The Suspect (1998)

A Masterpiece!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Ambitious, overwrought and sometimes incoherent, this film co- written and directed by Ringo Lam caves in under the weight of mistaken identities and double crosses. Though Lam is the more conventional film maker within the Hong Kong school of Hark and Woo, his style can be serviceable. The performances that Lam extracts from his actors are of notable realism, apparent even in the badly dubbed version I was saddled with, and Lam knows how to place a camera unobtrusively but intelligently within a drama. Most of "The Suspect" is of craftsman like quality, and while Lam struggles with the budgetary limits most Hong Kong directors face, his past work for Hollywood (Maximum Risk) has allowed him to give the film a photographic sheen and clarity not found in a lot of Hong Kong productions.The main problem, however, is a convoluted script that doesn't connect the dots. Within the story of shifting alliances, and told in a more classical form of film making, a certain amount of narrative clarity is needed. The plot becomes ludicrous at times, only further emphasized by Lam's straight faced and sober approach to the material. With a helicopter squad of mercenaries appearing out of nowhere to rescue the lead from a high speed police chase, the burning intensity of Woo or the giddy audaciousness of Hark is needed to pull the scene off. Unfortunately, Lam's middle of the road approach results in a competent but unremarkable action / drama film.

If you are looking for an excellent HK suspense movie, look no further: The Suspect is exciting from the beginning with the voice over full of feeling, through the chases to the action packed gunplay ending. You will never be bored, the story is unusually good (it is not a ripoff from Assassins as my friend Stefant21 stated in his review) and the pace is high. The beginning of the movie is not slow paced, as one reviewer stated, there is a lot going on throughout the whole movie but it is true that most of the gunplay occurs during the long and excellent ending.If you are only looking for gunplay and explosions you will be disappointed. Don't expect a so called heroic bloodshed movie even though the theme of friendship and loyalty is classic to the genre (see for instance The Killer). The Suspect is not so exaggerated as the movies of John Woo, the action and everything else in The Suspect is more realistic but you will still see some blodsquibs.The Suspect is masterfully directed and the acting is superb in spite of the fact that the actors have to speak a lot of english instead of only cantonese. For those of us that have seen him before it comes as no surprise that Simon Yam manages to make a big impression even though he is not on screen very much, but I was thrilled that the rest of the cast is also unusually good. The characters are multi layered, they are not cartoon figures either black or white and even the ruthless Simon Yam seems to have something good in him, he is not only ruthless and bad. The tone is serious throughout the movie, we don't have to suffer through any ridiculous HK humor. 10/10

Ringo Lam has made a decent drama here, not an action film. The only real action sequence comes at the end of the movie, and while it is very strong, the rest of the film deals with the ideas of loyalty, friendship, and morality. The main character is trying to start a new life after just being released from prison, he was convicted of murder at a young age, but after some strings were pulled (without his knowledge) he is free after 12 years. But before he can start this new life, the triad pulls him back in, and wants him to commit another murder, or face the consequences. What ensues is an "on the run", fugitive type story, that has our main character fleeing from the triad, the cops, and his best friend. A pretty solid film that tests the themes that are present in many Hong Kong stories. A tough, gritty film with a great "action" ending, and of course, a strong performance from Simon Yam.

Ringo Lam goes over the top in this movie, similar to Heat. The beginning of the movie is slow paced but picks up at high speed by the end of the movie. I highly recommend it to action fans who love John Woo. I find myself confused by the plot during the last stage but that's a minor problem.