Mad Detective is probably best described as a police thriller with mystery elements that you have seen and never seen before all at once.
If you relax into the film and let it take you where it wants to you will have an engaging and entertaining 90 minutes or so. The story starts with a clearly dishonest cop and missing handgun and some violent robberies, so far, so police procedural. Bun the mad detective is pulled into the story and along with him his many idiosyncrasy and strange ideas. Then we are off and running.
The strength of the story lies with the character of Bun as you are never given any clear indication of these abilities being genuine or whether he is truly ‘mad’ or some savant genius. One minute you will think he is and then the direction fogs up your vision and….is he? A twist part way through was brilliantly executed and for once I can genuinely say ‘I did not see that coming’ and mean it.
All the main protagonists are presented on the screen competently and it must be said it a great performance by Lau whose character Bun could easily drive you to distraction in the hands of a lesser actor and for all his apparent madness he is charismatic, and you cannot help but like him. Andy On as his long-suffering and confused partner plays the ‘straight’ role to perfection and the menacing Lam Ka Tung leaves you guessing to the very end of the proceedings even though it appears he is guilty from the get-go.
The soundtrack is certainly not what you would expect from this type of film are in fact a strength and not jarring despite seeming more ‘poppy’ than you normally expect. We are treated to Hong Kong backdrops and having a complete ignorance of that place they were as I imagined, mainly a Blade-Runnerish-style city.
It is difficult to categorise this story, another strength, there is a small dose of Ghost in there and The Sixth Sense but if you think this is the track, you are going to be wrong. There is a non-glamourised darkness irrigating the story but at some points you are splashed with fun and sadness as we moved through a man’s fractured life.
Mad Detective as a story is fairly standard but it is the original way it is presented that makes it genuinely interesting and appealing. If there are any problems or weaknesses these come about because the makers are trying to push the envelope and experiment in a well-worn genre.
Even if you happened not to like Mad Detective this must be applauded.
A good one. A little confusing sometimes but I suppose that was intended. Solid performance of the actors and a good script.
Shout by SkytheBlockedParent2023-12-16T23:13:49Z
In short:
Good neo-noir crime mystery somewhere between Monk, The Sixth Sense and Asian hard-boiled movies like The Chaser.
----- Random thoughts:
Mad Detective is not as violent as say "I Saw The Devil" except for one gory scene at the very start. It's a weird scene, and doesn't quite fit the tone of the rest of the movie.
There aren't many action sequences, but they're okay.
As a Westerner, telling the young male actors from each other was hard at times.
Even though they're very different movies, I'd like to compare Mad Detective to The Wailing. They both attempt to pull the same trick: keeping you guessing what's what until the very end, and make you change your guess multiple times on the way.
The Wailing, being the masterpiece that it is, succeeds way better at doing that. Plus it has mesmerizing performances by at least 2 of the protagonists.
----- Verdict:
Good (7/10)