Punished

In Law Wing-cheong’s sleek, bleak crime thriller Punished, a cycle of vengeance and torment unfolds right from the get-go. Property developer Wong Ho-chiu (Anthony Wong) drives up to a village house and charges into its backyard just as his murdered daughter Daisy (Janice Man) is being buried in a shallow grave.

As we enter flashbacks and delve into backstory, it emerges that the girl had gone off the rails amid drugs, stealing and family trouble before being kidnapped for a $50 million ransom. Filled with distrust and fearing the daughter set up her abduction as a scam, Dad didn’t call the cops but instead tried to hand over the cash. When that move ended with failure, Wong had his underworld-linked driver-bodyguard Chor (Richie Jen) get on the trail to find the girl and bring her home alive.

That was, of course, all too late. After finding the girl’s bound and gagged corpse, then cremating her and concealing her death from his new wife (Maggie Cheung Ho-yee), there’s one thing on Wong’s mind: revenge. Chor is paid handsomely to do the dirty work to bring closure to the case, but soon the boss is questioning the value of payback and, further still, how his approaches to family and work contributed to the whole mess.

In setting up the story with a hard-hearted property developer at its centre, helmer Law and his scriptwriters set themselves a considerable challenge: making the audience feel for Wong as his life turns upside down. Scenes of the tycoon and his mucker T.K. (Charlie Cho) trying to force villagers out of their land show an especially ruthless side to the tycoon’s business.

For Hong Kong viewers, those moments also bring to mind the failed struggle in 2010 and early this year to stop the demolition a small town in the New Territories. And what’s more, local displeasure with property cartels and development issues has been on the rise for several years. (Director Law has dipped his feet into these waters before, touching on urban renewal in 2007’s Hooked on You.) The slow-boil role of the boss is a demanding one, and star Anthony Wong is able to invest suitable measures of mutedness and intensity in the character’s emotional detachment, paranoia and growing turmoil.

Produced by Johnnie To, Punished bears much of the look and feel of the crime films of fan-favourite production house Milkyway Image. Gunplay makes an appearance in the pursuit of the kidnapping’s ringleader, violent scenes can be grisly affairs, and the relatively short running time is used efficiently with extensive use of flashbacks keeping the narrative’s twists and turns nimble.

Notable, too, is the lack of concessions to the China market — something that can intrude in stories about wrongdoers when filmmakers try to avoid mainland censorship hassles. Instead, as a film made with a clear Hong Kong focus, Punished does its bit to help the city’s midbudget thrillers stay unpredictable and challenging.