Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Winifred The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Guy THE STOOL PIGEON starts tough and ends tough. The plot sees a HK cop struggling with his conscience over his use of informants. On his last op things went bad and his "stool pigeon" was hacked nearly to death with machetes; now he's mad and alone, with our hero volunteering at a homeless shelter to help him. A top Taiwanese gangster is in town though, looking for a big score in a HK jewelry shop; so our cop recruits a new informer - a street racer just out of jail, who needs money to pay off his father's debt which has led to his sister becoming a hooker - and infiltrates him into the gang as their wheelman. Throw in a tragic gangsters moll and you've got a corking B-movie plot that moves fast and hits hard. The machete attacks are savage, although thankfully more is suggested than shown, and the final fight in an abandoned school is nerve wracking in its intensity. The emotional side is less sure though, especially the hero's ludicrous back story: after his last informant got hurt he got drunk, slept with a floozy, contracted syphilis, gave it to his pregnant wife, who chucked herself out of a window after learning the disease would make their child handicapped; and now she has amnesia the cop is trying to re-romance her. It's insanely melodramatic, especially compared to the authentic and matter-of- fact depiction of how the cops and robbers work. Still, this is a great film with excellent scenes of action and tension.

Derek Childs (totalovrdose) 'Brutally honest' would be the term I'd use to best describe this particular feature. Although the term 'brutal' is often associated with the violent content exhibited in a film, the level of blood in The Stool Pigeon never takes away from the storyline.Don Lee (Nick Cheung) is an officer, still suffering the ramifications of past decisions that led to his former informant, Jabber (Kai Chi Liu) been discovered by the men he was snitching on. Although Lee is attempting to atone for his mistakes, this is made increasingly more difficult by his boss (Li Sheng-cheong), who adamantly believes the ends justify the means. If ever he had a white whale, it would be Barbarian (Lu Yi), a brilliant and psychotically violent thief, who has recently returned to promulgate another job.Advised to insert an informant into his crew, Lee discovers Ghost Jr (Nicholas Tse), a young man on the verge of being released from prison, whose adept driving skills would make him an asset to Barbarian. Immediately turning Lee's offer down, Ghost Jr instead opts to spend time with his sister (Sherman Chung), who has been thrust into a life of prostitution to pay off their late father's debts. Though their father is largely unexplored, his actions have inevitably shaped their lives, which forces Ghost Jr to make a life changing decision.Under Lee's directive, he initiates contact with Tai-Ping (Philip Keung), the leader of a gang whose cronies have assisted Barbarian on previous jobs. Descending into a world where every move could potentially be his last, the impact of danger, betrayal and paranoia continuously gnawing at the viewers, Ghost Jr quickly finds solace in Barbarian's unappreciated girlfriend Dee (Gwei Lun-mei), their immediate mutual attraction based upon a history that is explored over the course of the story. But events begin to spiral out of control, and one question that later emerges is this: will Ghost Jr live to see his dream of saving his sister fulfilled? Although Lee advises officers who will later have informants of their own not to become emotionally attached, he, hypocritically, is unable to separate his personal feelings from the scenario. The use of scenes, detailing previous events that have recently occurred over the course of his career demonstrates that it is not only the informants who have a grueling existence, the police having an equally unpleasant role. Having made a number of decisions and mistakes that he is not proud of, Lee is able to admit his faults, making him a sympathetic and respectable character to have headlining this feature. The relationship he has with his wife Cher (Miao Pu) provides the audience with not only another source of emotional depth, but a source of hope for the future.Due to his screen time, though Mr Tse's portrayal of Ghost Jr is just as proficient, it is overshadowed by the focus that seems to continuously drift towards Mr. Cheung. Despite been a criminal, and persistently asking for money, Ghost Jr is a likable character, not only for his gentlemanly qualities, but his unflinching devotion to family, wanting desperately to be his sister's hero. Ms. Mei also deserved additional screen time, her portrayal of Dee effectively developing a character who, although compassionately emotional, is capable of blunt ferocity, her life choices based upon what is happening right now, rather than on what is right.As aforementioned, Lee's past is explored over the course of several scenes, while Ghost Jr and Dee's is often articulated verbally. It would have been beneficial for more depth to have been provided to their back-stories, though the decision to focus more on Lee may have been so audiences had the opportunity to acknowledge the sacrifices officers are forced to make, the shared pain of Ghost Jr and Dee needing no further attention, for their lives effectively represent the grueling nature of their existences.A moment during the film involving a car race is quite possibly the film's most unenthusiastic moment, the scene, despite been well choreographed, lacking any real entertainment. Unable to live up to the outstanding visuals audiences have been awed by in the Fast and the Furious franchise, the scene appears to be comprised of cliché crashes and sounds that fail to cement the viewer in the moment. This aside, The Stool Pigeon is not an action movie, and for the most part, it's a plot driven police drama with substantial depth provided to its characters.Although firearms make an appearance, more often than not, machetes and other serrated weapons are used by villainous characters as they pursue their hapless victims. The sound of flesh been sliced, alongside the screams of agony really impacts the viewer, with not only the horror articulated during these torturous moments, but the ever mounting tension.Unlike other films dedicated to portraying the lives of police officers, The Stool Pigeon does not rely upon exaggerated footage, instead capturing the brutal realism of the lives officers and informants alike struggle to cope with. Emotionally in-depth and thought provoking, the audience are also inclined to work as detectives to piece the storyline, that isn't always set in chronological order, together, which makes for a continuously interesting feature. By the end of the film, viewers may feel the need to question who the real antagonists are in the film, and who really are the victims.

waz_fukashima The Stool Pigeon is a tense Hong Kong crime thriller from one of Asia's most prolific crime thriller directors, Dante Lam. While the film follows many familiar tropes of detective films, such as the good natured criminal, and the detective determined to succeed at all costs, there is a persistent visual style and a well developed set up for the excellent action sequences. It is quite gratifying to see a film that isn't just about a bank robbery, but real character growth, especially in Hong Kong cinema, which as of late has been clearly out shined by South Korea. The story follows Police Detective Don Lee (Nick Cheung) and his work with a recently paroled gang informant who is out to save his sister from a life of prostitution because of a debt owed by their father. Lee is the experienced detective who throughout his career has needed to investigate, track and convince informants to help with a case, but the problem is that he's had trouble protecting these informants and has conflicts with senior management. Ghost Junior (Nicholas Tse) proves his skills early on, in a cool sprint race through the streets of HK, and is soon recruited to work with a major Robbery suspect known as Barbarian. The racing scenes are handled with a lot of flair and sufficiently loud sound design. The soundtrack works well, as the jazz mixes with the suspense soundtrack to bring heightened tension to the deceptive game these cops and criminals play. In a lot of ways it reminded me of Michael Mann's Heat (1995), though Stool Pigeon had a faster pace and it's attention to detail was not nearly as well developed. Hiccups such as Don Lee's forgetful wife subplot were a little silly. With much less emphasis on CGI effects the action is visceral and shocking. It is certainly not the type of 'PG' American experience we've become accustomed to, whereby explosions and slow motion action has overblown any subtlety of realism. There are machete wielding gang members and they do take revenge. While this is not a film about happy endings, it finishes with an effective and satisfying conclusion. The Stool Pigeon is a rewarding experience, with cinematography capturing the streets of Hong Kong in an often beautiful and slow boiling state, but the action choreography and character clashes keep it tight and exciting through to the end. Nominated for best film at last year's Hong Kong Film Awards, The Stool Pigeon proves that the Asian resurgence will continue. It's not just China and South Korea who are raising expectations.

DICK STEEL This is what Hong Kong action crime thrillers are made of, with the sets being the real streets of the city upon which a high intense cop and robbers drama unfolds, and engaging characters that you actually care about. Already having given us Fire of Conscience earlier this year, it seems that there is nothing stopping hot property of the moment Dante Lam, who had helmed hard hitting same genre movies such as Sniper and Beast Stalker, which starred Liu Kai Chi, Nicholas Tse and Nick Cheung in leading roles reuniting for Stool Pigeon, looking set to have been improving film by film, and frankly is fast becoming a firm favourite storyteller of mine for Asian crime thrillers after Johnnie To with his consistency for gripping edge of your seat material.Thanks to the success of Infernal Affairs, we've seen in recent years a fair share of police dramas that deal with that of an undercover cop either battling his loyalty and allegiance, his return to a life of normalcy, or even have his persona spill over to real life through immense popularity in the cult character, like Laughing Gor. We know that the police have as part of their investigative arsenal the infiltration of undercover cops, but what's often overlooked is the role of the police informant in a leading role, until now.Dante Lam's story is extremely engaging in its examination of this peculiar outsourced role, where one is backed by the formalities of contract to define a relationship of transactional nature – material wealth in exchange for critical information, with bonuses to come with milestones achieved too! But such dangerous work close to where the action is with risks involved doesn't impact a police personnel, and this is clearly a win situation for the cops because this risk of being caught and maimed/killed in the course of an accidental discovery is transferred to a non-uniformed person, often someone desperate enough and comfortable to be living on the fringes of society, such as an ex-criminal. But being human, the cops have to learn to not become closer than necessary to their informants, so as to minimize guilty pangs should there be a need to no longer support them, and literally to throw them to the sharks for the greater good – the tragic irony of it all.Nicholas Tse and Nick Cheung swap sides now from Beast Stalker, and Tse plays the role of Ghost Jr, an ex-convict released only to find his sister being pimped by the underworld to pay off their dead father's gambling debt. After some deliberation he takes on the offer by Cheung's inspector Don, and officially in the eyes of the law Ghost becomes Don's informant, with a direct line to his handler and if necessary being able to waiver any arrest if made during the course of his work as an informant. His role is to infiltrate and report back on the gang activities of Barbarian (Chinese actor Lu Yi) and his wife (played by Kwai Lun-Mei), who are planning a jewellery shop heist, and are in need of a driver, where Ghost's skills will come into handy.Just like how Donnie Yen is discovering a new lease of life in his career as an action hero, Nick Cheung, once overlooked as leading man material, now finds new ground in crime thrillers, and being equally adept at both positive and negative roles just brings out the wide spectrum of his acting abilities. Dante Lam's cop character so far have always been flawed and pained, and being dedicated time meant a subplot involving his wife and relatives, which serve to deepen the character's backstory. In fact, the many human drama that Lam injects into his characters all provide them a lot of depth rather than to be just that one-dimensional role most cops and robbers story tend to trap themselves into .For instance, Kwai Lun-Mei's gangster moll role is something that's totally different from her usual sweetie pie ones, and she has enough of what it takes to pack a punch in this genre, which is surprising to say the least, in both delivery and providing to be the wildcard in Stool Pigeon. Boldly casting her against type is what I felt showed the courage of Lam and team to explore new ground (including Stool Pigeon's premise) and having seasoned actors, each of whom have won acting awards in recent years, also serves as an indicator that you're getting powerful performances all round.Action-wise, Stool Pigeon is no sitting duck. While time is devoted to the human drama, action is not just left to plain boring gunfights, as there are a lot more moments here involving chases from vehicles to foot and hide and seek that provides most of the thrills with its superb editing and execution, either in a crowded market evading a swarm of cops, or between apartment units to avoid detection. Like most Dante Lam films, the finale provides that bang for the buck, and Stool Pigeon has one of the most intense sequences he had come up with thus far, set in an abandoned school where the set design provides a visually arresting feast for the eyes, while your heart feels and roots for characters going all out for each other's throats.I'd prefer this over Fire of Conscience, and easily is a contender for one of the best films this year! Highly recommended, and I'll be more than keen to watch this in its original Cantonese language track.