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Same story as in Remains Of A Woman, with a different treatment.
The viewpoint character is Shirley Cheng, a prison psychiatrist who is introduced while being energetically screwed by her married lover Tsang. The couple are clearly very tense, as she presses him to get divorced and he resists. A visit to her patient, and the main accused in the Brenda Wong murder case, Kitty Yuen shatters her already brittle nerves. Not the best emotional state in which to confront the co-accused Patrick Wong (Francis Ng, doing his usual great job of the really horrid villain), an extremely cunning and manipulative creep, who quickly convinces the vulnerable Shirley that he can read her feelings and understand them, in a neat reversal of the counsellor/patient roles.
This scene is irresistably reminiscent of Silence Of The Lambs. Shirley's life continues to unravel, as she reluctantly dumps Tsang, and comes more and more under the sway of Patrick. She moves into his creepy house, burns a book at his request, and comes on side with his priest to plead his innocence/contrition. The descent of the apparently independent and capable career woman Shirley to become Patrick's whimpering sycophant is as compelling and believeable as it is utterly sickening.
But suspicion lurks, most prominently in the form of the neighbour and cop Inspector Lau, who was the chief investigator in the case. Lau is a real oddball, and his actions initially do nothing to make Shirley want to trust him. But the truth is revealed incrementally....... |
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