Blind Detective (2013) – Chinese Movie Review

BLIND DETECTIVE (盲探) – 2013

• Directed by: Johnnie To
• Starring: Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng, Patrick Keung, Lo Hoi-Pang
• The Film: Detective Johnston (Andy Lau) is a highly skilled freelance detective who makes his money cashing in on police rewards for solving cold cases. He would still officially work for the service except for that fact that he went blind several years ago. Johnston is extremely unorthodox yet effective in his approach to solving cases and is even worshiped by other detectives who dream of having his godly case solving abilities. One of whom happens to be Goldie (Sammi Cheng), a female police detective who inherited tons of money from her family. After offering a large reward, Goldie entices Johnston to work for her and help her locate a missing childhood friend. Johnston accepts the job and offers to teach Goldie some of his special detective skills along the way. The mystery begins!

Review

Johnnie To has has a very distinctive style that I have grown to love over the years. The worlds he creates in his films often defy real-world physics and his characters are often quite eccentric. Audiences can expect the unexpected with a To film and Blind Detective is no different. To’s long-time collaborator, Wai Ka-fai is credited as co producer and part of the screenwriting team on this one.

Andy Lau as the very wacky blind detective who is always loudly slapping away at the ground with his white cane is often hilarious in this one. His main strategy for solving crimes is to reenact the scenario in different ways until he finds the one that feels is the most accurate.

These reenactments are so absurd in their approach as Johnston (Andy Lau) pushes Goldie (Sammi Cheng) to the extremes in his attempt to solve them. He gets away with being very insensitive at times due to his blindness and he seems to heavily lack in having much empathy for her and others. For the sake of the case, Johnston has her throwing herself down flights of stairs, getting a tattoo, and even cutting herself. As usual in Johnnie To films, the actors play the goofiness so straight that you can’t help but chuckle. I mean, even after all of this Goldie still falls for him.

To is no stranger to the detective and police procedural genre as he is the director behind such films as Running Out of Time (1999), PTU (2003), Breaking News (2004), and Mad Detective (2007). Also, with his extensive experience with romantic and comedy films as well: Needing You (2000), Love on a Diet (2001) and the more recent Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (2011), Johnnie To is able to combine his strengths from both to make a romance/crime hybrid film of sorts.

 Now, Blind Detective feels like a nice addition to this part of To’s filmography. However, it doesn’t quite have the strength of his previous efforts. The film can feel a bit repetitive at times and it takes longer than usual for the Johnnie To magic to kick in on this one. Rent. For big fans of Johnnie To it is worth checking out but there are other films in his filmography worth a repeat visit over this one.

Trailer

Recommendations 

My favorite films from Johnnie To/Wai Ka-fai with Andy Lau and/or Sammi Cheng are:

• Needing You…(孤男寡女) – 2000 (both)
• Love on a Diet (瘦身男女) – 2001 (both)
• Fulltime Killer (全職殺手) – 2001 (Andy Lau)
• My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (我左眼見到鬼) – 2002 (Sammi Cheng)