Starring: Simon Yam Tat-wah, Fala Chen, Michael Miu Kiu-wai, Andy On Chi-kit Director: Keung Kwok-man Category: IIB (Cantonese)
There was a time during the late 1980s and early 90s when Simon Yam Tat-wah would appear in a dozen films a year and be uniformly lacklustre in all of them. How things have changed. The actor remains as omnipresent on local screens these days, but the one constant is his ability to deliver a sturdy performance regardless of what's happening around him. And it's thanks to this consistency that Black Ransom is saved from being a complete dud, with its weak plot, hammy lines and hackneyed mise-en-scene.
Yam plays Mann, a former police sharpshooter who has resigned himself to a slow life leading a depleted team of detectives after the death of his wife. He's not the only exasperated cop in the film: similarly stricken by domestic grief, former tactical unit team leader Sam (Michael Miu) goes over the divide and leads a gang who kidnap and kill off chieftains of the local underworld.
Growing ever more extreme in his antics, Sam's move eventually brings him to a battle of wits (and firepower) with Mann, who's brought in from the cold by Koo (Fala Chen, far right with Qu Ying), the new assistant police commissioner whose father was once the veteran policeman's close ally.
It's a premise that promises an intriguing duel, but the screenplay by Wong Jing (who also produces the film) does the film a major disservice by pushing the story forward with weird coincidences and plot twists devoid of logic. Would kidnappers on the run actually leave behind all their belongings when they relocate from one hideout to another? The list of absurdities, sadly, goes on and on. What's more glaring about Black Ransom is its lack of originality.
The way Keung realises the virtual, online conversation between Mann and Sam, for example, is more like a blast from the 1980s. Wong's penchant for piggy-backing on the success of some of his peers can be seen in the backbone of the film, with its story of a policeman battling a disgruntled ex-cop resembling that of Law Chi-leung's 2000 film Double Tap; and then there's his jab at Mad Detective, when he has Mann make fun of the paranormal beliefs that drive Johnnie To Kei-fung's film.