"I can see the inner personalities of a person."
If we are talking about contemporary Hong Kong film we can't miss two names: Johnny To (who still can't speak English) and Wai Ka Fai are definitely one of the most active film directors of our age in average two quality (!) movies in each year. The last time I focused less on Asian movies, but my return to them was really worth: Mad Detective gave exactly that freshness in its storytelling why we turn our attention time to time to the direction of East.
The starting point of the film is almost classic: two cops, a young one (Ho) and an experienced crazy one (Bun) are trying to solve a strange case: more than 18 months ago during chasing a thief, officer Wong disappeared in a forest. Some months later a deadly robbery spree started where the murder used Wong's disappeared gun. I said classic situation, but I have to mention a "small" detail: Bun has a disturbing supernatural skill. He can see other people's inner personalities. What does it mean? Imagine that you're talking with somebody, and with this this skill you are able to see different characters of your partner according to his or her actual feelings (bored, amazed, ...). Usually you hide your inner personalities with your socially controlled behave. The more characters you have the more you hide with the help of your surface-self...
Bun's talent is useful in solving crime cases because our inner personalities are talkative about our hidden sins. But it drives him crazy too: after a while he can't make distinctions among somebody's real and inner characters. He becoms a crazy maniac, a Mad Detective.
"Apply emotions in investigate! Not logic!"
And this gives the freshness of the storytelling, because as a viewer most of the time we see what Bun sees. We can't see the reality, but Bun's reality, which is in terms of the storytelling is more than amazing. We are tied to his sick mind: we can't be sure whether we see somebody's real or inner self in a scene. Sometimes these characters surround the real figure, just like in the case of the disappeared officer's partner, who has exceptionally 7 different inner characters. Bun is sure that the complex personality of Chi-wai is behind the serial of murders, but who could believe in his strange methods and crazy argumentations?
If you're interested new and fresh ways of storytelling (only (!) in this aspect imagine the combination of the perfect Infernal Affairs and the more genious Tale of Two Sisters), if you believes that our cognitive and comprehensive limits are limits only for step them over, then watch it definitely!
Only one hint: If you're not sure about what is happening at the end (as honestly I wasn't sure either), check the imdb-discussion board about it. It's really worth, because the film is much more wiser than you would think after watching first time! Waiting for the dumb Hollywood version...
9/10
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