Tapping into the craze for stocks

Written and directed by Alan Mak and Felix Chong, writers behind the Infernal Affairs (Wu Jian Dao) trilogy, Overheard (Qieting Fengyun) sets itself apart from the usual Hong Kong police-gangster film, without car crashes, bloodshed and gunshots.

The film focuses on three wiretappers at Hong Kong commercial crime investigation bureau, who find out about a listed company that is trying to manipulate the stock market. With the crucial information in hand and facing the giant temptation of getting rich overnight, they trap themselves in fatal dilemmas.

The topic of insider trading has rarely been touched on in Hong Kong films before Mak and Chong found the inspiration to elaborate further in a restaurant, in 2007.