Sometimes things are what they seem and sometimes they aren't.
That's the central theme of this Hong Kong entry from prolific all-rounder Wong Jing, the Special Administrative Region's answer to the likes of Roger Corman.
A relative step up from his typical lowbrow, low-budget exploitationers, Colour of the Truth unashamedly takes Infernal Affairs for its model. If it never quite reaches the same – admittedly towering – heights, it's still worth a look for genre fans.
The story opens in 1993 as two cops and a triad face off on a Mong Kok rooftop. Three shots ring out and only one of the cops, Huang, remains alive.
An investigation exonerates him whilst acknowledging the somewhat suspicious circumstances, 7 Up being deemed to have died in the line of duty.
A decade passes and the incident is all but forgotten by everyone except 7 Up's son, Cola, who has sworn revenge and joined the police force as a means to achieve his goal.
Soon after graduation Cola finds himself with an ideal opportunity as he is selected for Huang's special squad. But the more he learns of his enemy, devoted to his job, his men and his elderly father, the more his doubts grow.
Up to about this point, Colour of the Truth works well as a character-driven drama, dominated by a commanding performance from Anthony Wong as Huang.
Eyes hidden beneath sunglasses, every gesture and expression carefully controlled, he delivers a masterclass in screen acting while Wong Jing and his co-director, ace editor Marco Mak, deploy rapid fire montages – a reconstruction of a shoot-out in Huang mind's eye; a computer-like sifting through of Identikit faces etc – to establish someone who knows far more than he lets on.
Also noteworthy are the scenes between Huang and his English father, representing the first time the actor has addressed his own mixed heritage on screen, the relationship between Huang and his father – an ex-bomb disposal man, now left paralysed and unable to speak after a stroke but still possessed of all his mental faculties – coming across as an idealised imagining of or tribute to the one Wong himself never knew.
Thereafter, however, the film starts increasingly loses its way as Wong Jing's need to make a film that's all things to all men leads to a shift in emphasis onto John Woo-lite style comic-book action, coherent plotting taking a backseat to a rapidly rising bodycount.
The triad's son, played by Young and Dangerous 's Jordan Chan in an amusing piece of self-referential casting, Wong Jing style, as he beats up some thugs modelling themselves on his cinematic alter ego, returns from abroad to avenge his father.
Meantime, Huang and his men find themselves assigned to protect a seemingly reformed gangster – yeah, right, when have we heard that one before? – trophy wife and jailbait daughter from a Vietnamese rival angered over the theft of several million dollars worth of cocaine…
Also worth mentioning are the over-emphatic 'tribal' score – inexplicably it won the Golden Horse award – and an amusing, if not exactly range stretching, performance from Infernal Affairs' Chapman To as the hapless, hopeless comic relief member of Huang's team. Gillian Chung of the Twins is, as ever, majorly cute or majorly annoying depending on your tastes…
There are no complaints about the audio-visual quality of Tai Seng's Region 2 DVD: The 1.78:1 widescreen image is sharp and clean with strong colours – their sometimes subdued look is deliberate – while the combination of 2.0 and 5.1 English and Cantonese audio mixes and optional English and Chinese subtitles offer something for everyone.
The decent extras package comprises the original Hong Kong theatrical trailer; a useful 'databank' of biographies and filmographies for the film's stars; an eight minute 'behind the scenes' promotional featurette with some interesting comments from cast and crew on their characters and some of the techniques used (the attentive may notice a few shots from scenes deleted from the final cut of the film), and a trailer gallery for other Tai Seng releases.
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
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