Chak dan juen ga

Not a bad modern day Hong Kong action thriller. When I saw the involvement of the Chinese mainland I worried a little, but this feels much more like a Hong Kong film rather than Chinese one. The emphasis is on the story rather than pure action and constant special effects, although there are plenty of the latter too. By turns police procedural, by turns a DIE HARD-style hostage drama, this has nods to THE HURT LOCKER et al but has enough of its own style and flavour to work. It's nice to see that Andy Lau still impresses as a charismatic hero after all these years, although some of the supporting players are less well assured. An unconnected sequel followed three years later.