MAD DETECTIVE

Directed by Johnny To and Wai Ka-Fai

Review by Roberto Azula

Stylish and bizarre, Mad Detective is a showdown between Inspector Bun (Lau Ching Wan), a cop with schizophrenia and Chi-Wai (Lam Ka Tung), another cop with multiple personalities. Mad Detective creates one of the most intriguing and original approaches to personality that I have ever seen on film. On the surface, the premise seems pretty gimmicky, set in your run of the mill Hong Kong police procedural, but the film’s themes runs much deeper.

The opening is quite dramatic. Bun investigates crime by reliving the events of the crime. In the first scene, set in a police station, Bun stabs a butchered pig hanging on a hook multiple times, and then has another police officer stuff him in a suitcase and kick him down the stairs. As he emerges from the suitcase, Bun declares who is the culprit. We soon find out that Bun routinely hallucinates, but his hallucinations are quite special. He can see the personification of people’s personalities. So, when he encounters someone with multiple personalities, he sees a whole group of people. When he fights with Chi-Wai, he must actually grapple with six people.

You would expect this film to attempt the good old “what’s real, what’s not” angle, but the film sidesteps that hackneyed premise by giving Bun a generally good reputation as a crime solver; most police put up with his madness so they can close perplexing cases. Rather, the most intriguing part of this film is what kind of personalities Bun can see in others. Even he is not immune from his personality-vision; Bun is still in love with his ex-wife, so he hallucinates her walking around with him. It made me wonder what sort of person Bun would see if he stared at me, and if I would care for his unsparing reflection. The ending is grim and nihilistic, worthy of a 70s New Hollywood film.