When Sergeant Lo (Lam Suet) loses his police pistol after a scuffle with a bunch of TsimShaTsui hoodlums one night, Sergeant Ho (Simon Yam) puts a self-imposed deadline on finding the weapon. Fearing its use in gang warfare, Hos team scramble to recover the weapon before dawn, or they will be forced to report the loss to their superiors. When the main suspect turns up murdered, escalating violence between rival gangs becomes inevitable.
Set over one night in TsimShaTsui, PTU (it stands for Police Tactical Unit, by the way) is one of those films that is irresistible to fans of ticking-clock thrillers that feel theyre moving in real time (even though theyre not).
The film is imbued with some very black comedy, sometimes making it feel like a Hong Kong version of AFTER HOURS, what with the urban night-time setting, bizarre events and all. One scene at the start perfectly sets up the tone and establishes the pecking order in the films society: lead thug Ponytail (Frank Liu) and his gang enter a cafe and sit at their preferred table, displacing a lone eater who was already there. In comes the hated sergeant Lo and chooses the same table, displacing Ponytail and his gang and making them sit elsewhere.
However, at heart PTU is a cop procedure thriller more in line with other Milky Way films such as EYE IN THE SKY and Tos own BREAKING NEWS. Where this film differs, though, is in the intricate plotting sometimes making the film extremely hard to follow. There are several threads to the story, and if youre not paying attention, youre going to get lost and thats guaranteed. Several times, something happens or is discussed and seems inconsequential only to end up being crucial to the films outcome.
Even though this film runs below 90 minutes, there does seem some flabbiness in the middle section, and one scene, where Hos unit progress stealthily up a staircase, is excruciatingly slow. PTUs film score consists entirely of what sounds like 80s guitar power-rock solos and not very good ones at that. Given Tos previous works, where the music is entirely fitting and tasteful, this seems an entirely bizarre choice. Nevertheless, the urban locations are atmospheric and TsimShaTsui becomes a character in itself, with its strangely deserted streets and shuttered businesses. Ive no idea what the district is like these days, but it was always said that it was not the kind of area tourists were recommended to be in after darkness, and this comes across very well in the film, and looks akin to the seedier, grittier areas of New York as shown in US productions.
PTU is clever, but I feel its perhaps too clever for its own good. There are some characters that seem superfluous, such as Maggie Shaws Sergeant Kat, and the pace is at times too slow. But if youre prepared to concentrate hard theres certainly a very intelligent film in here.
Reviewer Score: 7
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