Victim: Reviews

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Victim
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by Mei Ah

ALTERNATE SYNOPSIS:
A computer engineer is kidnapped and tortured. His girlfriend Amy worries a lot but starts to discover that her man has changed a lot in his behaviors. He totally becomes a different person. A smart cop is assigned to investigate what has happened during the man's kidnapping. He refuses to believe that there might be a ghost in the man's body trying to control him. However, he discovers something far more horrible...

by So Good... - Hong Kong DVD Movie Reviews
www.sogoodreviews.com

Nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards 2000:

Best Director (Ringo Lam)

Best Actor (Lau Ching Wan)

Best Cinematography (Ross Clarkson)

Best Sound Design

Award at the Hong Kong Film Critics Socierty Awards 2000:

Film Of Merit

I've always liked the style in the movies directed by Ringo Lam. City On Fire will of course always be his most famous film since it indeed is a classic but also that Quentin Tarantino 'borrowed' scenes from that and put into his directorial debut Reservoir Dogs. Ringos movies has on many ocassions featured a police theme combined with scenes of fairly realistic and gritty violence and while Victim has those elements, it also tosses in a supernatural theme. It isn't a fully satisfying experience but nonetheless a very good and well executed thriller.

One night a parking garage attendant hears two shots on the floor above. Moments later he is brutally run over by a van and police is called to the scene. Inspector Pit (Tony Leung Ka-Fai from A Better Tomorrow 3) begins his investigation and quickly finds an abandoned car belonging to Manson Ma (Lau Ching Wan from Running Out Of Time). The surveillance tape in the garage shows Manson being kidnapped but it's not long until police are notified where they can find the victim of this kidnapping. He is said to be located at a hotel, which is believed to be haunted. After a tense search they do find a shaken up Manson Ma but his behaviour is very mysterious. Is it trauma from the crime that was commited against him or is he affected somehow by the spirits maybe residing in the hotel? Pit doesn't believe at all in the ghost theory and makes it his mission to find out what happened to Manson. Slowly the truth is brought to the surface...

Hong Kong movies have never shyed away from mixing different elements of genres into one picture but here this mix could've been more risky to do since it is a straight out serious and dark tale we got here. Thankfully Ringo Lam is such an experienced director and he never lets one element dominate the other.

In the beginning parts of the movie, during the search for Manson Ma, we get to experience a search of the maybe haunted hotel. Here Ringo brings out all the text book horror clichés such as thunder and lightning, doors slamming shut, chilling winds and so on. Your classic hanuted house experience basically. Somehow he manages not to make this scene corny but quite tense and scary in my opinion. By this point we're already hooked into the story and that makes us sort of forget about this cliché ridden scene. Of course clichés can be done in a good way and thanks to moody cinematography and nicely choosen camera angles, Ringo pulls this one off.

The directing of the movie itself isn't too noticeable and the camera does for the most time move in a way that blends well with the events portrayed on the screen. It is in the few action scenes that the camera work goes into a more chaos oriented mode, something I rarely see being done well. It's purpose is of course to create panic and chaos but you have to get a sense of where you are and what is going on. Through good editing and despite shaky cam, these scenes play out rather nicely and adds a good adrenaline rush after the more quiet moments in the film. The violence on display is, as mentioned, pretty brutal but never feels out of place in the context of the story and it feels suiting for what the characters in it would do.

The script, written by Ringo Lam and Joe Ma, is smartly structured and it's very deliberatly slow paced. The mystery is revealed very sparringly and during the first half of the movie I was very intrigued about what had happened and what was going to happen next. I found the pacing to be excellent but i think some viewers may be a bit frustrated by the fact that the movie takes it's time to reveal things. While we're waiting for the truth to be told, the character development is nicely shown. I will not go into the character of Manson Ma since it may be ruin your enjoyment of the film and the mystery surrounding the character. I will however say that I thought it was well written and well played, which brings us to the acting...

The last movie I saw Lau Ching Wan in was the wonderful La Brassiere and there he showed great comedic skills. I thought that it would be hard seeing him in a serious role after that movie but my worries were soon laid to rest. Lau Ching Wan is one of those actors who doesn't need to say much to reach great heights as an actor. He has, during the beginning third of the movie, very little dialogue and is mostly seen acting very unstable mentally. He goes through some changes during the course of the movie and Lau Ching Wan doesn't seem to have a problem shifting gears so to say. An excellent performance that was well worth being nominated or even awarded for that matter.

Tony Leung Ka-Fai has never really impressed or stood out in the few movies I've seen with him. For example, in People's Hero he played a pretty much straight cop role and didn't get to do much. I should note that I've never thought Tony was a bad actor, I just haven't seen him in a more demanding character role. His part in Victim is a pretty thankless one. He's the workaholic cop who has almost forgotten about his family and concentrates only on the case in hand. Nothing groundbreaking but if you look at the characters place in THIS story, it works pretty good. Tony gets better and better as the film progresses and has a few scenes where he shows nice raw emotion. It's a solid performance and also a memorable one.

Among the supporting players I liked Amy Kwok the best. She plays the girlfriend of Manson Ma and her questioning of her boyfriends sanity is played in a subdued but kind of sweet way by Amy. Ngai Sing (from Red Wolf) and Joe Lee (from Bullets Over Summer) turns up as bad guys and what can you say more about them other than that they're bad guys. Didn't hurt the film in any way though.

Late in this review I'm going to talk about The Victim's slowly unveiling mystery again. We as viewers are constantly trying add the pieces to the puzzle but are never really given any solid clues as to what is really going on, until late in the film. When it's revealed I didn't feel the payoff was as good as I'd hoped. Sure the movie was still fascinating but I had hoped for something more powerful I guess. The twists and turns in the plot are at times also a little hard to follow towards the end. Ringo does leave us with some questions unanswered but this I thought was a case of lettig the audience make up their mind about the final events of the film.

After Victim had finished I was pleasantly surprised. The 103 minute running time was quite involving and it's a worthy and well recommended entry in Ringo Lam's filmography.

by John Richards

As much as John Woo is recognised for shaping the style of Hong Kong action films during the late eighties and early nineties nearly an equal amount of credit should be given to Ringo Lam who provided some of the most gripping action dramas of that period. With a rather more realistic and gritty style than Woo's, Lam's films have always shown depth and intelligence. His output in recent years has been rather less frequent but the films have still been worthwhile contributions (even the underrated 'Maximum Risk') that have maintained his place among the A list of leading Hong Kong directors. 'Victim' shows quite a departure from the usual crime dramas Lam is known for as it mixes in elements from the horror genre to produce something quite original.

Like many of Ringo Lam's films 'Victim' is a slow 'boiler' that gradually builds towards a gripping climax. The film begins with a mystery as a car park attendant is brutally run down late at night while on duty. Footage from the car park video system shows an out of work computer programmer Manson (Lau Ching Wan) being kidnapped and bundled into a mini van immediately prior to the hit and run incident. Inspector Pit (Tony Leung Kar Fai) leads the police investigation and waits for the gang to make their ransom demands. The call comes and directs them to a deserted and supposedly haunted hotel where the previous owner murdered his wife and child and then committed suicide. A cautious Tony Leung searches the deserted building (in a superbly gripping sequence that had me on the edge of my seat) and eventually finds an unconscious Manson hanging upside down by his feet.

Back in the police interview room Manson acts strangely speaking in an odd voice, demanding to drink wine and repeating the lines from an old song. While his fellow and rather superstitious officers believe that Manson has been possessed by the spirit of the dead hotel owner Pit is rather more sceptical and as the investigation continues things just don't seem to add up. In fact Pit becomes convinced that Manson is hiding a secret.

Lau Ching Wan is as excellent as always in the portrayal of the rather complicated Manson character but it was Tony Leung that really surprised me as the cop struggling to fit the pieces together. Again Ringo Lam uses a realistic approach to give the story and the actors credibility and it works because you really are kept guessing until the end.

While the film relies on the strength of its characters the action elements aren't abandoned completely. Although rare the action is quite violent (realistic) with a number of grisly deaths, especially at the very beginning and at the very end. There's an excellent shoot out scene about half way into the film and also a very good car chase sequence but on the whole its the drama that drives this film along. The use of a supernatural theme is a nice touch as it adds a new dimension but the film's climax returns back to more familiar territory as it becomes more like a conventional crime thriller however there is still a hidden sting or two in the tail.

by Variety

Ace action-drama helmer Ringo Lam goes genre-bending with "Victim," a mixture of psychodrama, caper movie, mystery, thriller and ghost pic that doesn't hit all its targets but is an exhilarating enough ride for buffs most of the way. At its best, movie has the performance intensity of Lam's 1997 "Full Alert," drawing some remarkable playing from its cast; in its weaker moments, the seams start to show between the components. Pic performed disappointingly last fall on home turf, despite drawing appreciative notices from crix; Western business looks mostly limited to ancillary and specialized situations.

In a gritty, quietly charged opening that's pure Lam, computer designer Ma Man-shun (Lau Ching-wan) is seemingly kidnapped. His g.f., Amy Fu (TV thesp Amy Kwok), tells police that Ma had been unemployed for some time and had debts, but he was basically a good man.

Following a tip-off, the police, led by detective Pit (Tony Leung Kar-fai), find Ma hanging by his feet in a deserted old hotel; the building is reputedly haunted after the suicide 30 years earlier of its owner who had murdered his unfaithful wife.

Ma subsequently becomes moody and violent, and a cat-and-mouse game evolves between him, his g.f. and Pit. The cop suspects Ma may be faking ghostly possession and madness as a smoke screen for some larger crime being plotted.

Thanks to a carefully calibrated perf by Lau, usually cast in good-guy roles, the viewer is given three options for Ma's behavior (mad, sane, possessed) without any clear answers until the pic's latter stages. Well-constructed script is at its best when on psychodrama territory, with Pit increasingly agitated over whether Ma is acting or not, and Ma's g.f. caught up in the elaborate waltz between the two men.

In a tauter and more focused performance than usual, Leung is excellent as the cop; most memorable of all, however, is Kwok, who turns a potentially cliche girlfriend role into one of character and substance, more than holding her own against Lau and Leung.

Luckily, the ghost stuff (pic's weakest element) doesn't dominate, and the movie is replete with Lam trademarks -- from the terrific opening two reels of Ma's kidnap and discovery, through small details of the cops' characters and the routines of police life, to gritty set pieces (a nocturnal car chase; a finale at the H.K. mint).

Throughout, Aussie d.p. Ross Clarkson's lensing, plus the use of direct sound recording, complete with background noise, adds a rough, realistic edge to the proceedings that's typical of the director. Andy Chan's editing is tight, but with no sense of rush.

Though Hong Kong has already started to move on since the movie's production, Ma's character does encapsulate a recent moment in the territory's history when people felt angry and betrayed by their market economy and temporarily lost faith. Overall, pic isn't as dark and tenebrous as Lam's "Full Alert" but spiritually it's surprisingly bleak.

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