Overheard (窃听风云)

Rating: **1/2 (out of 4)
Cast: Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo, Daniel Wu
Director: Alan Mak, Felix Chong
Language: Cantonese with English subtitle

From the screenwriting partnership that brought us 'Infernal Affairs' (无间道), 'Overheard' tells the story of an operation by the Hong Kong Police Force Commercial Crime Bureau to infiltrate internal communication of a listed corporation, Feng Hua International, whose directors were suspected of being involved in insider trading. The operation, led by a trio of seasoned policemen, Inspector Leung (Lau Ching Wan), Yeung (Louis Koo) and Lam (Daniel Wu) , installed cutting-edge interception devices within office premise of Feng Hua International to monitor its internal communication.

The terminally ill Yeung is short of money. When he and Lam came across an insider information during their monitoring routine, the temptation of making some quick bucks proves to strong to be resisted. The alert team lead, Leung, spot his subordinates' action and tried to stop them, but even his value of integrity wavered in the moment filled with temptation and dilemma.

They crossed the line, seemingly innocent at the beginning. However, each subsequent action to cover up their crime brought them deeper and deeper into trouble, until it is no longer possible to turn back and say 'I did it'. In Inspector Leung own words, 'If we want to cheat, cheat until the very end'.

The filmmakers, Alan Mak and Felix Chong, tried to tell the story with a heart. The private life of the main protagonists, particularly Leung and Yeung, is given substantial treatment, this is a film who cares about its characters.

All these are commendable. I, however, have a thing or two to say about some of the film's flaws.

Firstly, the love triangle involving Inspector Leung is distracting, and unnecessarily complicates the story. Secondly, the plot, fairly convincing in the beginning, starts to fall apart towards the 4th quarter of the film, descending into a series of implausible twist and turn of events, leading to a finale that is overly sensationalized, it felt contrived.

Why, isn't that the very same flaws that prevented Neil Jordan and Jodie Foster's 'The Brave One' to become a memorable film that it ought to be?

The story arc, where it all began as a fairly innocent criminal act which subsequently spiralled deeper and deeper with each subsequent act to conceal the criminal deed, has been told far more effectively in a couple of outstanding films I have watched, I recommend Sam Raimi's 'A Simple Plan' and Sidney Lumet's 'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead'.