Victim

Ringo Lam is a director who seems to know what he wants, and knows how to go about capturing it on screen. Full Alert is one of the most exciting action films of the decade, the director showing a tremendous amount of control and restraint that is rare in Cantonese celluloid crime escapades. His next film, last year's The Suspect, was not as consummate a work but still had its remarkable moments. Victim falls somewhere in between. Thematically it starts out like a typical Ringo Lam production, with plenty of blood, guts, and suspense. The movie opens with a harrowing two-minute sequence taking place in a parking garage, which immediately sets the mood for an engrossing cat-and-mouse game between criminal and cop, in this case Lau Ching-wan and Tony Leung Kar-fai. But about ten minutes into the picture, Officer Pit (Tony Leung) pays a night-time visit to an old, abandoned hotel shrouded in mist and illuminated by lightning. Victim suddenly crosses the line into another genre, the ghost film. It is unsettling, it is new, and it both confuses and intrigues the viewer, this mixture of gritty crime and mysterious phantoms. Ultimately, the script, co-authored by the director, producer Joe Ma, and Ho Man-lung, is unable to integrate the genres into a satisfying whole. The milieu is chock full of atmospheric effects, provided by cinematographer Ross Clarkson and art director Jason Mok. Lau invests Manson with a bit of Jack Nicholson a la The Shining, with bulging eyes and an air that leaves you wondering is the character is insane, possessed, or engaging in a clever ruse. In less capable hands, Manson might easily have turned into a hackneyed caricature, but the star and director manage to pull it off. The crime element is handled with the director's usual flair, making excellent use of Hong Kong locations. The jump from the Ching Ma Bridge, for instance, is a movie first. A car race through Saikung is as exciting as anything Lam has done on screen. Tony Leung gives a restrained and modulated performance. An interesting bit of casting is Amy Kwok (Mrs. Lau Ching-wan) as Manson's terrified fiancée, afraid for her life as she watches her lover become a homicidal lunatic.