The original Chinese poster for 2011's Punished is a man who appears to be standing upon an endless sky. It is lovely and reflective (both literally and figuratively). The front cover of the American DVD release of Punished, in contrast, looks like yet another torture porn with a girl bound and gagged and a man dragging a shovel covered in blood. They even added the horrible tag-line, “First the ransom, then the payback,” guaranteeing that the wrong people will watch it and the right people will skip it. Despite all appearances, Punished is a smartly done thriller that examines who is really punished when people take revenge.
Wong Ho-chiu (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang) is a wealthy real estate thug who is caught up in his work and only has a passing interest in his children. His daughter Daisy (Janice Man) is a spoiled brat who blows his money on drugs and treats his new wife (Maggie Cheung Ho-Yee) like trash. When she storms out of the house after another tantrum, she is kidnapped and held for ransom, but her father assumes she is faking her own kidnapping to get more money out of him. After she turns up dead, he is racked with guilt and pays one of his hired thugs Chor (Richie Ren) to hunt down Daisy's kidnappers.
What I love about Punished is how it is like the un-Taken. Both movies are kidnapping/revenge films, but they could not be more different. Liam Neeson is a loving father, his daughter is naïve, and he makes revenge look manly and deeply satisfying. In Punished, Wong Ho-chu is a dirty businessman, and his daughter makes Lindsay Lohan look saintly by comparison. He gets to watch his daughter's kidnappers die one-by-one in very painful ways, but as each one dies, he loses more of his soul. It is a challenging and well-made movie, and I can only hope that word of mouth will overcome Punished's misleading DVD cover art so this movie will find the audience it richly deserves.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Special features include a behind-the-scenes featurette, an additional featurette on the cast, and a stills gallery.
"Punished" is on sale January 24, 2012 and is rated R. Crime, Thriller. Directed by Wing Cheong Law. Written by Chi Keung Fung. Starring Richie Ren, Anthony Wong Chau Sang, Janice Man, Maggie Cheung Ho Yee.
