Action thriller could stand more focus but is nonetheless one of the most enjoyable Hong Kong titles of 2012. Elizabeth Kerr reports.

The incredibly convoluted and thoroughly entertaining Cold War is a throw back in more ways than it even realizes. Recalling the great Hong Kong cops and robbers actioners of the late-1980s and early-'90s this is precisely the kind of film the industry here should be producing. It's intensely local without being isolating, vaguely subversive, and directors Longman Leung (a veteran production designer) and Sunny Luk (a career AD who worked on The Dark Knight) clearly understand the cloth from which they've been cut. The film is top-loaded with talent (even if Peter Kam's score is overwhelmingly bombastic at points) including Charlie Yeung (Seven Swords), Chin Kar-lok (The Bullet Vanishes), Andy On (True Legend), Lam Ka-tung (Sparrow) and Andy Lau (duh) among others. It's Hong Kong myth-making at its finest and leaves absolutely no room for ambiguity.

One Mongkok evening a bomb goes off in a theatre. Moments later a speeding drunk driver gets pulled over elsewhere. Moments later again and the police van and the five cops that handled the traffic menace vanish from control radar - despite being totally tricked out in tech. Coincidence? Hardly. There's a massive conspiracy afoot and at first it's up to hard-line acting deputy commissioner MB Lee (Tony Leung) to figure it out by launching a heavy-handed, militaristic operation: Cold War. This ruffles more than a few feathers in the force's senior officers who think Lee is overstepping his bounds. Also? His son is one of the missing cops. Eventually the bureaucratic, by-the-book Sean Lau (Aaron Kwok) takes over the investigation and after some needlessly complex narrative machinations Lee and Lau come to an uneasy alliance and unearth the moles (one of whom comes as a bolt from the blue) while running afoul of a higher authority-the white knight ICAC and its whelp of an officer Billy Cheung (Aarif Rahman, Echoes of the Rainbow).

Cold War manages a few stellar moments among the nonsense, noise and messaging, and despite its frantic pacing it remains thoroughly enjoyable throughout its efficient running time. It's been a long time since Hong Kong movies produced a good ol' fashioned raging gun battle in the streets, and the shoot-out on the Tai Kok Tsui overpass is a marvel of ballistic choreography. Above all else watching Leung's Lee verbally spank the keen Cheung is a treat. Leung revels in the scene and Rahman has the good sense to look sufficiently schooled (there are indeed two lessons here).

But Cold War is also extremely muddled, and gets more muddled as time goes on - and this is a film that began with a character flow chart. There are far too many, "Who's that guy?" moments in the film, and the suggestion of an Infernal Affairs-type franchise is a stretch given the scattershot storytelling. But Cold War's subtle post-'97 commentary is its most endearing aspect, misguided or otherwise. The Hong Kong rendered in Cold War is a beacon of fraying fortitude that must be pulled back from the brink of extinction. The city itself is a character - a shiny, sexy urban beast in the midst of a psychotic break. The film sometimes comes off as a less sophisticated Election (To doesn't mix his messages) but given the financial climate in the film industry Leung and Luk should be given props for even trying something outside the box.

Cold War opens in Hong Kong on November 8.

(HK Edition 11/03/2012 page4)