I Corrupt All Cops
Starring: Eason Chan Yik-shun, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Anthony Wong Chau-sang, Liu Yang
Director: Wong Jing
Category: IIB (Cantonese)
If awards were given for the most distinctive title, this lurid drama about the founding of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) would be a top contender. It would probably be the only chance for I Corrupt All Cops to pick up a statuette, as the picture is less a hard-hitting look at police corruption in the wild and woolly 1960s and 70s than a tawdry expose full of drugs, sex, and violence.
First and foremost, the movie is pure Wong Jing. The director-writer (and in this case, co-star) has brought us a 2009 version of the kind of film that helped define mainstream Hong Kong cinema's heyday in the 1980s and early 90s. It's a reminder of the kind of local production rarely made nowadays and, for a good part of its overlong 110 minutes, manages to hold a viewer's attention in a guilty-pleasure type of way.
The sprawling narrative - better suited to a miniseries format - follows a number of interconnecting strands, none of which are developed to maximum effect. The criminal element is masterminded by Gold (persuasively played by Wong Jing), a manipulator whose laughter and roly-poly surface belie a cold-hearted merchant whose every move is calculated in terms of power and cash. Less capable is Unicorn (Anthony Wong), a low-life undercover cop adept at framing the innocent, as he does with university student Bong (Alex Fong Lik-sun).