Movie Review: On the Edge黑白道

Herman Yau is one of my favorite Hong Kong directors. He wrote and directed On the Edge黑白道, a movie I really like.

Nick Cheung Kar Fai plays Hoi, an undercover cop who finishes his assignment as the film starts.

He engineers the capture of his boss, Dark, played by Francis Ng.

Anthony Wong plays Lung, a hard-nosed, no-nonsense cop who has no time for gentle policing when he’s on a case.

He was out to get Dark, and having done so, he’s now Hoi’s new partner.

Hoi is struggling with making the transition from being a goo wak jai to being a cop.

His new colleagues don’t trust him. They exclude him from meetings, and they won’t talk about important things in his presence.

It’s not much better with his old friends, either.

He doesn’t have a death sentence on him for being an undercover, but that doesn’t mean his former fellow gang members want anything to do with him.

Hoi was closest to Mini B, played by Derek Tsang. B’s sense of betrayal and revulsion by someone he thought he could trust is written all over his face, and his struggle with the conflict is very well-played.

Mini B doesn’t want to talk to Hoi, but he knows life isn’t that simple between them.

Unfortunately for Hoi, his ex-girlfriend Cat doesn’t seem to have any such problems.  Her matter-of-fact dismissal of him in favor of the lifestyle they used to share (and she still lives) ought to make it clear how much he ever meant to her.

Rain Li does a pretty good job playing what we in America might generously call a hood rat, the kind of girl who will berate you for NOT watching porn with her. 

She’s a dirty, nasty woman, and I mean that in the most flattering way.

The character, I mean, not Rain Li. She’s not a hood rat. I assume.

Hong Kong’s film industry is small, and as a consequence we tend to see actors in a lot of different movies in the same year.

We see the same faces over and over, and sometimes it can be hard to stop seeing the actor and see only the character.

But On the Edge黑白道 features strong performances from all the major actors and even the supporting characters do a good job.

The movie manages to have a conscience but doesn’t beat you over the head.

An Anthony Wong monologue at the film’s climax could have been horribly maudlin. But it isn’t, because Anthony Wong is a good actor, so it’s believable.

Francis Ng’s portrayal of Dark is very entertaining and better than it probably should be.

Dark is funny, smart, and menacing, and watching Francis Ng embody the character is a lot of fun.

Nick Cheung brings his character to life very believably, and he deserves a lot of credit for it.

His struggles are very believable, and the way he struggles is so realistic it’s almost uncomfortable.

But I think Herman Yau deserves some of the credit for that.

The story, and the characters, and the world they live in, are all very non-cinematic.

What I mean is that these people all seem quite tediously real.

There are no heroes, there are no platitudes, and this story isn’t anything you’d ever want to experience whether in part of in whole. This story, and these people, are all very ugly in their own ways.

There are no clear-cut answers, and there may be no light at the end of the tunnel.

In fact, that light may just be an oncoming train.

But this ugly story is beautifully told, and I was as impressed re-watching it as I was when I first saw it in the cinema.

It’s refreshing to see a movie so solidly written, acted, and directed.

But that’s what Herman Yau does, isn’t it?