Uneasy, confusing and utterly bewildering to behold.
San Taam (Mad Detective) caught my eye due to being included in the excellent Masters of Cinema Blu-Ray series distributed by EUREKA!. I went into the film almost entirely blind, as it seems to be seldom discussed within the online film community. What I discovered resonated with me instantaneously. A weird, blood soaked neo-noir totally befitting of the honor of being called a masterpiece. My second viewing only strengthened this view, and filled in the gaps that my first viewing left me with, and I am now convinced that this film should be considered one of the great neo-noirs of the last decade. (Spoilers from this point onward).
The film opens with a bang, setting the tone of the story perfectly in a brief prologue sequence. A detective, whose name is revealed to be Bun, explores several strange and extreme methods for solving a case, including attacking a pig carcass with a knife and throwing himself down several flights of stairs within a suitcase. This scene establishes both the skill and unhinged nature of the main character, and concludes with the detective slicing off his own ear in the middle of his entire department. This brings the opening sequence back to reality, the audience now knows that this unhinged character is not to be taken lightly.This opening scene is the root of much of my love for this film, and I would use it as a prime example of how to start a character driven story properly. Before the story even begins a mystery is ignited, why did Bun slice of his own ear? There is method to the man's madness in the first few instance of 'madness' we are shown, however the ear slicing scene takes things down a sharp different direction. What happened? Why did Bun lose the plot completely? These questions suck the viewer in and establishes a freakishly fascinating character in only a few minutes.
I am going to go on a brief interlude to praise this film's lighting. I do not even know how to really describe the lighting throughout most of the film. It has an ethereal and misty quality to it, particularly during the scenes with Bun's house and within a dimly lit restaurant. It is worth noting that both of these locations are highly significant to the main character, and so serve to simulate his thought process. Misty, unclear and hard to identify, however still with a sharp and potent brightness behind the fog. I could go scene by scene and dissect the lighting in this film and I certainly consider it one of the most fascinating elements of the entire picture.
Moving on from lighting, every actor in this film offers up a strong performance, particularly Bun himself. Ching Wan Lau is fantastic in the main role, being highly likable and charismatic, drawing the audience into every crazy idea the character has, whilst still being animated and erratic enough to sell these crazy ideas as genuine. Andy On is also very good as the film's second protagonist, Ho. The character acts as the perfect counterbalance to Bun, being far more stable and relatable to the audience whilst retaining an interesting character arc in his own right. On is able to keep up with Lau remarkably well, and sells the character as highly capable yet inexperienced and prone to worry. The interactions between these characters are well written and serves as the meat of the film's story very well.
What truly makes this film special though, is it's surrealist elements. The idea of setting a relatively simple noir storyline from the perspective of a mentally unstable character is inspired, and makes for a compelling spice to a fairly familiar recipe. Bun sees the inner personalities of every character in the film, as well as other things that other characters cannot, leading to some interesting visualisations of emotions and other aspects of each character. The main suspect of the case, and later the film's primary antagonist, has seven inner-personalities, which struggle for control over the body at several points in the film.
These ideas are very visually interesting, and are sold beautifully. This is largely due to the film's high quality cinematography (particularly during the climax where everything is finally allowed to let loose), the films excellent use of sound to highlight specific objects within the story (usually guns) and the aforementioned brilliant lighting. The film is overall a technical masterpiece, with not a single element failing to sell the film's unique and deeply ambient atmosphere.
In conclusion, I find this film grossly underrated. It is one of the most adventurous and well put together crime thrillers made in the past decade, and I hope it's ideas and ambiance are taken up by other films in the future. I am fervently interested in the rest of Johnnie To's filmography, as I find his technique and ability to sell a fairly simple story captivating. San Taam's ending for example is simply exquisite for example, perfectly bringing everything built up throughout the film to a head in a simple gunfight and ending the story on an ambiguous and bittersweet note, which is highly open to interpretation. I would highly recommend this film to fans of noir and world cinema alike, it really is a hidden gem.
By Jack D. Phillips
Masterpiece Corner #4
Moving on from lighting, every actor in this film offers up a strong performance, particularly Bun himself. Ching Wan Lau is fantastic in the main role, being highly likable and charismatic, drawing the audience into every crazy idea the character has, whilst still being animated and erratic enough to sell these crazy ideas as genuine. Andy On is also very good as the film's second protagonist, Ho. The character acts as the perfect counterbalance to Bun, being far more stable and relatable to the audience whilst retaining an interesting character arc in his own right. On is able to keep up with Lau remarkably well, and sells the character as highly capable yet inexperienced and prone to worry. The interactions between these characters are well written and serves as the meat of the film's story very well.
What truly makes this film special though, is it's surrealist elements. The idea of setting a relatively simple noir storyline from the perspective of a mentally unstable character is inspired, and makes for a compelling spice to a fairly familiar recipe. Bun sees the inner personalities of every character in the film, as well as other things that other characters cannot, leading to some interesting visualisations of emotions and other aspects of each character. The main suspect of the case, and later the film's primary antagonist, has seven inner-personalities, which struggle for control over the body at several points in the film.
These ideas are very visually interesting, and are sold beautifully. This is largely due to the film's high quality cinematography (particularly during the climax where everything is finally allowed to let loose), the films excellent use of sound to highlight specific objects within the story (usually guns) and the aforementioned brilliant lighting. The film is overall a technical masterpiece, with not a single element failing to sell the film's unique and deeply ambient atmosphere.
In conclusion, I find this film grossly underrated. It is one of the most adventurous and well put together crime thrillers made in the past decade, and I hope it's ideas and ambiance are taken up by other films in the future. I am fervently interested in the rest of Johnnie To's filmography, as I find his technique and ability to sell a fairly simple story captivating. San Taam's ending for example is simply exquisite for example, perfectly bringing everything built up throughout the film to a head in a simple gunfight and ending the story on an ambiguous and bittersweet note, which is highly open to interpretation. I would highly recommend this film to fans of noir and world cinema alike, it really is a hidden gem.
By Jack D. Phillips
Masterpiece Corner #4
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