The Moss
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SYNOPSIS:
This crime-drama follows the story of a cop (Shawn Yue) who has emerged from an undercover stint in the triads, only to find that he can't escape so easily. After they mess with his loved ones, he retaliates. Jan (Shawn Yu) is one of the many dirty cops living in the area. He’s really more like a gangster than a cop. Self-serving and living aimlessly in this hellhole of an area, he constantly have dealings with the mobs and offers protection to the prostitutes in exchange for sexual favours. Of all the girls, he fancies Lulu (Bonnie Xian) most. He finds her non-inquisitive and quiet nature comforting, almost like a place where he can seek solace. Jan's peaceful routine is disrupted when the son of God mom Chong (Susan Shaw) goes missing in a rival gang’s territory headed by the four-eyed Tong. Along with his disappearance is a valuable green gemstone that was meant as a birthday gift from her son. Jan is tasked by Chong to confront Tong (Liu Kai Chi). At this moment, a mysterious beggar (Louis Fan) makes an attempt to kill Tong. |
REVIEW:
"...For one thing, the metaphor and meaning require labored explanation, and for another, these characters are very difficult to care about. There's supposed pathos in the Beggar's friendship with Fa, plus Jan's murky loyalties to his job and his girl, but Kwok fails to make the situations matter. The intended significance of them is easy to discern, as it's spelled out with navel-gazing dialogue and more than a few extended metaphors. However, the characters themselves are not truly likable, and the details made to humanize them - the Beggar's love for his mother, and Fa's affinity for a fantasy pop-up book - never become more than just narrative devices. Shawn Yue's Jan is even less compelling, because his character arc is one of maturation or growth, and simply watching Shawn Yue brood doesn't get the job done. The midsection of The Moss drags, and it takes its characters and situations down with it. Thankfully, the film does recover for a surprisingly violent finale that entertains in a visceral, if not substantial manner. Characters get sweaty and bloody, and there is some feeling of redemption, minor though it may be. The problem is that The Moss wants it to be major. This is a pretentious film, more so than Pye-Dog as The Moss lacks the playfulness and likeable characters that came with Kwok's previous film. Other than a few guiltily fun gags (the hiding place of the emerald is an amusing, though dirty talking point), The Moss is a largely serious affair, with only the occasional black humor adding some edge. Many of the film's more interesting talking points may have nothing to do with its meaning, e.g. the casting of TVB fixture Gill Mohindepaul Singh in a key role, or the minor crime riffs that feel taken from the Johnnie To/Milkyway playbook. There's still value in The Moss, and Derek Kwok remains a director to watch. One hopes, however, that he can find new stories and ideas to work with rather than leaning on his established devices..." Source: lovehkfilm.com |
RATING: 7.5/10
PREVIEW:
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