Mad Detective (2007)

Mad Detective: Directed by Johnnie To, Ka-Fai Wai. With Ching Wan Lau, Andy On, Ka Tung Lam, Kelly Lin. A rookie cop teams up with a former detective with a supernatural gift to hunt down a serial killer.

“u0026quot;Mad Detectiveu0026quot; starts promisingly. It shows that Johnny To has hit on a premise that allows his movie to not make sense without that perhaps being too much of a problem. However it falls apart towards the end and becomes just as maddeningly obtuse as all his other movies, the novel starting point hurting the movie in the final act.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBun is a detective with a supernatural gift – or is he just crazy? – that lets him see a personu0026#39;s u0026quot;true personalityu0026quot;. He is fired after he cuts off his own ear and tries to give it to his superior.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSome time later, a policeman has gone missing and his gun has been used in murders. Bun is tracked down to find the culprit.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMost of the above I had to check Wikipedia to find out. I remember the ear cutting bit, the fact that Bun has a u0026quot;giftu0026quot;, and some of the other stuff. Thatu0026#39;s the thing with Johnnie To: details of crimes the characters are investigating and the motivations of the characters are always really sketchy, and the ending always requires you to understand stuff you donu0026#39;t.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think the problem with u0026quot;Mad Detectiveu0026quot; is its style. At first you feel liberated when you realise much of what you see on screen isnu0026#39;t supposed to be real and probably isnu0026#39;t supposed to make sense. Youu0026#39;re seeing what the Mad Detective, Bun, sees. But in the end you realise you actually needed to be able to tell the difference between the real and the fake, and the movie doesnu0026#39;t give you enough help in this regard. There should have been a clear stylistic difference between the figments of Bunu0026#39;s imagination and those things that exist outside of his mind, or his second sight.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat felt like an illuminating device only ended up adding more confusion than the usual To film.”