Product Description

Wong is a gambling-addicted half-cop/half-gangster who walks the thin line in hong kongs toughest neighborhood. When a play-by-the-book officer is transferred to wongs turg both find themselves increasingly absorbed by this gray area of co-existing cops and triads. Studio: Tai Seng Entertainment Release Date: 03/21/2000 Starring: Anthony Wong Sam Lee Run time: 110 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Gordon Chan

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135204 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-11-17
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese
• Subtitled in: English, Vietnamese, Japanese, Georgian, Chinese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.com
Director Gordon Chan, who launched his career in the 1980s with sharply observed social comedies such as The Yuppie Fantasia, moved on to documentary-inflected police procedurals, a gritty Hong Kong subgenre pioneered by Johnny Mak (The Long Arm of the Law) and Kirk Wong (Rock 'n' Roll Cop). Like many younger HK directors, Chan may also have been influenced by the icy-cool Japanese gangster films of Takeshi Kitano (Sonatine). This 1998 entry, Chan's best since The Final Option (1994), is about the redemption of a slobbish veteran cop, played by grizzled Anthony Wong, whose pasty face looks slept in. Knee-deep in corruption and taking bribes with both hands, Wong finds, to his dismay, that the straight-arrow morality of his new young boss (Michael Wong) may be contagious. The film is as much a romantic melodrama as an action film, leisurely and observational, full of eccentric slacker detectives and feral dimwitted gangsters with nicknames like Man-Dick and Pushy Pin. The fight sequences are shot close in, hand held, with vertiginous swoops and swerves, for a claustrophobic sense of terror. --David Chute

Customer Reviews

Unpredictable and original
Like a lot of Hong Kong films, Beast Cops has chaotic shifts in tone, occasionally bizarre humor, and manically over the top violence. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It sure works in Beast Cops, which would probably suffer from being too predictable. What starts off as a fairly serious drama about a gambling addicted and somewhat corrupt cop turns into a domestic comedy/revenge actioner/mob thriller. In one scene you'll have a character suddenly killed with a machete, in the next you'll have seriously hysterical comic moments from Anthony Wong as the corrupt cop.

I've never seen a film work two extremes so successfully and naturally, without seeming convoluted in any way. It's an action film, to be sure, but one that incorporates the rhythms and feel of real life, complete with the comic bits and kidding banter. It probably plays a little bit better as a comedy, despite the brutal violence of the last showdown (a showdown that still has room for a couple of hilarious throwaway moments from Anthony Wong). Michael Wong, usually about as charismatic as cardboard, here is utilized beautifully in a more comic role, and more directors should take heed of his fairly impressive work here in a role that totally goes against type. Roy Cheung has the most serious role here, and essentially shows up and does his usual great work without breaking a sweat. But the movie belongs to Anthony Wong, who won a Best Actor award in Hong Kong for this film. He shows remarkable range here, and he really just might be the best actor in HK today. You see his work here, then watch Full Contact, Hard Boiled, and Big Bullet, and you wonder how it can be the same guy.

Along with The Mission, this is one of the best 'New Wave' Hong Kong pictures.

Definitely different.
This was one of the first movies I saw when I was becoming acquainted with the Hong Kong action genre. This is an incredible, visually-stunning exercise in action. Now, it is not action on the same level as John Woo or Tsui Hark. But this is a great drama and action movie all at the same time. It has graphic violence, language and mild sexuality (as in don't see it for that reason or you'll be disappointed). If you like cop dramas and action films and don't mind reading a movie (though I do enjoy when the dubbing is different than the subtitles), Beast Cops is a great movie.

ONE OF THE BEST
this is definately one of the best hk films you will ever see. the reason for this is that the script is way better than most hk films. GORDON CHAN did it with first option and know he has done it again. it probaly helped that he had a good group of actors. ANTHONY WONG, MICHEAL WONG, ROY CHEUNG,and SAM LEE all give excellent performances. the story deals with a group of mismatched cops who try to stop a gang of young, out of control triads. the story doesnt sound that new,but, the characterations are where this movie really shines. any fan of hk movies needs to see this film.