San taam daai zin

I dunno cantonese but the meaning of the original title is Detective War which is far better than official english title, Detective VS Sleuth, really? Sleuth? Never heard people use that word.

For this movie, I guess it is too rushing, too many characters, and too chaos. I understand the director dont want to waste any time, he just want us to become breathless all the time watching this movie. Maybe if he give us some drama so we can take our breath. Or maybe I am too old to watch this movie, everything happen so fast...

Detective vs. Sleuths, written and directed by Wai Kai Fai, is essentially a Milkyway film produced through the China-Hong Kong co-production machine. It is a bigger-budgeted, louder and dumbed-down police actioner that's constantly speeding to the next scene. Sean Lau is as always an engaging lead but is unfortunately sidelined as a cog in a larger formulaic machine.

As a string of brutal killings storms Hong Kong, Jun Lee, once a brilliant detective in the police force who was let go after a mental breakdown, conducts his own investigation the victims are all connected to his past cases. Yee Chan, a police detective who was a victim of one of the past cases, enlists Lee Jun's help to find the killer.

Sean Lau Ching Wan is easily the best part of the film. He plays a rehashed version of his lead role in The Mad Detective as a cop who solves crimes with supernatural abilities, which Lau improves upon by acting out the ghosts that converse with him. It's entertaining watching Lau's rapidly changing facial expressions talking to himself.

Charlene Choi tries her best but is unconvincing as a distinguished police detective. She overplays her character's vulnerability, looking like she's constantly on the verge of tears and not communicating an investigative mind solving the case at hand. On top of that, her character is pregnant and questionably partaking in dangerous action head-on. It is not more ridiculous than say running from a dinosaur in high heels, but it lacked conviction. In an interview, Choi was asked about her role preparation and said she was only told what to do on the day and thus what we see is her genuine reaction to everything.

Carman Lee is wasted as the police madam explaining the plot to the audience. Based on acting chops alone, I could picture Carman Lee doing a better job as the female lead if this was made back in the day.

Who had the final say on Detective vs. Sleuths? I'll never know. It plays like a movie made by its money backers cashing in with established formulae, which outweighs the creative parts of the script.

Wai Ka Fai sets up the mystery in an interesting way, but he is completely uninterested in exploring his own high concept. The rapid-paced editing never gives a moment to breathe or contemplate the crime. Most of all, the film repeatedly drowns itself in long monotonous shootouts that lack weight or consequence. The "pew pew pew" way the guns were fired, the bullets may as well have been orange rubber darts.

What the film tries to sell as depth is ridiculous. What father lovingly teaches her daughter Friedrich Nietzsche quotes in German?

I would recommend rewatching Mad Detective instead.

I like the original promise to be a continuation for the first film but the mystery whether the lead character has special power or not was part of the charm, this sequel sadly ruined some of that.

Quite a number of surprises although some was a bit lame. Part of the stories felt forced and was shock for the sake out it, a some of the characters could do with a few more acting lessons from the lead actor.

The film really was saved by Lau Ching Wan alone, his portrait is so good it made it almost uncomfortable to watch.

Overall, I found the film entertaining enough and is one of the better hk films in recent years.

The storyline is good, with great level of depth as well as twists and turns. It's easy to understand and NOT confusing at all.

The pace is fast and compact! Things happen here and there to keep you going, without a sense of boredom from the beginning to the end!

An appropriate level of action was inserted to enhance the visual excitement, e.g. Gunfights and typical HK car chasing scenes. All these action sequences work well to keep the momentum going. And the clues unfolded one by one to facilitate audiences' understanding towards the cases and reasons for murders! All the main casts performed well to make it a good show!

However, two main pitfalls were picked up as follows: Firstly, the pace is far too fast that it doesn't allow the movie to breathe and the audiences to think through what is going on!

Secondly, each clue is unfolded too quickly! It should allow audiences to process each clue and piece together the puzzles to guess who is the SUSPECT! In fact, this is a psychological thriller, it should thus confuse audiences more, especially Lau Ching Wan's role with his paranoid delusion and multiple-personality disorder, and challenge our ability to unfold the clues. Yet, it's made to look more like an action movie, revealing all things abruptly!

I gave 8/ 10. Overall, it's a great movie! I would highly recommend you to watch it in the cinema, to enjoy the tension and dynamic action, which you will NEVER get from your laptop or home TV. It's definitely worth your ticket money! Take my words! Go, Go, Go..!!

Not a booring movie so it should be watched atleast once who likes thriller or detective story.

Story is good.

Action is ok.

Actors are good.

Character are in good set.

Just a bit too fast for Viewers who do not know Cantonese language.

The main character has fast thinking and speech is also too fast as per the story. So when you rely or have dependency on Subtitles than you loose some scene or either how the story is connected.

If possible than Viewers are advised to watch atleast in their understanding language i.e. Dubbed version.

I am sure even dubbing artist will face challenges in dubbing for the main character.