Alan Mak and Felix Chong
The story: Johnny (Lau Ching Wan), Gene (Louis Koo) and Max (Daniel Wu) are a police surveillance team keeping tabs on Feng Hua International which is suspected of manipulating the stock market. When Gene and Max overhear a plan to boost the company’s share price, they decide to cash in on the information. Johnny is dragged into their scheme and things spiral out of control.
The story: Johnny (Lau Ching Wan), Gene (Louis Koo) and Max (Daniel Wu) are a police surveillance team keeping tabs on Feng Hua International which is suspected of manipulating the stock market. When Gene and Max overhear a plan to boost the company’s share price, they decide to cash in on the information. Johnny is dragged into their scheme and things spiral out of control.
With their latest collaboration, film-makers Alan Mak and Felix Chong have delivered a polished thriller that also touches upon the divisive social inequalities in Hong Kong.
The yawning gap between the haves and have-nots is vividly illustrated by the cops’ situation.
They have stressful jobs, work long hours and take home a monthly pay cheque of HK$20,000 (S$3,700).
On the other hand, a security officer in a private firm draws a salary comparable to that of the commissioner of police, as Max’s future father-in-law tells him.
To add insult to injury, the crooks get away with profits of tens and hundreds of millions of dollars simply by manipulating the stock market.
Little wonder Gene is so grumpy and vows to nail these corporate criminals.
But rest assured that this is not some artsy social drama. After all, Mak and Chong are the guys behind the slick Confession Of Pain (2006) and the satisfyingly complex Infernal Affairs (2002).
The opening sequence of Johnny’s team planting the bugs in the Feng Hua office is beautifully choreographed and executed as the team dance around the unexpected return of their mark, chairman Ringo Law (Waise Lee).
There is lots more taut action: a kidnapping, a shoot-out in the carpark and an execution by gunshot.
But you remain invested in the story and continue to root for the cops-turned-crooks.
This is in large part due to the everreliable Lau as the experienced team leader Johnny, who is having an affair with a fellow officer’s wife.
His world-weary charm and flawed good-guy persona draws you in and keeps you watching.
Koo is somewhat miscast as the curmudgeonly Gene who has issues with authority and family health problems to deal with.
Despite putting on weight and colouring his hair white, he still looks younger than Lau even though Gene is supposed to be the oldest in the group.
As Max, a rookie bound for bigger things with a fiancee from a well-to-do family, Wu has the least to work with and the role is not much of a stretch for him.
Johnny is the moral centre of the film. He gets embroiled in insider trading not for personal gain but because it is too late for his subordinates to extricate themselves.
He tries to protect them and discovers that with each lie they tell, the deeper they sink into the morass.
There are shades of Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan (1998) although Overheard is less unrelentingly dark in its outlook and chooses to end on a crowd-pleasing note.
Still, for combining unabashedly commercial instincts with a little social commentary, Overheard deserves to be seen and heard.
The yawning gap between the haves and have-nots is vividly illustrated by the cops’ situation.
They have stressful jobs, work long hours and take home a monthly pay cheque of HK$20,000 (S$3,700).
On the other hand, a security officer in a private firm draws a salary comparable to that of the commissioner of police, as Max’s future father-in-law tells him.
To add insult to injury, the crooks get away with profits of tens and hundreds of millions of dollars simply by manipulating the stock market.
Little wonder Gene is so grumpy and vows to nail these corporate criminals.
But rest assured that this is not some artsy social drama. After all, Mak and Chong are the guys behind the slick Confession Of Pain (2006) and the satisfyingly complex Infernal Affairs (2002).
The opening sequence of Johnny’s team planting the bugs in the Feng Hua office is beautifully choreographed and executed as the team dance around the unexpected return of their mark, chairman Ringo Law (Waise Lee).
There is lots more taut action: a kidnapping, a shoot-out in the carpark and an execution by gunshot.
But you remain invested in the story and continue to root for the cops-turned-crooks.
This is in large part due to the everreliable Lau as the experienced team leader Johnny, who is having an affair with a fellow officer’s wife.
His world-weary charm and flawed good-guy persona draws you in and keeps you watching.
Koo is somewhat miscast as the curmudgeonly Gene who has issues with authority and family health problems to deal with.
Despite putting on weight and colouring his hair white, he still looks younger than Lau even though Gene is supposed to be the oldest in the group.
As Max, a rookie bound for bigger things with a fiancee from a well-to-do family, Wu has the least to work with and the role is not much of a stretch for him.
Johnny is the moral centre of the film. He gets embroiled in insider trading not for personal gain but because it is too late for his subordinates to extricate themselves.
He tries to protect them and discovers that with each lie they tell, the deeper they sink into the morass.
There are shades of Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan (1998) although Overheard is less unrelentingly dark in its outlook and chooses to end on a crowd-pleasing note.
Still, for combining unabashedly commercial instincts with a little social commentary, Overheard deserves to be seen and heard.
(ST)