The Color of the Truth
Director: Wong Jing (2003)
As soon as director Wong Jing's latest movie The Color of the Truth was released, pundits started to comment on its similarity with last year's hit Infernal Affairs. In fact, Wang himself failed to disprove a rip-off, saying his inspiration was indeed provided by the movie, and that provided the movie was popular with audiences he didn't mind who knew.
One thing is for certain: with the release of The Color proves that Hong Kong can no longer be discounted as the fluff of global cinema, with increasingly quality movies coming out of the SAR.
Young policeman Cola (rising star Raymond Wong) follows in the footsteps of his father Fido (Sean Andy), who was also a cop until his untimely death. Although Fido and Cola's supervisor Huang Jiang (Anthony Wong, who also starred in Infernal Affairs) were once good friends, Huang got caught up in the seedy world of Hong Kong's triads, most importantly through his relations with Big Brother of the underworld Mang Chao (Francis Ng).
One fateful night when the police team was dispatched to catch Mang Chao, and Huang and Fido found themselves on a balcony with the criminal. In the ensuing chaos, Mang and Fido were killed; but was it Huang who pulled the trigger?
Later in life, both Cola and Mang Chao's son Da Wei (Jordan Chen) swear vengeance upon their father's killer; ten years on, and Cola is a policeman and Da Wei a lord of the underworld. By a piece of skillful maneuvering, Cola succeeds in being placed on Huang's team, giving him ample opportunity to get revenge. Contrary to his expectations, however, Cola discovers in Huang a brave and talented supervisor, and a kindhearted individual. When Da Wei and Cola find themselves once more on a balcony, the temptation is there to pull the trigger and complete the cycle: so who will do it?
This isn't a story with lots of filler, and every scene is useful to the development of the plot. Light humor is added courtesy of policeman A Xi (Du Wenze, also a veteran of Infernal Affairs), also adding tension to this accomplished drama.
(cityweekend.com.cn February 19, 2004)
