Movie Review: I Corrupt All Cops

As bad as I felt this week, I was not about to miss the return of one of my favorite Hong Kong directors to the screen. I saw the trailer for I Corrupt All Cops at Filmart, and it looked good. Really good.I mean good in a way that makes you say "But it's a Wong Jing movie... can it really be?"

A bit of trivia for you: he also produced The Way We Are, Ann Hui's fantastic film about Tin Shui Wai. He left his name off of it because he knew that people wouldn't respect it otherwise.

But never mind that...

I only drank a little cough syrup before the movie, since the air in Mongkok was really getting to me and I didn't want to hack my way through the film.

Let me just say it plainly: THIS MOVIE WAS GREAT!!! Was it perfect? No. Was it well-acted? Yes. Okay, mostly, but more on that later.

Oh f@#$ it, I'll tackle it now.

Such is the state of local cinema that someone generally reviled as a populist, lowest-common-denominator director ends up making what is, at this point in time, a front-runner for best film of 2009. But there's a few things you have to understand.

Wong Jing is consistentand reliable. He may not make great films, but he doesn't try to convince you that he does either. His films have a refreshing lack of pretense. They are not art, and he's the first to tell you.

Wong Jing movies are like Big Macs; not healthy, but they're not a mystery to you or your stomach. If you choose to eat at McDonalds you can't b*tch about the food.

Wong Jing movies also have a built-in safety cushion. They're made fast and cheap, usually at the expense of refinement. They can't be great films, so when they fail (in whole or in part), it's like double-dribbling in Special Olympics basketball; why squabble over the inevitable?

Whenever I Corrupt All Cops showed its rougher edges, you had to say "Well, it's a Wong Jing picture," and forgive it. But that was not a frequent occurrence for me.

The acting was actually quite good, its just that some of the dubbing was not so hot. See quote above. In fact, most of the acting was very good, and I noticed that the film had a relatively strong cast compared to a lot of Wong's recent work.

One reason his older films worked was because people like Chow Yun Fat could carry them. Well, ICACstars Big Tony Leung, Eason Chan, Anthony Wong, and a strong supporting ensemble.

The gweilo actors are crap, but in a good, Wong-Jingy-80s kind of way. They look like they took acting lessons from Eric Kot...

Wong Jing himself has a minor role, and a brief (and mercifully underlit) love scene. Ng Chi Hung even makes an appearance, so you know this film is worth catching. The latest Wong Woman, Natalie Meng, acquits herself pretty well; herCantonese has improved. But she's still built like a linebacker.

Well, a linbacker with big t*ts. Something else that really made the film stand out was the set dressing; the film takes place in the late 60s-early 70s, and it was astoundingly refreshing to see a HK film make an effort (and a successful one) to take place in something other than the present or the nebulous past.

Strange that two Wongs, whose films couldn't be more different, end up making films that look historically similar.

I also give Wong Jing credit for making a film that inherently is China-friendly; it shows the evil corruption of colonialism. The film is book-ended by the obligatory voiceover talking about how different it is now (while showing the Golden Bauhinia and that big red flag) and how badit was before.

There's also a 'romantic' (sorry, but I wasn't feeling it) subplot that can be effortlessly excised, lest we humanize a drug trafficker. So snip snip snipand it's Beijing premiere time! But I don't really mind it since the didacticism is germane to the story (okay, the bookends could get lost, but they were worth a laugh). I am very, very glad this film met and exceeded my expectations, because we all know it's been a pretty lean year so far, and even I was beginning to think I was becoming a bit of a curmudgeon. Go see this movie, and bask in its glory.

Or just look at Natalie Meng's cleavage.After all, it's a Wong Jing movie.