Robert J. Maxwell Here's how the ultimate confrontation between the villain (Ren) and the hero (Lai) begins. The setting is a large garage filled with containers of gasoline and boxes of equipment. A half-disassembled car hangs from the ceiling. There has just been a grand shoot out and the floor is littered with bodies. Okay? Now, the villain is splashing gallons of gasoline around the place, preparatory to burning the building down and destroying all the evidence of his complicity. He drops a lighter into the gasoline and the flames leap up all over.But -- get this -- a whimper comes from a darkened corner and, lo, it is the very pregnant wife of a man for whose death Ren was responsible. She's gagged and wrapped in a sack and she's in labor. Delivery is imminent. Ren rushes to her and hurriedly begins unwrapping her.But the garage door bursts open and Lai enters, hoping to catch the perps. Ren interrupts the unwrapping and he and Lai exchange shots, and then engage in an epic fist fight with no fancy chop-socky movies, just punches and thrown objects. Meanwhile the fire burns and the pregnant woman bubbles -- mmmph, mmph! A hanging car is dislodged during the fight and it falls on the bad guy's leg, shredding it and partly trapping him. This frees Lai to run to the woman, unwrap her completely, remove her gag, and discover that the infant is partly with us and partly still with the mother. Ren manages to pull his mangled leg from beneath the car and hobble off down the street, lugging a case with half a million dollars in it behind him. Soon, Lai is in hot pursuit through a festival parade during a holiday. Another final shoot out takes place.Enough? This story of the Hong Kong police force and a gang of thieves is really fast -- so fast that it's not easy to keep up with the subtitles. It's the equal in tempo, action, and ambiguity of the better police/action thrillers from any Western source.I had a problem keeping some of the characters straight for the first half hour, partly because the subtitles seemed to zip by and partly because the editing is at warp speed and there are few moments when things slow down enough for us to become accustomed to the unfamiliar actors with the unfamiliar names.It's by no means a stupid movie, not insulting to any mind that's been around for more than fifteen years. Ren is the villain alright. He's a tough and savvy police officer but he's in league with the perps. And why? He needs the money because his love for a chorus girl of low status has held his promotions in check. It's a plausible excuse, especially when you see his radiantly beautiful girl friend, who knows nothing of his being particeps criminis. In abjectly stupid action movies, there is no such ambiguity. The heavies are simply innately evil. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with having an innately evil bad guy but it's a challenge because, to make it successful, you have to have a very INTERESTING innately evil bad guy. (Viz., James Mason in "North By Northwest", or anybody in "Richard III.") Engaging and informative views of the streets of Hong Kong. Man, they are crowded. They make New York look like the Gobi Desert. And -- here we have Hong Kong, a former British Crown Colony, now a part of the People's Republic of China -- no? And it doesn't look very Chinese. Grant Street in San Francisco looks more Chinese. The dialog uses a few borrowed English expressions; some of the signs are in English; there are advertisements for objects and appliances with whose brand names Americans are thoroughly familiar. And they're not all made in China. Toyota and Rolex are among the ads I noticed. The undercover cops look like bums. Nobody walks around in military suits with stiff upper collars. And the plot of the movie itself exposes corruption in a state-run institution.

dumsumdumfai Disappointed. really. Especially by the tacked on philosophical ending. Completedly out of character with the first 15 min. (Which I can hardly remember)There's a buddy-buddy cop thing going on. Which is kind of hooky - forced and plot oriented. The undertow of hidden agenda is expected, and it's well played. There's some great action sequence - the entire restaurant scene - but is that homage to Woo? , the car chase...etc. But the ending... just a bit much for me - from the birth to the dragon dance bit. This mix-and-match doesn't.But it's just above average. The average of other HK movies.

moviexclusive You know going into a Dante Lam film that you're going to get some hard-hitting action, so it is little surprise that you find your heart racing from one gritty street battle to the next. But what turns out to be an unexpected delight in Dante Lam's latest- "Fire of Conscience"- is how he blends his trademark riveting action sequences with equally gripping character-driven drama into quite possibly one of the most exciting action thrillers we will see this year.Just as his award-winning "Beast Stalker" and his classic "Beast Cops", the lead characters in this Dante Lam film are morally ambiguous cops whose sense of right and wrong are questionable. Man (Leon Lai) is a brutish detective haunted by the death of his pregnant wife two years ago. Obsessed with apprehending her killer, his personal missions of vengeance chasing after pickpockets, shaving their heads and bringing them to the one eyewitness of the crime haven't exactly endeared him with the rest of the police force. But he believes less in the justice system than his own brand of justice, so he has no qualms brutalizing his suspects and torturing confessions out of them.On the other hand, Serious Crimes Unit investigator Kee (Ritchie Jen) appears to be Man's direct opposite- a by-the-book, principled, high-flying police officer whose career has hit an unexpected roadblock for reasons that you'd only find out very late into the film. Their fortuitous meeting occurs in the wake of the murder of a prostitute, the investigation of which sparks off a whole series of events that will see their fates gradually intertwined with each other in the days to come.It doesn't take much to guess that Kee isn't the upright cop he appears to be, or that Man and Kee will eventually find themselves on opposite sides of the law and go mano-a-mano against each other. But the film would have you believe that Man and Kee are just two sides of the same coin- both men aggressive and driven, bearing the same distinct characteristics of their common zodiac sign, the "fire dragon" (hence the title of the film). The difference lies in where they allow that passion within to take them, and the choices they make along the way.Thanks to Ng Wai Lun's ambitious screenplay (he also wrote Dante Lam's Beast Stalker and Sniper), both Man and Kee are not drawn simplistically along the lines of good cop-bad cop. Instead, we empathise with Man's despair at his wife's death, but frown at his sadistic methods of grilling his suspects. Likewise, we frown at Kee's ways of greed, but empathise with his predicament that led him astray and also the care and concern he shows towards his fellow partner who has a dying father in the hospital.Kudos to Leon Lai and Ritchie Jen for portraying with aplomb their respective larger-than-life characters- sporting the necessary facial hair to look more grizzled, Leon Lai gives an edgy emotional performance that is bound to garner some attention come awards season next year. Next to Lai, Ritchie Jen's composed demeanour belying an undercurrent of menace is a perfect foil. The rest of the cast, including Liu Kai-Chi's single father of a cop and Michelle Ye's tough-as-nails policewoman, are just as engaging in their supporting roles and undoubtedly add to the joy of watching this tautly crafted thriller.That's probably the most apt compliment to describe Dante Lam's tight plotting from start to end as he maintains a breathlessly feverish pace that will keep you glued to your seats. Each of the film's action sequences- whether in a restaurant, a narrow staircase, or right in the middle of a busy road in Hong Kong's Central district- display once again Dante's ample flair in the action department. He's also upped the ante this time- not just with bigger and louder guns, but also with more devastating ammunition in the form of hand grenades.Indeed, there's never been any doubt that "Fire of Conscience" would bear the trademarks of a Dante Lam film, but this is more than just a standard-issue action film for its multifaceted characters which draw you in with their own moral dilemmas. The success of "Beast Stalker" must undeniably have inspired Dante Lam to make films that go beyond the bullets and smoke to explore the people behind the guns, their motivations when they pull the trigger, and ultimately that fire within their hearts- a passion that can both inspire and destroy, as the movie so aptly describes.moviexclusive.com

DICK STEEL Dante Lam is fast cementing his position in the Hong Kong film industry as one of the go-to directors for an action cop-thriller, with his previous films Sniper and Beast Stalker, in collaboration with writer Ng Wai Lun doing just that, not to the penchant of tackling characters with plenty of emotional baggage straddling in between the grey moral areas, allowing the actors portraying them to be noticed for their dramatic chops.The film opens with plenty of money shots for its opening montage, the first being a special effects laden time lapse shot of Leon Lai's Sergeant Manfred slowly growing older and looking more haggard, no thanks to his donning yet another unkempt bearded look. Then there's a Watchmen opening credits inspired series of black and white stills that freeze frames some really insane action moments which tell a little bit about the back-stories that we're soon going to get entrenched in as the narrative moves forward, thus while they don't make much sense now, they will get explained in due course, just to keep your suspense piqued.As mentioned, characters with deep emotional baggage are probably going to be a staple in Dante Lam's films, and Sergeant Manfred is on the verge of throwing away his 27 years of veteran service by employing an unorthodox, hair shaving quirk after apprehending any pickpocket on the streets, bringing them to an eyewitness to his wife's murder. This of course leads to complaints about his heavy-handedness, and investigations by internal affairs of a needless, violent cop on the force, but it doesn't faze him as he goes on a determined search of his wife's killer.Richie Jen on the other hand, as Inspector Kee, may look the gentleman, but he too has plenty of cards kept under his sleeve, coming from the Narcotics Bureau and wanting to work at the Crimes Unit. He takes to Sergeant Manfred on a typical night on duty where they both share similar, unflattering views of their superiors and top brass and how disconnected they can be when sitting atop the ivory tower detached from the men and happenings on the ground, and both men soon form a working partnership as they collaborate into the investigations of a hooker, where signs initially point to one of Manfred's subordinates (Liu Kai Chi).Action wise, there are a number of huge gun battles here that will max out the sound system of the cinema, and Lam crafts plenty of chase sequences, gun play and moments enough that will make the action junkie in you go wild given the unflinching, graphic violence, especially when Lai's Manfred goes for broke. A critical battle scene takes place in a teahouse, and I think as ubiquitous a teahouse can get in Hong Kong, nothing beats having a standoff and a shootout in an HK action flick, this one upping the ante with massive grenade explosions, body count and a narrative moment which will make you go a baffling "hmm..." since it did stick out like a sore thumb, but fret not as all's set to be explained soon enough. The only letdown I had, which no thanks to promotional stills and the trailer is that of having Manfred and his team race down the busy streets on foot and carrying some heavy firepower, something set up to look strikingly similar to Michael Mann's Heat, but what an anti-climax it had turned out to be.As with all testosterone charged action films, most of the female characters were completely relegated to nothing more than token support roles in order to provide that fuel for the guys' relentless drive to do what they have set out to, or is the source of their pain and probable bad judgement calls, save for Michelle Ye's May who plays that tough cookie policewoman who has this insatiable crush for Manfred, but gets to do most of his administrative dirty work. Vivian Hsu though goes back to being a flower vase as Kee's girlfriend Ellen, whom we learn more through other people's conversation about her inglorious past, and Vanessa Yeung an even smaller role as Manfred's wife whom we'll see in brief flashbacks.Sure the storyline does involve yet another mole from within the force who's gone down the wrong path given and causing even more personal turmoil, but it is exactly how each character deals with their problems in opting for the easy way out, and the action sequences here that makes this an above average thriller. I would like it a lot more if not for that really contrived moment of having someone give birth in the middle of plenty of hullabaloo.