MIDNIGHT SCREENING – Andy Lau: the blind detective in Johnnie To’s new crime film

Widely considered the master of crime film since The Mission (1999), Johnnie To presents Blind Detective (Man Tam) in a Midight Screening. After Breaking News (Out of Competition, 2004), Exiled (2006) and Vengeance (in Competition, 2009), he delivers his new film noir starring actor Andy Lau. 

Johnnie To has been devouring crime films since he was a child, when he would go to the cinema located just behind the warehouse where his father worked. “I went to projections, but I wasn’t allowed to go into the auditorium. I had to sit behind the screen, so I saw all the films backwards, unlike the  cinema-goers who had paid for their seat.” He thus discovered a number of European films, which were very prevalent in Hong Kong’s cinemas in the 1960s, and has had a passionate appreciation of French actor Alain Delon ever since.

It comes as no surprise then that the character of Chong See Tun (Andy Lau), a damaged police officer who lost his sight during a mission, in the film Blind Detective shares certain traits with Jef Costello in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï: silent, methodical and unyielding. Chong See Tun is convinced by a collegue (actress Sammi Cheng – Needing you…, Wu Yen and Love for All Seasons, all directed by Johnnie To) to return to work. He throws himself into a homicide case, armed with his remaining heightened senses.

Blind Detective © RR

Actor Andy Lau, most well known for the Infernal Affairs trilogy (by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, 2002-2003, then adapted by Martin Scorsese in 2006 as The  Departed) is one of the director’s regulars. They met in 1993 during the making of the second instalment of Casino Raiders and have since worked together on a dozen or so films, including Running Out of Time (1999), which introduced the actor and diretor to international audiences, and Fulltime Killer (2001), also produced by Andy Lau. 

Pierrette Clain

SCREENINGS

Sunday 19th May / Grand Théâtre Lumière / 12.30 a.m.
Monday 20th May / Salle du Soixantième / 4.45 p.m.

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