2013 ‘盲探’ Directed by Johnnie To
A brilliant detective is forced into early retirement after losing eyesight. Making ends meet by solving cold cases for reward money, he teams up with a rookie lady inspector to solve a case from her personal past.
Andy Lau Sammi Cheng Guo Tao Gao Yuanyuan Wang Ziyi Lang Yueting Lam Suet Philip Keung Ho-Man Wong Chun Lo Hoi-pang Bonnie Wong Ruby Cheng Stephanie Che Mimi Chu Eileen Yeow Lee Shing-Cheong Sau-Ming Tsang Hedi He Guoxuan Yan Ni Terence Tsui Chi-Hung Ben Ting Bonnie Xian Ranya Lee Kirby Lam Lo Fan Celine Ma
Milkyway Image Sil-Metropole Organisation Emperor Film Production China Film Group Corporation Media Asia Film Production Limited
名探偵ゴッドアイ, 블라인드 디텍티브, Senso de Justiça, Слепой детектив, คมเพชฌฆาต ล่าพลิกเมือง, Thám Tử Mù
Hong KongIIB
Hong Kong
i love that Johnnie To is totally not above having a blind guy bumping into shit cause he can't find the toilet.
Action! - Johnnie/Ringo's Hong Kong Actions: In The Mood For King To's Sweeping Realism
From Sean Lau as a schizophrenic detective with "supernatural powers," we transition to Andy Lau as a blind, astute, and manic detective who reunites with Sammi Cheng in a hit-and-run, rather lengthy but somewhat entertaining detective film reminiscent of Fletcher and Johnny English.
The wacky interplay between Cheung and Lau provides much of the fun, with the latter displaying great comedic timing and doing an excellent job of conveying all of this detective's peculiarities. For her part, Cheng is also great, despite the fact that much of the material she must work with requires her to engage in comical exaggerations, which, as I've already mentioned, I…
Don't think I've ever seen a film I could call 'screwball crime procedural' until now and suddenly I have the urge to seek out more. Blind Detective somehow combines the two alongside a heaping dose of romcom to create a decidedly bizarre-but-charming buddy cop film: one half is the blind genius who's apt to intuit crime scenes and motives via cinematically-creative sixth-sense reconstructions that are a joy to watch unfold, while the other half is the all-star sprinter who hounds after the criminals in manic chase scenes once they've been caught in the headlights. It's a symbiotic relationship, though the two wouldn't say that; they're too busy flinging shit at each other in that kindergartener's way of expressing romantic affection.…
Why couldn't i have found out in 2013 that Johnnie To made a film inspired by the second greatest Detective Series ever, Monk, and it stars Andy ducking Lau!!!!!!
I have had the biggest ship eating grin on my face for the entire time of this, it is possibly one of the funniest films I have seen in a while.
Andy and Sammi are amazing in this, again the chemistry between the two is off the hook, they realise how ridiculous this is and go for every scene if there life dependent on it. Also Andy does not at all mock or trivialize his blind role and he is good at it.
Yes it is a tad overlong but it…
Johnnie To looks at sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes for inspiration and makes this romcom crime-thriller. There is enough crammed into Blind Detective to fill at least three movies, which makes it tonally run the gamut. It works surprisingly well though, but the finale is pretty messy.
Andy Lau is kind of oaf-like in this, but he just has to smile and you forgive his behaviour. Sammi Cheng is cute as a button and hilarious.
I may honestly find this the superior film to DRUG WAR, a film I would rate in the top 10, if not top 5 To. The one sequence that threw me at TIFF, the lovesick grandmother first spoken of, then seen in a whirlwind of gaudy makeup and blitzkrieg movement, is somehow even more baffling on a rewatch, yet I found myself more caught up in that diversion this time, not only for its own sake as an outrageously too-far setup but for its clarified importance to the overall narrative of unvarnished shows of obsessive affection, which affects everyone from the old woman's progeny to Cheng's own co-lead, driven by fascination, then desire, to put up with the semi-supernatural but…
perfect movie, if i'd known this was a weird romcom i would have watched it a long time ago!!
sammi cheng smoking three cigarettes at once and laughing like a hyena while out-gambling the always-bumbling lam suet is what i come to watch movies for; johnnie to always delivers the goods!
....Blind Detective presents a couple of interesting contrasts. The most obvious is with 2007's Mad Detective, which has a similar title and is also the story of a young cop enlisting the eponymous former cop to help solve a recent crime. Lau Ching Wan's Mad Detective approaches his investigations with the same techniques as Andy Lau's Blind Detective: he goes through the criminals' motions until he sees exactly what they did, and we see his vision of the recreation on-screen. These visions recall as well Running on Karma, in which Andy Lau plays a former monk who can see people's karma, the crimes they committed in past lives. Again, he's called in to help a young detective solve a crime.…
Johnnie To is mostly known for his action films in the Western hemisphere, but has also made a huge number of successful rom-coms back home in Hong Kong and other Chinese-speaking countries. I think the most impressive thing about this film is how he manages to merge his two favorite genres cohesively into this film.
The jokes mostly land. I honestly think some of the gags work better than others. Johnston feeling Ho's face to confirm that she is in fact, as smoking hot as someone like Sammi Cheng and not some woman who looks like a dude definitely feels a bit dated. On the other hand, the casino segment where Sammi's lighting four cigarettes at the same time and…
On a previous case, Detective Johnston is struck blind on accident, causing him to have to leave the career he loves. However, losing his sight has only increased the strength of his two greatest attributes: solving crimes and putting away food. Seriously, this guy eats more than Brad Pitt through all THREE Oceans movies, combined!
I guess it could best be described as a "dark comedy", but the humor often becomes so slap-sticky and silly that the tonal whiplash that occurs when someone does a pratfall, while chasing a crazed child murderer, is enough to break your comedic neck. Additionally, as the film progressed, it started to become increasingly clear that the majority of the movie's humor was going to…
I came expecting a detective thriller, got a mad Blake Edwardsian generic mishmash instead, and ended up pleasantly surprised. Of all its insane ingredients it's the romantic comedy component that works best thanks to some off-the-charts chemistry between Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, the latter somehow managing to share the screen with Lau's abundance of eccentric tics and affectations not only without getting steamrolled but actually making a memorable impression of her own. I don't know if the Eccentric Detective archetype is quite as omnipresent in Hong Kong as it is over here but as a western viewer Lau's performance comes across as a very funny parody of the form, he's constantly mugging for the camera and rapidly changing mood…
