Cop on a Mission (2001)

Cop on a Mission starts encouragingly with an opening scene and credits list amply hinting that the film to follow won't be an idle affair. A screenwriter credit for Not A Woman and a consultant role for Ng Chi-hung appear onscreen as an undercover cop named Mike (Wu) lies in a freshly-dug grave. Bound, blindfolded and with thugs shoveling in soil from above, he starts telling the audience what shady business got him there. The director's credit pops up and the film quickly jumps back a few months to commence the narrative proper.

Here Mike's a uniformed cop on the nighttime beat, riling his middle-aged colleagues after gunning down several underworld folks in a Mong Kok coffee shop. Sidelined for using excessive force and working too hard, Mike's higher-up, Officer Cheung, suggests he resign before the chiefs fire him -- a good ruse to secretly recruit him as an undercover cop.

The task is to infiltrate the triads and play informant on the bosses' activities. Soon Mike edges his way up the ranks, aided in no small part by saving gangster's wife Pauline (Kwan) from a horde of chopper-brandishing attackers. Her hubby and Hung Hing gang boss Yum King-tin (Tsang) likes what he sees and grabs Mike as his aide. The rat in the ranks is now in the thick of the action -- privy to not only gang business but also the lifestyle that comes with it. Two months after he starts his triad activities as a lowly Causeway Bay valet, the boundary between policing and active involvement starts to become blurred.

Key to Mike's involvement is Pauline -- a troubled lady he first spied changing clothes in a dark restaurant back room. Peeper's fodder to begin with, once Pauline meets Mike she reveals her marital problems too. From here the script's inclusion of the relationships between Tin, Pauline and Mike adds interest to viewers not inclined towards straight gangster movie genres; a more everyday face is instead put on values of appreciation and duty. The concept of duty also figures into Cop on a Mission's depiction of the police force, hinted as including a core of self-serving individuals awaiting retirement and not wanting to rock the boat.

With Cop on a Mission, director Marco Mak returns to the stylish production values apparent in his The Blood Rules. Compositions readily flip between colour and black and white on occasions, with speed change aplenty and a mildly jazzy music selection to accompany. These stylings aren't always effective though, with certain action sequences offering very little to grab the viewer's attention when presented in grainy slow motion. Daniel Wu is afforded plenty of attention from the camera throughout, often under moody lighting or fielding close-up shots in scenes of tension.

The various setups and diversions dotted along the script create a meandering route for viewers to follow. Sequences including one segment in Macau prove too much a distraction from the main gist, which could benefit from greater exposition of its lead character's past and motivations. Ultimately the relationship between Tin and Pauline becomes Cop on a Mission's strength, aided by warm performances by both Tsang and Kwan.

Above: The President Theatre's streetfront painted billboard and the cinema's facade.

Credits:

Directed by Marco Mak
Screenplay by Not A Woman
Edited by Marco Mak and Angie Lam
Consultant: Frankie Ng Chi-hung
Starring Daniel Wu, Eric Tsang Chi-wai, Shooky Kwan Sau-mei (Suki Kwan), Tony Ho, Ng Chi-hung, Tony Ho Wah-chiu, Lam Suet, David Lee, Anya, Karel Wong, Wong Shee-tong and Samuel Kwok