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非常偵探 (1994)
The Private Eye Blues


Reviewed by: STSH
Date: 01/28/2007
Summary: Okay if you're bored

Mildly entertaining and sometimes hard to swallow. Even given that this one has elements of fantasy, the extraordinary powers of the girl from Beijing are difficult to take seriously. Jacky Cheung is below his best as the cop trying to protect a girl who can definitely fend for herself, and even rescues HIM a few times. If you're bored and this is one of only a few available in your video shop...

Reviewer Score: 4

Reviewed by: ksbutterbox
Date: 03/02/2003
Summary: Thank you for the reviews below!

I am now the proud owner of this movie.
Best role for Jacky since "As Tears Go
By" (in my opinion)! Well paced and
quite funny as well. Very Good Flick!


Reviewed by: GlennS
Date: 11/18/2001

An excellent film with a film-noir feel, THE PRIVATE EYE BLUES stars Jacky Cheung as a P.I. who's constantly hitting the bottle and working on a divorce with his wife (Kathy Chow).

He's assigned a case to keep tabs on a teenage girl from the Mainland(Mavis Fan). She ditches him though and the P.I. comes to find out that the girl is more than she appears and soon has the HK and Mainland police as well as some gangsters harrassing him to find out her whereabouts.

The film boasts great direction from Eddie Fong, inventive camerawork and some humor for good measure. It also has arguably Jacky Cheung's best acting performace and Mavis Fan is outstanding. She is cute, funny, charming and she really keeps the film going with her hyperactive antics. Too bad she hasn't been in any other films.

8.5/10

Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: grimes
Date: 04/08/2000

This is a strange film. That is a good thing.

The director of this film has worked with Clara Law in the past as a screenwriter, and she is in fact credited as a "visual consultant" for this film, whatever that means. His arty background certainly shows in this film, which has a lot of interesting direction (there's a hilarious fight scene in a car) and a very interesting look, which is a combination of film noir shadow and grit with occasional surreal splashes of color (think of something like Toys).

The plot of the film is fairly simple. Jacky Cheung is hired to tail a teeny-bopper from the Mainland. He loses track of her pretty quickly and suddenly he's being threatened because he's the one who last saw her. It seems that this girl is considerably more important than he thought, though the reason for that is unclear until later.

This is a fairly standard film noir type of setup, but the execution is where it gets strange. The story mixes film noir with comedy (ranging from subtle to slapstick) as Jacky Cheung's character gets into deeper and deeper trouble, despite the fact that he takes almost no action for the first portion of the film.

Jacky Cheung is not an actor I've noticed too much in the past. He seems to always be in supporting roles rather than taking the lead. I liked him quite a bit in Days of Being Wild but his part was fairly small. This film really shows off his talent. He has just the right mix of bewilderment, annoyance, and compassion for his character. Mavis Fan plays her
character mostly for giggles, which is actually kind of endearing in an annoying sort of way. She does manage to pull off the few serious scenes she has.

The film doesn't go totally to the art side of things, it does have plenty of predictable moments (the ending) but that doesn't really detract. The film is too goofy to be criticized for copping out, and this goofiness is its charm. It doesn't take itself too seriously.


Reviewed by: jfierro
Date: 12/21/1999

A really entertaining movie. Jacky Cheung is a down-on-his-luck private detective who lands the unenviable assignment of finding and returning to China a teenage girl who is hiding out in Hong Kong. When it is discovered she is wanted by the Premier himself, both law enforcement and the gangs join in the chase for the girl. Fan Hiu-Huan makes an impressive debut as the spunky, fun-loving girl who seems oblivious to the trouble she is causing. Good acting all-around and some very creative directing.


Reviewed by: hkcinema
Date: 12/08/1999

This arthouse movie blew me away. Definitely one of the bestperformances by Jackie Cheung Hok-Yau as a "stiff-necked" PI who hits rock-bottom while trying to protect an important illegal immigrant from HK, PRC and underground factions that want her back.

[Reviewed by Rebecca Herbster]


Reviewed by: spinali
Date: 12/08/1999
Summary: NULL

PI Jackie Cheung, his lips glued to a bottle of beer, has separated from his wife (Cathy Chow) and little daughter. Along comes trouble in a giggling teeny-bopper from Beijing (Fan Hiu-Huen) who acts like she's constantly on nitrous oxide. Ling Ching Fong directs this charmer in an appropriately wild comic book style; the teenage girl is just hilarious.

(3/4)



[Reviewed by Steve Spinali]

Reviewer Score: 7