Review | A Witness out of the Blue film review: Louis Cheung plays bumbling detective in offbeat Hong Kong murder mystery
- Director Fung Chih-chiang’s latest – and best – effort starring Louis Koo and Louis Cheung is part murder mystery, part police thriller and part Freudian psychodrama
- Despite a needlessly gimmicky marketing campaign involving a parrot, the film is a thoroughly entertaining experience for viewers
3.5/5 stars
Fung Chih-chiang has shown an aptitude for offbeat storytelling since his days as a screenwriter for the likes of Stephen Chow Sing-chi and Johnnie To Kei-fung.
A Witness out of the Blue, Fung’s fourth feature as a writer-director, proves to be his latest narrative experiment, with the part murder mystery, part police thriller and part Freudian psychodrama twisting the premise of a standard procedural into something resembling a surprise.
With his previous directing efforts – from a modern-day Western (The Bounty) to a showbiz satire ( The Midas Touch ) and a musical comedy ( Concerto of the Bully ) – Fung has hopped from one genre to the next in search of fresh perspectives for his stories. A Witness out of the Blue marks another step in that direction, spinning his ensemble cast in unexpected trajectories in the aftermath of a robbery and a follow-up murder.
Three months after Sean Wong (played by Louis Koo Tin-lok as an amoral enigma) orchestrated an armed robbery of a jewellery store that left several people dead, the wanted criminal becomes the prime suspect of a new murder case when one of his partners-in-crime is found dead in the industrial building where they’ve been hiding the loot. The only “witness” at the scene appears to be a talking parrot in the room.
On the case is senior police inspector Yip Sau-ching (Philip Keung Ho-man) and his comically incompetent associate Larry Lam (Louis Cheung Kai-chung). When Wong’s fellow robbers face deadly retribution one after another, however, Lam and his perky colleague Charmaine (Cherry Ngan Cheuk-ling) also begin to turn their suspicion from Wong to Yip and other people present at the scene of the earlier heist.
It then becomes a tale of two Louis’s.
While Koo’s criminal-on-the-run, hiding in the fancy flat of an eccentric landlord (Jessica Hsuan), seeks to clear his murder accusations, Cheung’s bumbling policeman looks into the suspicious activities of several seemingly innocent victims from the robbery case, bringing about brief but intriguing supporting turns by Fiona Sit Hoi-kei, Andy On Chi-kit and Patrick Tam Yiu-man.
Despite a gimmicky marketing campaign that needlessly plays up the parrot’s role in the film, Fung keeps his eyes firmly on the characters and their stories, ensuring a thoroughly entertaining experience for his viewer – even if the mystery component doesn’t have the most inspired of solutions.
With strong performances by Koo and Cheung, though, it is arguable that A Witness out of the Blue already stands as Fung’s best directing effort to date.
