Beast Stalker 证人 (Ching yan) [2008] • Hong Kong

There isn't one single monster in this (what's up with that?), although Nick Cheung looks pretty spooky with his fake eyeball and possesses some über-human qualities like always being out of the blue and into the right place always at the right time, moving at speeds faster than light, and getting bashed in the face with a rock and not bleeding. The (contrived and typical) story construction which explores the tug of war among duty, friendship, love, and responsibility is done well, and Nicholas Tse and Cheung both turn in top notch performances, as does the little girl. All the acting is pretty good when you can actually see what's going on. I had to stop frame and inch through a scene on a bridge/overpass where they hung the little girl over the edge. I wonder what the film could have been without being a stylized action pic.

Jingchu Zhang also stars but she seems to come up unremarkable in manly action movies like Overheard, Protégé and this one.

★★★

Director: Dante Lam
Starring: Nicholas Tse, Jingchu Zhang, Nick Cheung, Philip Keung, Esther Kwan
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