The film starts with young detective, Ho (Andy On), witnessing the strange, but highly effective methods of the seasoned and eccentric Inspector Bun (Lai Ching-Wan) when he is assigned to a case. Bun solves the murder of a student by re-enacting her death. Ho only spends a few days working with Bun, who is dismissed from the force after cutting off part of his own ear and offering it as a gift to a colleague.
Five Years Later
Wong, a police detective, has been missing ever since he pursued an armed robber into a forest eighteen months ago. Just before the chase, Wong accused his partner, Chai Wi of stealing money from his wallet. Now somebody is robbing stores using Wong’s firearm. Ho visits Bun and asks for his help with the case. Ignoring the protests from his wife, Bun is drawn back into the kind of police work that led to his breakdown.
“Nobody Sees what you See”
Lai Ching-Wan previously worked with Johnnie To in Running Out of Time and its sequel. In those two films he was an ice cool hostage-negotiator involved in mind games with a criminal adversary. Here Ching-Wan is jittery and dishevelled. Bun’s psychic abilities allow him to see people’s inner personalities. To and Kai Fai don’t reveal the extent of Bun’s gift until after about 25 minutes, forcing the viewer to think again about earlier scenes in the film.
The Forest
Bun’s abilities extend to putting himself in the middle of a crime scene by visiting a crime scene or recreating some aspect of the event. One of the most affecting sequences involves Bun discovering a killer’s identity by visiting the forest. In fairytales the forest is traditionally a place where innocence is lost. Bun encounters a spirit version of the murderer haunting the scene of his crime; he has been wandering in the forest for months and is unable to remember how he got there, or understand why he can never leave.
A Troubled State of Mind
Lai Ching-Wan is excellent, making Bun sympathetic, while also suggesting he may be a danger to those around him. Mad Detective’s twisting narrative, its otherness, and its opacity make huge demands upon the viewer’s attention span. Indeed, one of the pleasures of the film is how much work To and Kai Fai expect the viewer to do. There is no pandering to the stupid with explanatory dialogue. Even though it loses its way towards the end and becomes as unhinged as its protagonist, Mad Detective remains superior genre fare from two of Hong Kong’s finest.
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