Cold War (2012)

The film is also called "Laan jin." It has nothing to do with the cold war, nor is it much of an action thriller. The film is a Hong Kong police drama which utilizes a kidnapping and bombing as background for a police commissioner struggle. There are long dramatic scenes of internal office conflict and politics which follow a very orderly process.The translation is not herky-jerky, but very straight slang English, no reverse syntax. Some of the dubbing made the actors look bad, especially the woman crying for her dead husband. The film focuses on Deputy Police Commissioner Sean Lau (Aaron Kwok) and his relationship with the commissioner (Tony Leung Ka Fai) and operation Cold War. Cold War is a police emergency that happens when an emergency van with five hostages are stolen and a bomb goes off at a cinema. While part of the story involves solving the crime, a good two thirds of the film is a complex multi-sided office drama.The film uses a stock made for TV sound track. It has some cliche tough guy language like "Desperate times call for desperate measures" and "I was never here." It then ruins it with "I prefer latte." There is also some mention of police and government openness, something I didn't know if it was a criticism of government or a government propaganda statement. The film lost me for a moment when the internal office conflict started as I was expecting a Chinese Dirty Harry. Instead I got a Joe Friday arguing with his boss and then apologizing. Clearly the Chinese don't have the genre down for American audiences.Parental Guide: Some minor F-bomb usage. No sex or nudity. Woman in lacy top and panties.

I wouldn't agree with the "absolutely nothing" that follows in that particular song, but then again it does only refer to war, which itself is a solid sentiment. But this movie is worth something, even if it is not up to par, with other productions we are now almost accustomed with. Still better than any average US Hollywood action movie, this gives you what you want from it.And that is action and suspense primarily. Not the best stunts I have seen, but with a stellar cast and a story that is trying to be as tricky as possible (especially morally wise), this does entertain and keep you guessing until the end. A more than decent effort which can be recommended

This review, brainstormed by multiple great pieces of Chinese reviews, combined with the clarifications made by the directors, aims at uncovering the suspense and unsolved puzzles of the movie.The debate over whether Mr. M.B. Waise Lee the Deputy Commissioner (Operation) takes part in the scheme is undoubtedly the most controversial issue.This review proposes that Deputy Lee is almost completely innocent. To justify, it is necessary to differentiate of which Deputy Lee's sentiments is acting and not acting. What the silver screen progressively shows are:At the outset, Lee openly scolds Man To for the failure of telecommunications system. Afterwards, Lee urges a swift assault at a dockyard in an attempt to rescue the kidnapped policemen. He expressed disappointment when the operation paid in vain. Next, being questioned by Deputy Lau and PR Phoenix Leung at headquarters, Lee defended himself furiously with offensive words. After the policemen had been rescued, Lee started to calm down for the first time and expressed his gratitude peacefully to Deputy Lau.Subtle emotions of characters played a prominent role in deduction. If Lee was part of the scheme, first, it came no sense for Lee to point the finger at Deputy Lau and Man To in the kick-off meeting such that Lau could gear up in advance mentally against the scheme targeting him. Furthermore, it would be totally meaningless for him to sigh to nobody at dockyard operation if it was all planned and managed under him. It would be over-skeptical to put forward the idea that Deputy Lee was acting throughout the entire motion picture. Not only would this storytelling be far too intricate for moviegoers to follow and digest, but it would also be incoherent with characters' sentiments. Also, the conspirator must have instructed S.D.U. Commander Michael Shek to wipe out those ex-operatives when an independent government authority ICAC steps in. However, if Lee, who cares for the well-being of front- line policeman, was the man behind, his primary motive must be gaining power or money for the betterment of remuneration of policemen and these ex-operatives whom Lee looked after upon the completion ND157. So it would be insane, contradictory and against his will to sell out his ex- subordinates together with numerous police casualties in the wipe-out mission.Indeed, the directors have already clarified that, under their storyline, Deputy Lee is not the ultimate puppet master behind the scheme. It is otherwise the unexposed one(s), who is even out of Lee's scope, as also pointed out by his son at last. On top of this, an interview with the directors by a Hong Kong media outlet has also alleged that Deputy Lau and Lee will work jointly in fighting against the ultimate boss in Cold War 2. The puzzle remains ambiguous for who is the mastermind. As this movie is partly brainstormed by the U.S. presidential election campaign, this godfather could possibly be a syndicate of some tycoons, in favor of candidate Lee, working for their own interest i.e. sales of arms, chaos or whatsoever. Therefore, any casualty inherited in this war is not their concern. Those dead ex-operatives are simply being manipulated as their foot soldiers. It is uncertain and guessed that Deputy Lee finally senses the involved parties after ICAC questions him about ND157. Later, when his son is about to take the gun, there is a subtle smile shown on Deputy Lee's face. It is because his highly intelligent son chooses correctly not to uncover the truth to the police in ambush so as to keep them both safe (His son might get killed like those ex-operatives?). Some interesting food for thought:1. The seemingly drunken driver intentionally provokes the Emergency Unit van in order to isolate it. This driving expert could be an overseas English-speaking hired gun who does not own Hong Kong Identity Card which leaves no trace. It is all planned. However, there is argument because the driver thinks he can leave after the stalling car accident is engineered, which is being cheated. M.Y. Shum the policewoman, whom the driver hands the phone to, may also take part in the scheme with limited knowledge. 2. By the directors, Senior Superintendent Vincent Tsui is not a mole. It can be deduced from the fact that Vincent Tsui warns Deputy Lau to run away when Tsui's car is about to hit Deputy Lau at highway. 3. Senior Superintendent Albert Kwong is believed to be clean as he does not know the ND157 ex-operatives are back. However, his appearances often seem suspicious.4. Man To the I.T. Chief Officer is believed to be a traitor. Otherwise Hong Kong Police Force is unreasonably and incredibly easy to be hacked. Still, because of his gratitude to Deputy Lau for his generosity to his department for development in past few years, he implies a few times that he is one of the rotten links. (Speculated)Cold War is a marvelous and necessary war to affirm Deputy Lau's capability. It is well written and well filmed. Yet, too little background information and a number of suspects while no clear clue turns this movie hard to digest.

Touted as "the next INFERNAL AFFAIRS", COLD WAR is a bold, if heavily flawed action thriller that gives a fresh perspective rarely seen in a cop genre by showing an internal conflict between a group of high-ranking police officers struggling to solve a case.The movie opens fast and furious, beginning with a sudden explosion at a crowded movie theater. Following immediately is a separate scene where an arrogant drunk driver speeds through the Hong Kong's freeways and ends up crashing his car pretty badly. An EU (Emergency Unit) van loaded with five cops arrives at the accident scene, which is reportedly being hijacked and vanishes from police radar. Despite all the so-called expensive and sophisticated technology at their disposal, the police can't even track down their own van. Apparently one of the five cops that ended up being kidnapped by masked hijackers is Joe (Eddie Peng), son of Deputy Commissioner of Police from Operation Division, M.B. Lee (Tony Leung Ka-Fai).While the Commissioner of Police (Michael Wong) is out of the country, Lee has been appointed as acting commissioner and leads the rescue operation code named "Cold War". Lee's strategy is an all-out aggressive attack with "non-negotiable" policy against the kidnappers, but Deputy Commissioner of Police from Management Division, Sean Lau (Aaron Kwok) disagrees with his harsh decision and demands the situation to be evaluated thoroughly before any proper action is taken. Lau also suspects that Lee is overreacted especially since his son is being kidnapped as well. As the internal conflict is mounting up, Lee continues to bark his authority all for the wrong reasons when he harshly refuses to let his Head of Police Public Relations Branch, Phoenix Leung (Charlie Yeung) to release info about the kidnapping news to the public. The particular situation prompted Lau to step in with some top-brass supports from his best friend, Senior Superintendent Vincent Tsui (Chin Kar-Lok), Senior Superintendent Albert Kwong (Gordon Lam) and Secretary of Security for the Hong Kong Security Bureau, Philip Luk (Andy Lau) to overturn Lee's position so he can replace him as the new acting commissioner.Once Lee is forced to step down, Lau immediately takes charge and proceeds on negotiating with the kidnappers who demands a huge amount of money or else. However, Lau's attempt to deliver the ransom money goes terribly awry and even leaves one of the crucial police officers dead. Now most of the money goes missing.At this point onward, both Lee and Lau become prime suspects under the investigation of ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption), which is lead by a young ICAC investigator Billy Cheung (Aarif Rahman). According to Cheung, he has a reason to believe that Lee or Lau has something to do with the missing money and the overall conspiracy of the kidnapping case. Now the biggest question is: what really happens? If the synopsis above does sounds confusing to you, that's because first-time writers and directors Longman Leung and Sunny Luk stuffed way too many plots in a compact 102 minutes! Not to mention their script is overly convoluted, which is filled with lots of loopholes and questions that might frustrate a lot of impatient viewers throughout the movie. Then there's Kwong Chi-Leung's hyperactive editing which can be annoying at times especially with too many overlapping scenes (particularly during the rapid-fire, dialogue-heavy moments) that seriously demands the viewers to play some catch-ups. The second half, which involves the ICAC investigation between Billy, Lee and Lau as well as the elaborate conspiracy theory, is a serious head-scratcher when viewers tries to connect all the dots together.Despite all the glaring flaws, COLD WAR remains good enough to watch for. Kudos still goes to Leung and Luk for their ambitious move to present a cop thriller out of the ordinary, even though their executions are somewhat haphazard. As both being a first-timer, their directing efforts are still spotty in places. But it's hard to deny that Leung and Luk does possess some impressive feats in their overall directions.The movie is benefited from lush production values and spectacular aerial shots (particularly the way how they framed the angle of skyscrapers), while the overall technical credits are equally top-notch. Except of course, some of the CG here are patchy (particularly in the climactic scene involving fireworks on the roof of a tall building). Peter Kam's music score is frequently intense throughout the movie.Action scenes are adequate enough, particularly for the exciting shootout/car chase scene at the freeway overpass.The cast, in the meantime, are rock-solid. Aaron Kwok gives a perfectly restrained performance (thank heaven he's not overacting like he used to!) as the calm and confident Lau, while Tony Leung Ka-Fai is especially a standout as the no-nonsense Lee who seriously deserves an acting award nomination (His scene involving him and Aaron Kwok barking at each other in the police headquarters, and another one where he coolly outwitted the two young ICAC investigators in the interrogation room, are downright memorable). The rest of the supporting cast are equally great, including Charlie Yeung, Gordon Lam, Aarif Rahman and even the cameo appearance from Andy Lau.COLD WAR ends with a cliffhanger finale that screams a sequel. If the sequel is really made sometimes in the future, here's hoping that Longman Leung and Sunny Luk manage to polish their rough-on-the-edges direction and their overstuffed screenplay into a more balanced approach. As for now, COLD WAR stands as one of the best Hong Kong movies of the year.