BIFF 2012 Review: COLD WAR Proves a Disappointing Opener

If Cold War, the opening film of this year's Busan International Film Festival, is heralding a new paradigm for commercial Hong Kong Cinema, then I can't say that it's something I'm very excited about.  Over-produced and austere, it features strong and slick production values but lacks the confidence, verve or panache of the likes of Johnny To. A potentially interesting tale of internal corruption within the upper echelons of HK law enforcement, the film mostly takes place in brilliant high rises, far from the bustling streets below. The colors are muted, the angles stark, and the production design is far too neat, all of which create a distancing effect: it's hard to get into the rhythm of the film. The lifeless performances, relentless pacing, bombastic staging and needlessly convoluted plot only add to the woes of this disappointing effort from two new directors which ample experience in the field.

Leung Lok Man and Luk Kim Ching's experience as behind-the-scenes experts is readily evident on screen. Leung is an accomplished art director, while Luk has served as an assistant director, most recently on the Macau sequences of this year's Korean blockbuster The Thieves, and proceedings in Cold War are immediately swept up in a concisely edited urban aesthetic. Set pieces, though uneven, are often impressive. Taking a page from To's book, some of the film's best scenes are well-constructed sequences of breathlessly combined parallel scenes.

I threw around the word 'paradigm' in my opening salvo and the reason I use it is twofold. First, the film has been pushed as Hong Kong's most significant offering of the year: the marketing has been intense and I recall seeing dozens of different posters for it. Secondly, it feels as though they are making a deliberate attempt to forge a new aesthetic for the local commercial film industry. Hong Kong Cinema, though frequently entertaining, can also be terribly messy.