KnotMissPriceless
Why so much hype?
Harockerce
What a beautiful movie!
Vashirdfel
Simply A Masterpiece
dumsumdumfai
Beast Stalker that is. I like this one better, even there are extraneous subplots that stretches my patience to the limit.What makes it works is the grim, memorable, albeit kind of nightmarish ending. The chase, the clogged up class room. The claustrophobic affects of that ending feels right. Feels that even you, the audience is in the same nightmare. It is inevitable as life itself.All that subplot of the wife, the past, the guilt, doesn't work for me. Sure you need motivation but this seems 'fitted in', tailored to the story - in a simple way - a way of solving the problem instead of finding the nuance of the character.I don't remember anything else, I think there was a few action sequences, but it all build up to the end.
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.
kosmasp
The term/title itself gets explained in the movie, which you should watch if you like Hong Kong action cinema in general. While most people are looking for the new John Woo (movie) or the new Johnnie To (movie), a veteran filmmaker almost slipped under the radar. And it would be a shame if you'd miss out on this one.Action packed, but still with character driven plot(s), this will not let you rest easy. There is always moral dilemma involved and of course it is difficult to watch our hero go through some of the trials and tribulations he has to go through (and maybe not all that is supposed to be good, is actually good). That is another thing that you either love or hate. Thank you Dante Lam for this excellent movie
moviexclusive
Dante Lam has found something of a creative muse in writer Jack Ng of late, and their latest "The Stool Pigeon" marks their fourth straight collaboration together. It is also crafted out of the same mould as their earlier "Beast Stalker", "Sniper" and "Fire of Conscience", and audiences who have enjoyed the morally ambiguous characters and their dilemmas in these male-driven films will certainly enjoy this latest.Reuniting the duo of Nick Cheung and Nicolas Tse from "Beast Stalker", Lam reverses the good guy-bad guy roles played by Cheung and Tse earlier. In this film, Cheung is on the right side of the law- he plays Detective Don Lee, a cop with his conscience wracked by guilt from the fate of his last stool pigeon (or slang for 'informant'). Jabber (played by Lam regular Liu Kai-Chi) was almost slashed to death after his cover was blown, and Don counts himself responsible for making the executive decision that blew Jabber's cover.Tse is the ex-convict Ghost, whom Don seeks out to be his new informant after police receive word that a wanted robber Barbarian (Lu Yi) is back in town for another heist. Ghost needs money to pay off his father's debt to a loanshark, and reluctantly agrees despite being fully aware of the risks. For a good first hour, Lam meticulously sketches out the relationship between Don and Ghost- opposites in the eye of the law, but forced by circumstance to befriend and even trust each other.A scene where Don teaches his fellow officers how to manage their informants illustrates this conflict beautifully- he tells them they have to win the trust of their stool pigeons so they can get as much intel as possible, but not to get too friendly at the same time for they may have to make difficult decisions in the line of duty. It is an unenviable position that Don himself knows personally, and many of the film's most poignant scenes come from Don's regular visits to Jabber who has since become a vagabond.Besides delineating the complex relationship between police and informant, Lam also takes care to develop his characters. Don's frequent visits to a dance studio hint of a personal tragedy that is only revealed later; and Ghost's feelings for Barbarian's girlfriend, Dee (Kwai Lun-mei), only make it more difficult for him to extricate himself later on. The characters in Lam's films have always been flawed in one way or another, but the attention that Lam pays this time round to his two central characters- Don and Ghost- ranks among one of his best.Amply deserving of praise too are Cheung and Tse. Having won Best Actor at both the Hong Kong Film Awards and Golden Horse Awards for his role in "Beast Stalker", Cheung turns in a wonderfully subtle performance here that conveys his character's anguish both in his line of work and his personal life. Because Cheung's acting is more restrained here, Tse gets the chance to be in the spotlight- and he more than delivers in a nuanced portrayal that fleshes out Ghost's struggles tiptoeing on the fine line of the law.Lam brings the intricately and impeccably plotted first half to a head in the next hour of the film, and audiences familiar with Lam's films may naturally be expecting big-scale action sequences like those in "Sniper"or even "Fire of Conscience". But perhaps surprisingly, he doesn't give his audience the kind of visceral gratification this time round, and some may find his unusual restraint a little frustrating.Not to say that he has lost his flair- an exciting foot chase down the tight cramped aisles of Hong Kong's street markets culminating in a midday car chase will set to rest any such doubts- nor that this isn't a taut thriller. It is both, but Lam often ratchets up the tension before an impending action scene and then defuses it without his usual signature guns-and-bullets extravanganza.It is still no reason why you should miss this thriller. While it doesn't feature as much by way of action as one would expect from a usual Dante Lam film, its strong character-driven drama still packs a solid punch. At a time when the Hong Kong film industry seems inundated by big-budget China co-productions, Dante has stuck to his guns to deliver a gritty true-blue Hong Kong cop thriller set entirely in the iconic streets of Kowloon. In a year of lean offerings from Hong Kong, this will probably go down as one of the year's best.
