Cold War (2012)

Cold War

Highly touted as Hong Kong's best cop film in ten years, Cold War by first-time directors Lok Man Leung and Kim-ching Luk is an action-packed film with a fresh perspective from high-ranking officers in Hong Kong's police force.

Cold War in the film is the code name for a rescue operation of a missing police van along with five police officers. One of them is the son of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operation), Waise M.B. Lee, who is also acting Commissioner of Police because the commissioner is away for a diplomatic tour in Europe. He was ready to take an aggressive approach before his rival Deputy Commissioner of Police (Management), Sean K.F. Lau, intervened and replaced him as the leader of the operation.

The rivalry between Lee and Lau is clearly a strong foundation of the film's plot. Lee is more experienced and well-respected by first-line police officers; on the contrary, Lau is young and modernized. The later is also considered a favorite candidate of next commissioner by the over-seeing government branch, Security Bureau. Building form this foundation, the plot is developed into a clash between lower and higher ranks, who seem to fight for a greater control of police force's future.

We got great seats at the second row, from which we had a clear view of the two directors who came to the screening and answered questions from the audience. They were fairly reserved about a sequel, but my hunch was that they already had the follow-up story in mind. What they would need was approval form the audience in terms of box office sales.