ReviewIntegrity film review: anti-corruption drama by Infernal Affairs director is engaging but lacks knockout punch
- Alan Mak’s convoluted drama is a rarity, relying on intricate plotting rather than action scenes to grip audiences
- For all its patient scripting, atmospheric build-up and efforts to appear contemporary, the ending is unsatisfactory
3/5 stars
Alan Mak Siu-fai is back in the good books of his hometown crowd. While his last film, the China-targeted action thriller Extraordinary Mission (2017), performed modestly at the China box office and bombed in Hong Kong, the co-director of the Infernal Affairs and Overheard trilogies has come up with one of the top-grossing local films released over the Chinese New Year holiday in Hong Kong.
And what confident sleight of hand he has shown with this convoluted anti-corruption drama, which he wrote and directed; regular collaborator Felix Chong Man-keung ( Project Gutenberg ) was co-producer. Integrity has the conviction to engage its viewers solely with intricate plotting, rather than the usual action overload – the first car chase only takes place 80 minutes into the film, and is over before you know it.
Lau Ching-wan plays King, the chief investigator of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), who is banking on a key witness, the corporate accountant Jack (Nick Cheung Ka-fai), to testify in court against a high-level customs officer (Anita Yuen Wing-yi) and a tobacco trading company CEO accused of bribery and smuggling. When neither Jack nor the CEO show up on the day of the hearing, King is given seven days to save the prosecution’s case.
It transpires that Jack has flown home to Sydney. Expert ICAC negotiator Shirley (Karena Lam Ka-yan) – who is King’s estranged wife – is sent to persuade the whistle-blower to have a change of heart. Meanwhile King, who seems to have known Jack for much longer than it would initially appear, resorts to often illegal means to track down the mastermind pulling the strings of the two defendants.