| Violence and village comedy blend in Andy Chin's second feature that echoes feelings of arguably Ringo Lam's best film Wild Search as well as Home Alone although it's not much of a deep journey. There is some substance on show here though as Ching (Carol Cheng) escapes city life to get rid of her self-absorbed and workaholic ways. All while trying to figure out the relationship with her cop boyfriend (Tony Leung Ka-Fai). Moving out into the new territories, the seemingly friendly villagers are a bunch of greedy bastards but she does strike up a friendship with enterprising young kid Berlin (Cheng Pak Lam). Having been raised by his uncle (Ng Man Tat), Ching and Berlin recognize the shared lack of love in their lives. Also lurking in the shadows is a badly injured thief (To Siu Chung, getting good chemistry out of his interactions with Cheng Pok Lam) who has been hiding in Ching's moving truck and house with a valuable set of diamonds...
Despite the obvious contrasting moods and some gory gunplay, Chin achieves a tuned balance between what is light and dark material on paper, opting not to give the finale a particularly violent aura. He mostly populates To Catch A Thief then with a low-key and sharp sense to the comedy, playing much to the greed that runs through the village. All quite entertaining and pleasant to follow, meaning his debut Gift From Heaven was no freak accident. Some flaws are somewhat inexcusable though, one being a rather open ending and Ng Man Tat sometimes is allowed to wander too much outside the more calmer comedy Chin is otherwise pushing for. Moon Lee's supporting role is also obviously an instrument to generate more commercialism going and to get action director Phillip Kwok more to do, which would've been fine if it hadn't been for the lack of real spark to his work here. Andy Chin's regular bit player Jamie Luk also appear as well as Lung Tin Sang (Dangerous Encounter - 1st Kind) |
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