Jidu zhongfan (1998)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Ringo Lam

Writers:

Ringo Lam (written by)
W.K. Lau (written by)

Release Date:

16 July 1998 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Bazooka | Politics | Bridge Jump | Cover Up | Years In Jail

Cast

Louis Koo	...	Don Lee
Simon Yam	...	Chan Hung / Dante Aquino
Julian Cheung	...	Max Mak
Ray Lui	...	King Tso
Ada Choi	...	Annie Chung
Eric Moo	...	Policeman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mike Cassey	...	TV News Reporter
Iris Chai
Marcus Fox	...	Aquino's Henchman

Directed by
Ringo Lam

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ringo Lam		written by
W.K. Lau		written by

Produced by
Twiggie Au	....	administrative producer
Song Ming Cul	....	producer (as Cui Song Ming)
Rankie Fung	....	line producer
Stephen Lam	....	administrative producer
Yin Nam	....	executive producer (as Nam Yin)
C.L. Wang	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Andrew Warboys
Ying-Wah Wong		(as Raymond Wong)
Andrew Worboys

Cinematography by
Ross W. Clarkson

Film Editing by
Marco Mak

Art Direction by
Y.F. Chung
C.F. Luk

Production Management
Patrick Lui	....	production manager (as Pat Lui)
David Pang	....	chief production manager
O.H. Shing	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Dante Kabigting	....	assistant director

Stunts
Marcus Fox	....	car stunts
Phillip Ko	....	stunt coordinator

Other crew
Mike Cassey	....	dialogue coach: English
Phillip Ko	....	action director
Stephen Lam	....	project manager
Oli Laperal Jr.	....	equipment and crew coordinator

Production Companies

• Color Business Entertainment Ltd.
• Globe Perfect International Ltd.
• Sil-Metropole Organisation

Distributors

• e-m-s the DVD-Company

Also Known As:

The Suspect (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

90 min | Germany:104 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Color Business Entertainment Ltd.

Exciting, excellent drama thriller with good action

If you are looking for an excellent HK suspense movie, look no further: The Suspect is exciting from the beginning with the voice over full of feeling, through the chases to the action packed gunplay ending. You will never be bored, the story is unusually good (it is not a ripoff from Assassins as my friend Stefant21 stated in his review) and the pace is high. The beginning of the movie is not slow paced, as one reviewer stated, there is a lot going on throughout the whole movie but it is true that most of the gunplay occurs during the long and excellent ending.

If you are only looking for gunplay and explosions you will be disappointed. Don't expect a so called heroic bloodshed movie even though the theme of friendship and loyalty is classic to the genre (see for instance The Killer). The Suspect is not so exaggerated as the movies of John Woo, the action and everything else in The Suspect is more realistic but you will still see some blodsquibs.

The Suspect is masterfully directed and the acting is superb in spite of the fact that the actors have to speak a lot of english instead of only cantonese. For those of us that have seen him before it comes as no surprise that Simon Yam manages to make a big impression even though he is not on screen very much, but I was thrilled that the rest of the cast is also unusually good. The characters are multi layered, they are not cartoon figures either black or white and even the ruthless Simon Yam seems to have something good in him, he is not only ruthless and bad. The tone is serious throughout the movie, we don't have to suffer through any ridiculous HK humor. 10/10