Beast Stalker (2008)

Sergeant Tong Fei is a Hong Kong police officer and, as the story starts, he and his team are planning to arrest a senior gangster, Cheung Yat-tung. Unfortunately Cheung manages to escape; Tong and his colleague Sun give chase but it ends in tragedy; there is a car crash after which Cheung and his men steal a woman's car, Tong opens fire and the car crashes. When he gets to the car he finds Cheung seriously injured and blood dripping from the boot; he opens it and sees that there is a young girl inside… mortally wounded by the shots he fired into the car.A few months later Cheung wakes from his coma and the chief prosecutor wants him to be tried as soon as possible. There is a complication though; the woman's whose daughter was killed is the lawyer who will be leading the prosecution and Cheung has ordered the kidnap of her other daughter to force her to destroy the one piece of conclusive evidence against him. She is told not to tell the police but Tong was present when the girl was snatched so determines to save her before she is seriously harmed.When I picked up this film I knew almost nothing about it, just the blurb on the back of the DVD box, so assumed it might be exciting over-the-top action like many of the Hong Kong cop films I'd seen before… it does have plenty of moments of excitement and is very tense for most of its run-time but if you are expecting to see our hero dealing with hordes of bad guys you might be disappointed… if however you like the idea of a hero who is mostly acting alone searching for a single foe interesting then this might be the film for you. Nicholas Tse does a fine job as Tong and Nick Cheung impresses as his target; the killer hired by Cheung to kidnap the girl. This character could easily have been a pantomime villain but his back story, which we don't fully learn about till the end, makes him more human. The action scenes are pretty good; especially the car crash which is top notch. If this was a Hollywood film I'd have been sure that the kidnapped girl would be rescued but here I wasn't so sure and more than once thought something really bad could happen to her… this concern made things incredibly tense at times. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to anybody wanting a good tense cop-thriller.These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles.

Another film that I enjoyed on the whole but couldn't help thinking that it was a great film hidden inside a lesser one. It's not only Hollywood films which suffer from excessive lengths and this could have been tauter and more exciting with some judicious editing.I found the car chase immensely frustrating. To start, the actual chase was very badly done with evidence of speeded up film and very close camera shots to hide how few cars and real situations were involved. But then we have one of the most spectacular crashes I have ever seen on film just in terms of the angles and details which you normally miss in high speed crashes. It really was an object lesson in how to film a crash. The crash also becomes central in that it is seen through different people's eyes as the film progresses rather in the manner of Pulp Fiction and the construction of the film around this event is handled very cleverly.The film also suffered excessively from Shaky Cam, often used for no discernible point and to bad effect. There's nothing wrong with Shaky Cam per se – it was used to great effect in the Bourne films for instance but don't do it for the sake of it or because everyone else does it.However, despite these faults, this is a well acted, well written and beautifully designed piece of cinema which is well worth your time seeing. I am always happy to see a film in which actions have consequences and this shows it very well indeed.

I was surprised at the lowish rating of 6.8 with all of the reviews being complimentary.I thought it was gritty and realistic throughout, the car chase at the beginning a little over top, and there were some chilling and tense moments.The linking together full circle was great, and surprisingly there was also some empathy for the main 'baddie'.Tse's performance near the end was heart wrenching and emotional.Lets put it this way, I will watch it again, and my family will be watching this tomorrow. 3:30 in the morning as I couldn't stop watching. Awesome

This is the best Hong Kong cop thriller I have seen since "Infernal Affairs" and "Triad Election." All three films suggest critiques of Mainland China's relationship to Hong Kong chilling enough to raise them to a level of art. I expect a remake soon, although I don't think it will be as good as "The Departed."For those with no interest or awareness in contemporary Chinese politics, "Beast Stalker" works perfectly well as a thriller. But with a little reflection many contemporary Chinese films like this can be decoded as profound commentaries on the current situation in China every bit as trenchant as Sixth Generation dramas. This is a golden age of Chinese cinema. Don't underestimate what you see.