Hak bak sam lam (2003)

Directors:

Marco Mak
Jing Wong

Writer:

Jing Wong (written by)

Release Date:

20 June 2003 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A man becomes a cop in order to take down the police superintendent who may have killed his father, and that of a vengeful Triad boss.

Plot Keywords:

Triads | Spy | Reference To James Dean

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Anthony Wong Chau-Sang	...	S.P. Wong Jiang (as Anthony Wong)
Jordan Chan	...	Ray Tam Dai Wai
Ho-Yin Wong	...	Insp. Cola Chan Lok-Yin / Chui Lok-Yin / Li Tak Yan (as Raymond Wong)
Gillian Chung	...	Katie Wang
Chapman To	...	Toast
Pinky Cheung	...	Cola's Mother
Terence Yin	...	Cyclops
Winnie Leung	...	Joyce Wang
Ching Wan Lau	...	Seven Up (as Lau Ching Wan)
Francis Ng	...	Tam 'Blind' Chui
Robert F. Saunders	...	Guard
Yin Tse	...	Wang Kwan (as Patrick Tse Yin)
Jimmy Wong Ga Lok	...	Chief Insp. T.Y. Lau (as Jimmy Wong)
Ting Yip Ng	...	Bun (as Berg Ng)
Carl Ng	...	Casper

Also Known As:

Black White Forest (Hong Kong: English title) (literal title)
Colour of the Truth (International: English title)
Hei bai sen lin (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG | Hong Kong:IIB | Germany:18 | Australia:MA | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

China Star Entertainment

Trivia:

The character name Wong Jiang is a direct reference to the film's director. Spelt without the "A" in the first name (Jiang), it spells Wong Jing.

Quotes:

Chan Lok-Yin: [narrating] This was the first time I saw Wong Jiang again. It's unbelievable to see him again like this. What kind of person is he? He dared to hold the grenade alone. He's not ordinary. Mom was right. He is such a refined evil. I must beware of him.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Hak bak jin cheung (2005)

From a full basket of predictability can a good flick still be assembled

Everything in Colour of Truth you have seen before, likely more than once, and these elements are put together in way that is frightfully predictable. This however does not prevent the movie from being watchable and even enjoyable. One reason is the good, brisk pace. The other is the abundance of characters, which provides a good variety even if most of them are somewhat one-dimensional. The main reason, however, is Anthony Wong.

Academy of Performing Arts trained, Wong is a true actor and a joy to watch whether he is in lead, support, or even a cameo role. In Colour of Truth, the two lead roles are a veteran police inspector, played by Wong, and a young officer whose father was a colleague that the inspector shot, under dubious circumstances. In this movie, Wong for the first time adopts an identity that reflects what he is in real life, a Eurasian, something he rarely refers to because he detests his English father who deserted him and his mother. It is completely different in the movie. Inspector Wong Jiang's father, once a bomb expert in England, is incapacitated by two strokes. The inspector feeds, baths and even changes diaper for his father. It's quite a touching scene to see Inspector Wong stroking his father's almost hairless head gently. I seem to sense that behind the actor, Anthony Wong is stroking a father that he longs to have but never had.

The movie is a good commercial flick, and followers of Hong Kong movie will enjoy seeing many faces, albeit some of them briefly. There are Francis Ng and Lau Ching-Wun, two of Hong Kong's best actors, playing a good, tense scene with Wong at the beginning. There is Tse Yin, now at his 70s, an icon in the Hong Kong movie world and still active.

Of the up and rising, there is Gillian Chung from the Twins Effect and Tao Man-Chak who is getting a good handle of his comic role since Internal Affairs. Chan Siu-Chun plays a role he is very familiar with since his Goo Wark Jai series: an underworld boss. Pinky Cheung would have got the voluptuous role of the Vietnamese assassin a couple of years ago but now it is given to the new comer Winnie Leung who play the real estate agent in Twine Effect. Pinky instead plays a middle-aged mother. I have not forgotten about the other lead, the young policy officer taken under the wings of Wong who he believes to be the murder of his father. Wong Ho-Yin, young and fresh looking, gave a respectable performance.