7

AKA: Operation Undercover

Year of release: 2006

Genre: crime drama

Director: Marco Mak

Producers: Wong Jing, Y.Y. Kong

Writers: Wong Jing, Gary Tang

Cinematography: Lai Yiu Fai

Music: Marco Wen

Editor: Azrael Chung

Stars: Eric Tsang, Francis Ng, Jordan Chan, Sonja Kwok, Miu Kiu Wai, Shawn Yu, Timmy Hung, Julian Cheung

Rated IIB for drug use, violence and language

DVD Information

Company: Joy Sales

Format: widescreen

Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin

Subtitles: Chinese, English

Extras: trailers, behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes, deleted scenes, interviews, premiere footage, photo gallery

Notes: The picture is a little washed-out and the subtitles are a bit rough in the translation department, but this is a decent 2-DVD set overall.

Movie Review index / Main Page

Wo Hu

In what some might consider a sad commentary on the state of Hong Kong movies, not only is Wong Jing the most prolific of the current crop of HK film-makers, he's become one of the most reliable. Sure, Wong's name is still attached to junk like Kung Fu Mahjong 2, but over the past few years, he (as a director, writer and/or producer) has been attached to some of HK's better output. Even though it is derivative of Infernal Affairs, Wo Hu (aka Operation Undercover) is a good Triad picture that shows that there is still a bit of life yet in the Hong Kong movie industry.

Written and produced by Wong Jing, and helmed by his long-time partner in crime Marco Mak, Wo Hu is a story of the cops attempting to flood the Triads with enough undercover officers to try and bring all of the major gangs down at once. Unlike most films of this type, it does not focus on the police and undercover officers -- rather, it is about the power struggle that happens in one particular group. The influx of undercovers highlights the division between the "old guard" (led by Eric Tsang and Francis Ng) and the "new school" (led by Jordan Chan and Julian Cheung).

Wo Hu

Wo Hu operates with more than a little debt to Infernal Affairs, even going as far as to making specific references to the movie. And certainly most veteran Hong Kong film viewers will be able to guess most of the plot twists before they materialize. But Wong Jing's script is solid, only losing a bit of steam when it tends to focus on side stories that ultimately end up going nowhere (which thankfully doesn't occupy too much of the movie's running time). The actors, particularly Eric Tsang and Francis Ng, do a great job in fleshing out their characters and make them into believeable people, rather than the two-dimensional cardboard cutouts all too usually present in the Triad genre.

Sure, there are some problems present here. The romance subplot between the paunchy Eric Tsang and the former Miss Hong Kong Sonja Kwok -- probably some wishful thinking on Wong Jing's part -- is a stretch to say the least. And, like in many of his films, Marco Mak tends to go a bit overboard with fancy camera techniques and flashy editing. But overall, Wo Hu was one of the better movies to come out of Hong Kong over the past year and is definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of Triad pictures.

Wo Hu