Would you balk at another review lamenting the lack of attention paid to foreign productions once they land stateside? Probably, so I'll try not to go there. Looking at the fancy-pants DVD cover of Dante Lam's Fire of Conscience, I expected yet another hardboiled cops-and-robbers actioner of little substance and less imagination. Lam has action-packed cop dramas as something of a calling card and Fire of Conscience does little to break tradition - which actually turns out to be a blessing in disguise. The film is overloaded with B-plots but they never get in the way of the main attraction - Lam's decidedly gifted approach to shooting clean, well-paced and intense action sequences.
Fire of Conscience is effectively a boilerplate thriller pitting of two cops against each other that manages to muddle the morals a bit. Bearded, frequently unwashed Captain Manfred (Leon Lai), a burnt-out detective nursing a horrible family tragedy by lashing out at criminals with startling violence, links up with Inspector Kee (Richie Ren), a sharp-dressed officer attempting to ascend the promotion ladder. Kee, like Manfred, is given to bending the law, though he tends to go about it in much more cerebral way. A connection between a murdered prostitute and a stolen cellphone see the two joining forces, but the plot is about to grow more complex as arms, drugs, a feckless bomb maker and his pregnant wife, and shootouts in city streets force their way into the mix.
Lam moves his camera with assurance and his framing is impressively coherent, even as the scale of clashes between cops and criminals grows ever larger. A final fight in a burning garage is extremely well edited and exciting in an old-school "how'd they do that?!" way. Lai and Ren play their roles well enough but the script (or maybe the translation) feels it necessary to feed the actors tin-eared lines that spell out the themes with little subtlety.
Video is sharp, the film embracing the orange-and-teal color scheme that has spilled over modern action thriller every bit like a plague. Soundtrack provides for an immersive experience with gunfire popping up and explosions thundering. Stay away from the dubbed soundtrack - read the subtitles, you'll be better off for it.
DVD Bonus Features
A fairly impressive round-up of bite-sized (two to four minutes) BTS featurettes is included. "The Plague" looks at a key theme of the film, the existence inside everyone a capacity to spoil and do immoral things. "Leon Lai as Captain Manfred," and "Richie Jen as Inspector Kee" respectively see the actors talk a bit about tackling their roles. Richie Jen is not a misspelling, it's also listed as such in the DVD back cover credits. "Challenging The Cast" and "Hong Kong Action" tout the film's commitment to physical exertion and the impressive task of setting major sequences in busy thoroughfares with the help of traffic police. Finally, an international trailer is included.
"Fire of Conscience" is on sale October 25, 2011 and is rated R. Crime, Drama. Directed by Dante Lam. Written by Dante Lam (story), Wai Lun Ng. Starring Leon Lai, Richie Ren, Baoqiang Wang.
