When I heard he was going to be directing Lau Ching Wan again, I got all giddy. Then I heard this new project was going to be a crime-thriller and I nearly busted a nut.

This brings us to "Mad Detective", a film about a man (Lau Ching Wan) with the special ability to see people's personalities (literally!), which makes him a phenomenal detective. On the other side of the coin, he's an eccentric madman (hence, the title)--self-mutilation, starting fights with people for no good reason, and imagining things around him that are not really there. His way of solving crimes is outrageous: in one scene he tells his partner to stuff him in a suitcase and kick him down the stairs; in another scene, he buries himself six feet into he ground--all this just to get his thought process going.

"Mad Detective" is nothing fantastic, but it's entertaining. I dig the creativity brought to us by Johnnie To, Ka-Fai Wai and Kin Yee Au (writers of the film). As always Lau Ching Wan's performance is excellent. I still would rather see Johnnie To/Lau Ching Wan and company do a little something not so far out. Maybe another gangster movie like "A Hero Never Dies" or "Fulltime Killer".

There's some half-groundbreaking stuff happening here. Maybe in a world without an M. Night Shyamalan, "Mad Detective" would have been great.

Reunion time in 2007 at Milkyway! Johnnie To no longer does things solo while spicing up Hong Kong cinema with players that actually grow in talent under his eye. It's true though the latter as Mad Detective offers up a mixture of the old and new but in particular old. You've got shared directing duties with Wai Ka-Fai for the first time since 2003's Running On Karma, one of the few harder edged (but done in Milkyway's own way) vehicles with the To/Wai credit. At other times they and their returning leading man Lau Ching-Wan have indeed mixed it up for the sake of profit but ultimately Milkyway Image's history speaks greatly (GREATLY!) of the darker, harder, off-beat and funny. Are they adding on top of the pile of pre-millennium and post-millennium classics (the company passed its 10 year anniversary in 2006. How time flies)? You betcha!

It feels like eons ago Johnnie To and Milkyway severed the ties to commercial necessity and nowadays whatever is on their minds, ends up on the screen in often the most vivid of cinematic ways. Firmly drenching Mad Detective in the noir style made famous by their in-house cinematographer Cheng Siu-Keung but basically creating a suspense vehicle (of sorts, it's rule breakers at work here you know...), the term method to madness applies to reality and fiction here. Because the team aren't doing rehashes of TV-series such as Profiler or Millennium but what are they doing you always, always, ALWAYS should ask! Based on the premise and the character of Bun alone, you've got every conceivable angle for Johnnie To and co. to work from and it's indeed thanks the wondrous nature of Milkyway cinema that we're treated to the unexpected much of the time.

Not AS quirky or deadpan in the humour department this time around (a scene at a public toilet does sends jolts to our laugh-center and more...), perhaps the addition of Wai Ka-Fai again speaks of success achieved with Running On Karma because there's obviously similarities premise-wise. And that vehicle indeed offered up something fresh but also typically wild Hong Kong cinema. The forces collide here but balances out matters a bit and the biggest venture outside a dark, gory frame is some warmth and tragedy... at the same time. With Lau Ching-Wan's PITCH PERFECT portrayal of a humane madman, here's a man who looks like he's been swallowed by obsession but doesn't want to erase his only instincts and drive in life either. Hence staying off medication but also being a risky character with little to no downtime to REALLY ponder the in's and out's of his instincts, he seems to be able to drag down people easily with him. In this case Andy On's Ho, someone with only a limited set of inner personalities. There's a chance of growth here and closure.

It's quite lovely the way To/Wai elicits various oooh's and wah's from their audience. Either via the shocking opening that easily earned the flick its Category III rating or the various hints at what all those extra people (mainly actors from the Milkyway stable) are all of a sudden doing in the frame. But it's not a special statement made because they don't know what they're doing. No, they CAN and have an enormous amount of focus to deliver an involving time that may approach complex but is easily accessible to the max as well. It's a tricky thing to balance the moods but in reality the writing also makes sure they're naturally close to each other, be it the happier, funnier and supremely violent moments. The inner personalities angle could even be dropped too if looking at the simple template but it matters, and is felt nonetheless. Whose inner stuff matters more? The extensive, busy one or the one lacking even ONE? The suitable answer is delivered and even with a wooden Andy On walking behind the tremendous surprises Lau Ching-Wan offers up, it's a serviceable performance backed by skills and belief so a fairly integral, suitable part is reserved for On. And he owns it a little.

Much is about rebirth in Johnnie To's and Wai Ka-Fai's superb potboiler and considering the focus on display, perhaps they shouldn't go about their individual business alone for such extended period of time anymore. They work extremely well together, especially now with creative freedom set in stone firmly. Two fine, outer personalities but I'm willing to bet Johnnie To has Wai Ka-Fai in him and vice versa.

Movies like Too Many Ways to be No. 1, A Hero Never Dies, and The Longest Nite not only proved that there was still life left in the world of Hong Kong film-making in the post-handover world, but the industry could still produce some of the most exciting and vital pictures in the world.

But in 2002, Lau stopped working with To, instead mostly concentrating on comedies, much to the chagrin of many fans. Well, kids, breathe a sigh of relief, because Lau Ching-Wan has once again joined up with Johnnie To with Mad Detective, and the result is one of the best Hong Kong movies of 2007.

In the film, Lau plays Bun, a detective whose unorthodox methods puzzle his fellow cops, but always seem to get results, so they tolerate his antics. But after Bun gives his chief (Eddy Ko Hung) a slice of his ear as a present, Bun is shown the door. Two years later, Bun's former protege Ho (Andy On) shows up to ask for his help in the investigation of a murdered cop.

It turns out Bun's odd behavior is caused by his ability to see people's true personalities, and it is through this that he is able to discern that the main suspect in the case (Gordon Lam) actually has seven personalites that have worked together to hatch a plan to cover up the crime. Ho begins to fully believe in Bun's "powers", but as things go on, it becomes apparent that Bun is just crazy and has been leading Ho on a wild goose chase... or has he?

Mad Detective offers everything one would expect from a To/Lau collaboration. It's quirky yet serious, whimsical yet given to bouts of extreme violence, giving the viewer one those experiences that could only truly be gotten from a Hong Kong movie. So why doesn't this film warrant a higher rating? That can be put squarely at the feet of Andy On.

On is good enough as a lead in fluffy pictures like Looking for Mr. Perfect and Dragon Squad, but he doesn't have enough weight as an actor to carry the role of Ho. The character should (and is made out to be) multi-dimensional and conflicted, but On's flat performance doesn't add any life to it. Thankfully, especially when offset with Lau Ching-Wan's incredible work here, it's not bad enough to totally derail the movie. But it does keep it from becoming a truly great film instead of "merely" a very good one.