Review | Film review: Paradox – Louis Koo channels his inner Liam Neeson for Wilson Yip’s brutal return to SPL action series
Koo delivers his best performance in quite a while as a vengeful Hong Kong policeman on the trail of his only daughter’s Thai kidnappers in violent martial arts action movie let down somewhat by its predictable ending
3.5/5 stars
Two years after seeing his pal Soi Cheang Pou-soi direct a sequel-in-spirit to his martial arts crime thriller SPL (2005), Wilson Yip Wai-shun ( Ip Man 3 ) makes his own return to the franchise with this punishingly violent third instalment.
Taking a page from the Liam Neeson school of one-man rescue missions, Louis Koo Tin-lok rampages furiously in one of his most physical roles to date – and one of his best performances in quite a while – as Hong Kong policeman Lee Chung-chi, a widower who loses his teenage daughter Wing-chi (newcomer Hanna Chan), listed as a missing person in Pattaya, Thailand, right after he cruelly separated her from her boyfriend.
Paradox takes the audience on a head-spinning tour of false leads and near misses early on, as Lee tags along with a pair of Thai detectives, the righteous Chui Kit (Wu Yue) and the seemingly prophetic Tak (Tony Jaa in a regrettably brief part). The search then takes a turn for the hysterical when it appears that Wing-chi has been abducted by organ traffickers connected to a powerful Thai politician via his immoral aide (Lam Ka-tung).