful of uppers and going on a suicide run to kill the new Triad leader. Sequences are set up in an almost haphazard fashion, with some elements left completely in the dust. Before the formal introduction of Cheung, we are shown a brilliantly shot black and white flashback sequence where he is forced to kill a fellow police officer. While the filmmakers could have easily used this as a character development device, it is instantly forgotten as Cheung graces the screen. Quickly jumping in transition from documentary to comedy to romance to Romero-esque horror, these sequences are well constructed by themselves. But as a whole, they ultimately fail to achieve balance. Documentary style interviews were an interesting insight into the character's lives, but ultimately feel out of place in the film. The scene where Tung takes on a demonic appearance after a machete fight with Triads is darkly comic and fun to watch, but out of context with the rest of the film (although it does justify the English title, Beast Cops). Stylistically, this film is incredible. Slow motion tracking reminiscent of John Woo's Hard-Boiled, strobe and handheld camera effects reminiscent of Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express, brilliant colours, and nice art direction make for a nice scenes. Unfortunately, they do not always make for a great film. While a fun film, it is not a great film. Still, it is worthy of a look if you can get a hold of it.
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