Mad Detective

Interminable and pointless virtually from start to finish, Mad Detective is the latest underwhelming effort from overrated director Johnnie To (who co-directs with Wai Ka-fai). The movie probably fares even worse than any of the filmmaker’s previous efforts, as it’s almost entirely lacking in action and features, at its core, a mystery that couldn’t possibly be less interesting. The story concerns the title character, Lau Ching-wan’s Bun, a mentally-unbalanced lawman who has become something of a legend among cops due to his ability to communicate with the “inner personalities” of any given suspect. Bun’s latest case threatens to permanently send him off the deep end, however, as the detective finds himself confronted with a whole host of exceedingly off-kilter figures. To and Ka-fai, working from Ka-fai and Au Kin Yee’s screenplay, have infused Mad Detective with a hyper-stylized sensibility that proves to be disastrous, with the film’s complete and utter lack of authenticity ensuring that even the most open-minded viewer will quickly lose patience with the egregiously (and relentlessly) quirky tone. The dearth of action sequences only exacerbates the movie’s many, many problems, and while To’s legion of fans will probably find something here worth embracing, Mad Detective is ultimately as ineffective and dull a film as the would-be auteur has ever been involved with.

* out of ****