Dante Lam has recently established himself as the provider of high-speed action-packed emotionally dark police dramas, where the world is morally ambiguous and utterly flawed, while the line between right and wrong is diluted. Another of this successful chain of films is his latest Stool Pigeon, where Lam has surrounded himself with most of his usual crew to create a visually and conceptually familiar world with a focus yet the same flaws in character that ultimately make a person human.
The Stool Pigeon explores the complicated relationship between police handler and informant – a relationship which often proves rather unfavourable to the latter, with the former receiving all the benefits and acclaim to his reputation with no compunctions. But this is not the case for emotionally damaged police officer Don Lee, who fails to adhere to his own rule of keeping distance from his informants. As Lee costs his last informant's sanity and nearly does his life, recruiting another criminal to assist him might turn into more than he could handle. As events get more and more intense and drama does not fail to follow, one man's guilt-wrecked conscience would prove able to endure only so much suffering and would ultimately lead him to make a life-changing decision.
Nick Cheung and Nicholas Tse swap places from The Beast Stalker, as Cheung becomes the man on the side of the law and Tse turns into the unwilling informant. Cheung, who showcased his acting skills in The Beast Stalker through the portrayal of the emotionally tormented seemingly inhumane assassin turned blind, is brilliant as the guilt-ridden policeman whose sorrows never seem to end despite his attempts to redeem his past sins. Tse, on the other hand, who was quite decent in the Beast Stalker and convincingly portrayed an emotionally-stained hero on a quest to rescuing a little girl, exhibits noticeable growth in acting ability and proves an actor worth keeping an eye on.
The rest of the cast features Dante Lam regular Kai Chi Liu as the informant-turned-insane, who brings experience to the screen and despite the narrow span of his storyline, enables the film to shed light on Don Lee's personality in a valuable way. Taiwanese actress Lunmei Kwai is a reviving addition who breaks away from the typical female stereotype in Lam's films, as the director usually explores his female cast as the sufferers of the protagonists' decisions and the driving force behind the reasoning for their guilt-ridden actions, with the exception of Michelle Ye in Fire of Conscience.
Along with being a dark and depressing emotional police drama which takes an attempt at explaining the sophisticated web of reasons behind human actions, The Stool Pigeon is another film that manifests the film genius of Dante Lam. His delivery makes his various characters and complicated plot twists easy to follow and creates narratives to bring depth to his films. He creates characters that are multi-dimensional, flawed and morally ambiguous, faced with ethical dilemmas and burdened with emotional baggage.
With enough display of high-speed car chases, running scenes through crowded markets, explosions and gunfights, The Stool Pigeon delivers all the action expected from Lam's work, while providing intensified drama and moral ambiguity which eliminates stereotypical black-and-white characters and gives them emotional depth that makes them human. The cinematography by Kenny Tse and musical score by Kenny Lai, both regulars in the director's productions, mark The Stool Pigeon as yet another successfully dramatic police-related exploration of human relationships and the chain of events and decisions that ultimately determine a person's life.Labels: research |
