A Gleam of Hope (1994)
Reviewed by: mrblue on 2002-02-09
Owing more than a little to The Fugitive, Gleam of Hope stars Anthony Wong as a Hong Kong cop who travels to the Mainland to investigate a case and meet up with his mistress. After a drunken romp, Anthony wakes up with a bad hangover and a dead girl in his hotel room. While being taken to prison, Anthony magaes to escape and head to Hong Kong, but the Mainland cops (led by Yu Rong-Guang) are right behind him in hot pursuit.

Gleam of Hope is certainly a bit derivative, even going so far as to taking exact quotes from The Fugitive. But, as might be expected, the budget for the two films doesn't exactly match up. Whereas the crash in The Fugitive that frees the main character is a spectacular train wreck, the one here is a rather limp confrontation between a jeep and a bicycle.

This sort of budgetary restriction forced the director to concentrate more on characterization, and it's effective for the most part. Harrison Ford was bit bland, but Anthony Wong's character here is a bit dirty and that brings some more dimensionality to the character. Yu Rong-Guang's character is not the wise-cracking one Tommy Lee Jones played (his only bit of humor is a preplexing attachment to M&M's) but his take works for the film. The supporting cast also does well, though Amy Kwok's character of Anthony's wife does feel a bit under-written, especially given her prominence in the story and the big twist at the end (which is still surprisingly effective).

At the end of the day, though, it's hard to give Gleam of Hope anything more than a mild recommenedation. There's no originality, no spark, and no panache. This is by-the-numbers film-making all the way. It does its' job well enough to fill ninety minutes of your time, but its' not likely going to be anything you'll remember for much longer than that.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]
Reviewer Score: 6