Did you people see the same film I saw?

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The film is also called "Laan jin." It has nothing to do with the cold war, nor is it much of an action thriller. The film is a Hong Kong police drama which utilizes a kidnapping and bombing as background for a police commissioner struggle. There are long dramatic scenes of internal office conflict and politics which follow a very orderly process.The translation is not herky-jerky, but very straight slang English, no reverse syntax. Some of the dubbing made the actors look bad, especially the woman crying for her dead husband. The film focuses on Deputy Police Commissioner Sean Lau (Aaron Kwok) and his relationship with the commissioner (Tony Leung Ka Fai) and operation Cold War. Cold War is a police emergency that happens when an emergency van with five hostages are stolen and a bomb goes off at a cinema. While part of the story involves solving the crime, a good two thirds of the film is a complex multi-sided office drama.The film uses a stock made for TV sound track. It has some cliche tough guy language like "Desperate times call for desperate measures" and "I was never here." It then ruins it with "I prefer latte." There is also some mention of police and government openness, something I didn't know if it was a criticism of government or a government propaganda statement. The film lost me for a moment when the internal office conflict started as I was expecting a Chinese Dirty Harry. Instead I got a Joe Friday arguing with his boss and then apologizing. Clearly the Chinese don't have the genre down for American audiences.Parental Guide: Some minor F-bomb usage. No sex or nudity. Woman in lacy top and panties.

Honor is a major aspect focused upon during this Chinese action drama, which visually conveys the integrity and competent nature of the Hong Kong police department's ability to wage war on crime, and efficaciously ensure the safety of the city's public.Out on the streets of Hong Kong one night, a van carrying five members of the police force, not to mention a wealth of tactical equipment, unexpectedly vanishes off the grid. The hijackers behind this daring plot immediately demand a ransom, and though the attackers are starting a war with the police, an equally hard battle is taking place between the investigating officers. Lau (Aaron Kwok) is Management's youngest Deputy Commissioner, while Lee (Tony Leung Ka-fai), an older gentleman, is the Deputy Commissioner of Operations, both with widely differing points of view.While Lau wishes to negotiate, Lee, whose son Joe (Eddie Peng) is one of the five officers held for ransom, is ready to bring the entire force of the Hong Kong police department down upon those who would dare assault them. The reputation of these high ranking personnel is on the line, and with the Commissioner soon to retire, one of these two men will be crowned the next leader of the Hong Kong police - and what happens over the course of this investigation will shape their history.The two aforementioned leads, alongside Gordon Lam as Albert and Chin Kar-lok as Vincent are strongly portrayed as dutiful officers. Moreover, Aarif Rahman as Cheung, the lead ICAC officer assigned to investigate the procedures taken to thwart the hijackers is deserving of being mentioned for his equally adept performance. At the same time though, I found his character to be rather unlikable due to his attitude, which seems awfully confident, to the point of being egotistically pretentious.The focus on these characters leaves little room for Charlie Young, who portrays Phoenix, the head of the public relation branch of the police, or Grace Huang, who plays probationary inspector May, despite their loyalty's been clearly outlined. Moreover, the inclusion of Ma Yili and J. J Jia as the wives of Lau and Vincent, both of whom had barely a minute's screen time, was unnecessary, although were clearly included to show an alternate familial side to these hardworking characters. If the developers adamantly wanted the wives to be included in the plot, I believe additional screen time and emotional dialogue would have beneficially increased the impact.Visually, Cold War is quite sublime, the film taking advantage of its setting, Hong Kong been visualized as the technologically powerful, secure environment the police claim it to be, with a number of great aerial shots revealing the grandness of the metropolis. Not only this, those portraying the officers in the film are accompanied by the luxurious attires they continuously wear, making them appear as competent and dedicated as they continuously seem.Despite the front cover's insinuation that Cold War is an action film, it is in fact a dramatic thriller. Despite the movie beginning with an explosive start that immediately catches your eye, the action scenes are incredibly infrequent, the most captivating aspects of the movie been its intelligent and thought provoking script, that is continuously twisting like a snake, as the characters attempt to unravel the conspiracy they have unwittingly fallen into. However, Peter Kam's score, much like the cover, offers a similar assumption regarding the film's genre, and despite its entertaining properties, the over the top orchestral soundtrack, when used in conjunction with events that are neither eventful or action oriented, seems unnecessary.As the film progresses and the antagonists behind the plot are slowly revealed, the lacking background behind what caused them to orchestrate the attacks is rather unsatisfactory in a film which contained such an effective build up. With the exception of the lead instigator, whose motivations we are able to comprehend, the film's finale is less wowing than I would have imagined from a film that really keeps you pinned to the screen, and rather, my attitude towards the end was more like 'uh, so that's how it is, eh?' Furthermore, at the film's conclusion, text appears on screen notifying the viewership that this is definitively 'the end', which contradicts not only the visuals, but the dialogue which suggests there could be more to come. This anti-climatic conclusion inevitably falls short of whatever expectations audiences would have acquired over the course of the film.Despite being entertaining and intelligent, with great acting all around, superb visuals, and the rare, but still well executed fight scene, Cold War is a movie that keeps you attentive, yet will leave you wanting a finale better fitting a feature of its caliber.

This review, brainstormed by multiple great pieces of Chinese reviews, combined with the clarifications made by the directors, aims at uncovering the suspense and unsolved puzzles of the movie.The debate over whether Mr. M.B. Waise Lee the Deputy Commissioner (Operation) takes part in the scheme is undoubtedly the most controversial issue.This review proposes that Deputy Lee is almost completely innocent. To justify, it is necessary to differentiate of which Deputy Lee's sentiments is acting and not acting. What the silver screen progressively shows are:At the outset, Lee openly scolds Man To for the failure of telecommunications system. Afterwards, Lee urges a swift assault at a dockyard in an attempt to rescue the kidnapped policemen. He expressed disappointment when the operation paid in vain. Next, being questioned by Deputy Lau and PR Phoenix Leung at headquarters, Lee defended himself furiously with offensive words. After the policemen had been rescued, Lee started to calm down for the first time and expressed his gratitude peacefully to Deputy Lau.Subtle emotions of characters played a prominent role in deduction. If Lee was part of the scheme, first, it came no sense for Lee to point the finger at Deputy Lau and Man To in the kick-off meeting such that Lau could gear up in advance mentally against the scheme targeting him. Furthermore, it would be totally meaningless for him to sigh to nobody at dockyard operation if it was all planned and managed under him. It would be over-skeptical to put forward the idea that Deputy Lee was acting throughout the entire motion picture. Not only would this storytelling be far too intricate for moviegoers to follow and digest, but it would also be incoherent with characters' sentiments. Also, the conspirator must have instructed S.D.U. Commander Michael Shek to wipe out those ex-operatives when an independent government authority ICAC steps in. However, if Lee, who cares for the well-being of front- line policeman, was the man behind, his primary motive must be gaining power or money for the betterment of remuneration of policemen and these ex-operatives whom Lee looked after upon the completion ND157. So it would be insane, contradictory and against his will to sell out his ex- subordinates together with numerous police casualties in the wipe-out mission.Indeed, the directors have already clarified that, under their storyline, Deputy Lee is not the ultimate puppet master behind the scheme. It is otherwise the unexposed one(s), who is even out of Lee's scope, as also pointed out by his son at last. On top of this, an interview with the directors by a Hong Kong media outlet has also alleged that Deputy Lau and Lee will work jointly in fighting against the ultimate boss in Cold War 2. The puzzle remains ambiguous for who is the mastermind. As this movie is partly brainstormed by the U.S. presidential election campaign, this godfather could possibly be a syndicate of some tycoons, in favor of candidate Lee, working for their own interest i.e. sales of arms, chaos or whatsoever. Therefore, any casualty inherited in this war is not their concern. Those dead ex-operatives are simply being manipulated as their foot soldiers. It is uncertain and guessed that Deputy Lee finally senses the involved parties after ICAC questions him about ND157. Later, when his son is about to take the gun, there is a subtle smile shown on Deputy Lee's face. It is because his highly intelligent son chooses correctly not to uncover the truth to the police in ambush so as to keep them both safe (His son might get killed like those ex-operatives?). Some interesting food for thought:1. The seemingly drunken driver intentionally provokes the Emergency Unit van in order to isolate it. This driving expert could be an overseas English-speaking hired gun who does not own Hong Kong Identity Card which leaves no trace. It is all planned. However, there is argument because the driver thinks he can leave after the stalling car accident is engineered, which is being cheated. M.Y. Shum the policewoman, whom the driver hands the phone to, may also take part in the scheme with limited knowledge. 2. By the directors, Senior Superintendent Vincent Tsui is not a mole. It can be deduced from the fact that Vincent Tsui warns Deputy Lau to run away when Tsui's car is about to hit Deputy Lau at highway. 3. Senior Superintendent Albert Kwong is believed to be clean as he does not know the ND157 ex-operatives are back. However, his appearances often seem suspicious.4. Man To the I.T. Chief Officer is believed to be a traitor. Otherwise Hong Kong Police Force is unreasonably and incredibly easy to be hacked. Still, because of his gratitude to Deputy Lau for his generosity to his department for development in past few years, he implies a few times that he is one of the rotten links. (Speculated)Cold War is a marvelous and necessary war to affirm Deputy Lau's capability. It is well written and well filmed. Yet, too little background information and a number of suspects while no clear clue turns this movie hard to digest.

Touted as "the next INFERNAL AFFAIRS", COLD WAR is a bold, if heavily flawed action thriller that gives a fresh perspective rarely seen in a cop genre by showing an internal conflict between a group of high-ranking police officers struggling to solve a case.The movie opens fast and furious, beginning with a sudden explosion at a crowded movie theater. Following immediately is a separate scene where an arrogant drunk driver speeds through the Hong Kong's freeways and ends up crashing his car pretty badly. An EU (Emergency Unit) van loaded with five cops arrives at the accident scene, which is reportedly being hijacked and vanishes from police radar. Despite all the so-called expensive and sophisticated technology at their disposal, the police can't even track down their own van. Apparently one of the five cops that ended up being kidnapped by masked hijackers is Joe (Eddie Peng), son of Deputy Commissioner of Police from Operation Division, M.B. Lee (Tony Leung Ka-Fai).While the Commissioner of Police (Michael Wong) is out of the country, Lee has been appointed as acting commissioner and leads the rescue operation code named "Cold War". Lee's strategy is an all-out aggressive attack with "non-negotiable" policy against the kidnappers, but Deputy Commissioner of Police from Management Division, Sean Lau (Aaron Kwok) disagrees with his harsh decision and demands the situation to be evaluated thoroughly before any proper action is taken. Lau also suspects that Lee is overreacted especially since his son is being kidnapped as well. As the internal conflict is mounting up, Lee continues to bark his authority all for the wrong reasons when he harshly refuses to let his Head of Police Public Relations Branch, Phoenix Leung (Charlie Yeung) to release info about the kidnapping news to the public. The particular situation prompted Lau to step in with some top-brass supports from his best friend, Senior Superintendent Vincent Tsui (Chin Kar-Lok), Senior Superintendent Albert Kwong (Gordon Lam) and Secretary of Security for the Hong Kong Security Bureau, Philip Luk (Andy Lau) to overturn Lee's position so he can replace him as the new acting commissioner.Once Lee is forced to step down, Lau immediately takes charge and proceeds on negotiating with the kidnappers who demands a huge amount of money or else. However, Lau's attempt to deliver the ransom money goes terribly awry and even leaves one of the crucial police officers dead. Now most of the money goes missing.At this point onward, both Lee and Lau become prime suspects under the investigation of ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption), which is lead by a young ICAC investigator Billy Cheung (Aarif Rahman). According to Cheung, he has a reason to believe that Lee or Lau has something to do with the missing money and the overall conspiracy of the kidnapping case. Now the biggest question is: what really happens? If the synopsis above does sounds confusing to you, that's because first-time writers and directors Longman Leung and Sunny Luk stuffed way too many plots in a compact 102 minutes! Not to mention their script is overly convoluted, which is filled with lots of loopholes and questions that might frustrate a lot of impatient viewers throughout the movie. Then there's Kwong Chi-Leung's hyperactive editing which can be annoying at times especially with too many overlapping scenes (particularly during the rapid-fire, dialogue-heavy moments) that seriously demands the viewers to play some catch-ups. The second half, which involves the ICAC investigation between Billy, Lee and Lau as well as the elaborate conspiracy theory, is a serious head-scratcher when viewers tries to connect all the dots together.Despite all the glaring flaws, COLD WAR remains good enough to watch for. Kudos still goes to Leung and Luk for their ambitious move to present a cop thriller out of the ordinary, even though their executions are somewhat haphazard. As both being a first-timer, their directing efforts are still spotty in places. But it's hard to deny that Leung and Luk does possess some impressive feats in their overall directions.The movie is benefited from lush production values and spectacular aerial shots (particularly the way how they framed the angle of skyscrapers), while the overall technical credits are equally top-notch. Except of course, some of the CG here are patchy (particularly in the climactic scene involving fireworks on the roof of a tall building). Peter Kam's music score is frequently intense throughout the movie.Action scenes are adequate enough, particularly for the exciting shootout/car chase scene at the freeway overpass.The cast, in the meantime, are rock-solid. Aaron Kwok gives a perfectly restrained performance (thank heaven he's not overacting like he used to!) as the calm and confident Lau, while Tony Leung Ka-Fai is especially a standout as the no-nonsense Lee who seriously deserves an acting award nomination (His scene involving him and Aaron Kwok barking at each other in the police headquarters, and another one where he coolly outwitted the two young ICAC investigators in the interrogation room, are downright memorable). The rest of the supporting cast are equally great, including Charlie Yeung, Gordon Lam, Aarif Rahman and even the cameo appearance from Andy Lau.COLD WAR ends with a cliffhanger finale that screams a sequel. If the sequel is really made sometimes in the future, here's hoping that Longman Leung and Sunny Luk manage to polish their rough-on-the-edges direction and their overstuffed screenplay into a more balanced approach. As for now, COLD WAR stands as one of the best Hong Kong movies of the year.