Cop On A Mission (2001)

Another directorial offering from magic editor Marco Mak, this one takes the "undercover cop discovers that the Triad boss he is meant to betray isn't such a bad chap" genre and boldly forges it into new directions. A very intelligent script is presented superbly, producing an intriguing and very enjoyable movie. Eric Tsang is fantastic as the good natured Triad boss, and Suki Kwan is possibly even better as his unhappy wife. Daniel Wu's performance as the undercover cop on a mission is rather lacking in expression, but not enough to hurt the film badly... I'd say he doesn't excel, but he manages to carry the part.

Visually, the movie is very well lensed and edited, without being flashy, but it's the depth given to the characters and the intelligent way the situation is explored that make the movie stand out. Marco Mak is definitely in the ranks of directors such as Johnny To, Dante Lam, Wilson Yip and Patrick Leung in his very clever and assured handling of characters and genres in an original way. Here's hoping that he manages to keep his filmography up to the high standards that those others have sometimes failed to meet.