Review of Mad Detective

It's funny how the title of this movie is "Mad Detective" when the literal translation from its Chinese title is "God Detective." I guess there's a thin line between divinity and insanity.

The movie's a well-produced, great-looking vehicle helmed by Hong Kong's most-accoladed director, Johnnie To, and starring Lau Ching Wan, who is perfect for this title role, what with his perpetually slightly delusional expressions.

The story, I'm not so sure about. The detective is psychic, apparently, and sees the inner demons of a person and they communicate with him as well. He's also somewhat insane and has an imaginary wife and a prosthetic ear because he cut the original off to give to his boss for reasons unclear. That's all quite fascinating, actually, and Lau does a great job with the role. But since he is (or was) a police detective, the main plot is a somewhat convoluted crime story and between real people and manifested inner demons (in human form), it all becomes just too messy. If you don't mind further spoilers, you can see if you can make sense of the wiki summary.

It's too bad; it's a pretty good movie otherwise.