The answers to the rhetorical questions I posed about director Johnnie To in my review of his film 'My Left Eye Sees Ghosts' are no and no. He certainly is not overrated in any way and he did not blow his load with 'The Mission'. The darling of Cannes scores big with Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng in multilayered film that cleverly mixes romance, action-adventure, and politics.

Both actors turn credible performances, especially Ms. Cheng. I'm not going to try to describe the plot since it is convoluted to a minor fault. Kind of like 'The Thomas Crown Affair' sequel, if you can imagine it, with Faye Dunaway [Sammi] and Steve McQueen [Andy] teaming up to pull off big time crimes together. Leftist subtext places high class elegant lifestyles against highly charged atmosphere of national politics in HKSAR. Never mind that stuff, though. This is a very moving, funny film.

copyright 2005 j. crawford

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