Miles Apart (2000)

Cop Miles Ma (Michael Wong) is the scourge of Hong Kong's pirate VCD sellers. Especially those with other illicit business interests on the side. While a Ma-headed bust at the start of the movie isn't so successful, he soon finds himself a handy tip-off. Out on the street, Ma and his inspectors nab a young disc seller and beat him until he squeals with the whereabouts of his distributor. That night the police raid the tipped-off flat and find what appears to be a small piracy operation... until a gunman bursts out of a bedroom. The attacker is promptly 'double-tapped'*, and Ma becomes suspicious. "People don't just die over VCDs," he says. "There's got to be more than that here."

He's right. On cue, a flightcase loaded with heroin is found dangling in a lightwell outside the apartment. Ma sets about investigating but it's not so easy - it seems there's a rat in the ranks. The Internal Investigation Department is looking into one of Ma's partners and it's not long before an elaborate setup lands Ma in prison on rape and attempted murder charges. How can he possibly crack the case and be saved from life behind bars?

While that's the plot in a nutshell, added is love interest Janis Chan (Cecilia Yip). She's in the Internal Investigation Department, and is instrumental in aiding Ma's case and in helping him to escape conviction. Cecilia Yip, as it turns out, becomes one of the better aspects of the film with her calm presence and relatively smooth delivery of her many English-language dialogues. Another actor of note is Simon Loui, holding a pleasing peripheral role as a rather unshakable cop.

An otherwise generic Hong Kong-style police flick, Miles Apart differs slightly from the norm with its cityscape opening and lengthy dialogues perhaps aimed at adding stronger character depth. In the latter's case, generous trimming would have helped to create a tighter momentum and cut the running time to below its lengthy 102.96 minutes. The script keeps its course but holds lapses (Was Ma really convicted as he said he was? Is bashing up suspects always so fruitful?) and solutions too simplistic to be credible (Ma's team freeing the VCD seller before verifying the location in his tip-off). All is accompanied by an unremarkable score though the dialogue is thankfully recorded with synchronous sound. The spoken languages of choice are largely English for the police and Cantonese for their adversaries.

Painted billboard at the Imperial Theatre with an artist's rugged impression of Michael Wong.

Credits:

Directed and produced by Michael Wong
Story by Michael Wong
Screenplay by Keith Humphrey
Starring Michael Wong, Cecilia Yip, Moses Chan, Samuel Leung, Jimmy Wong, Simon Loui and Labon Cheung