Worth your eyes
Looks like there are still good cop stories to tell. Eye in the Sky is one of the latest police thrillers from Hong Kong that features neither super nor undercover cops, but officers from the Hong Kong Police’s Surveillance Unit, a.k.a. “the eye in the sky”. You might think the unit is one of the most boring departments in the service, doing nothing but eavesdropping and tailing suspects for hours at ends. But as we learn from writer-director Yau Nai-Hoi’s debut feature, surveillance work is far more intricate than just battling lethargy and boredom. Unlike the typically loud action hero cop, the more nondescript the cop is, the better. Recruits like Constable Ho, codenamed “Piggy” (Kate Tsui) are picked because they looked nothing like the imposing men of the badge played by Jacky Chan or Clint Eastwood. Even Simon Yam sported a grizzled and potbellied “uncle” look, though you could still recognise him from a mile away. Besides looking nothing like cops, these policemen don’t even carry badges or guns. They work in an ordinary-looking office building complete with a fake company reception counter. They don’t salute their superiors, or call them by their real names. Their only weapons are their hidden radio transmitters and acute visual memories. Their work usually ends before a shootout starts, but that doesn’t make their job any less dangerous.
One particular type of danger is in the form of criminal mastermind, Chan (Tony Leung Ka-Fai), who has the almost psychic ability to feel the heat around the corner, but instead of walking out in thirty seconds flat like Robert De Niro in Heat, he goes right towards it and stabs the heat in the neck multiple times with a sharp metallic object. Leung is perfect for these maniacal criminal roles, but he also handles the quiet, contemplating side of his character quite aptly too. For a while, I thought TVB regular Wayne Lai Yiu-Cheung was going to be the designated nut case of the gang, which would have been cool also. Anyway, Chan has a few more jewelry store heist to pull off before retiring, but unfortunately not all his partners-in-crime share his level of efficiency and competency. Milky Way regular Lam Suet again plays the idiot who inadvertently catches the attention of the surveillance team. But only contrived coincidences eventually narrow the team’s focus on Chan.
Still, it’s a minor flaw that doesn’t detract Eye from being a really, really good police procedural thriller. It’s refreshing to see another side of police work that hardly gets its due in other movies, and that it can be just as interesting and exciting as the stuff a detective, mole or PTU officer does. And Yam plays a surprisingly endearing role as the joke-telling team leader, Dog Head, a part usually reserved for the likes of Anthony Wong or Eric Tsang. - BMF
Directed by Yau Nai-Hoi (debut) and written by Yau Nai-Hoi (Election 1 & 2, Throwdown) and Au Kin Yee (The Shopaholics, Yesterday Once More). Stars Simon Yam, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Kate Tsui, Lam Suet, Maggie Siu, Cheung Siu Fai and Wayne Lai Yiu Cheung. |
