On The Edge

Just finished watching this movie. For people like me who never understood mafia movies (especially HK ones), "On The Edge" is kinda good.

Here's the trailer:


It's not really a mafia movie, actually. The main character is a cop who went undercover for 8 years to catch a gangster "dai lou". What makes this movie different from other undercover stories is that it is actually narrating the life of this cop after he put the bad guy behind the bars. The whole movie consists of countless flashbacks. It tells us how the cop suffered from mental disorder after coming back to police force because he couldn't see his true self anymore. All he had ever wanted since he entered police training was to become a normal cop who catches criminals on the street. But they put him into undercover the moment he graduated. No matter how hard he tried to talk his way out of it during the 8 years, he was forced to convince everyone that he was a gangster, including the woman he loved.

And what did he get after completing his mission, for sacrificing so much in his life? A damned piece of certificate announcing his contribution to the police force. That was about all. Other than that, the gangsters who now knew he was a cop were looking for him because they wanted revenge; his colleagues didn't trust him enough to even inform him about their operations because who would trust a cop who hung around with gangsters for 8 years? He felt that he had betrayed his friends but at the same time he really wanted to move on and be a good cop. When he finally started to realise he could get out of this dilemma as long as he chooses to, a gangster who came for revenge shot him dead. They never mentioned this in the movie, but I'm sure he was as good as forgotten at that moment. He was just another cop who died in service: A nobody.

It's a very sad story. But one sadder fact is that, this is most probably what's happening to all undercover cops in the world. They are not known heros and they get nothing in return for their sacrifice.

Reality, in its very own nature, is unfair.

Just like it's unfair that Francis Ng and Anthony Wong got more attention during the premiere of this movie, although Nick Cheung is the main character, just because those two are HK Golden Film Awards Best Actor winners and he is not one......yet. Seriously, I will never understand why he can't get nominated with such performance in this movie. Everyone says he's a great actor whenever his movies come out. But no one ever gave him an award for it. Guess he just has to get lucky.

So thumbs up for this movie. The storyline, the actors and director Herman Yau are amazing.

One low point though, I don't like Rain Li's acting and her character. Good thing she only appeared in a few scenes.