Ballistic

If you follow Taiwan politics at all, then you should know that they're a mess. And if you don't follow them, then you now have a sensationalized primer to give you a heads-up. Lawrence Lau directs Ballistic, a crime thriller that uses the turbulent world of Taiwanese politics to tell a riveting story of cops, corruption, and how righteousness still has value in this grey-shaded world. Or maybe that's just what it wants to be. Actually, Ballistic is more plodding than powerful, and its themes don't really run that deep, but the film manages both interest and entertainment value because of its crime movie trappings and sensationalistic storyline. It's questionable if the film achieves anything, but it's worth seeing nonetheless. The film opens with cop Yuchang (Joseph Chang of Eternal Summer) taking down an annoying young gangster in glorified "I'm a movie cop" style. However, his collar is negated when the shadowy higher-ups remove him from the case. What's going down? Simple: corruption and plenty of it. The gangster is the son of Pang (O Chun-Hung), a veteran gang leader who employs a Vietnamese killer named Jinshui (Gordon Lam, sporting fake bad skin to give him more street cred). Pang is in bed with senior government official Zhengbei (Chang Chu-Kuo, father of Chang Chen), who wants Pang and Jinshui to kill Taiwan's VP. But Yuchang and his stalwart boss Sun (Simon Yam) are tipped off to Jinshui's moves, and stakeout a key campaign parade in hopes of nabbing the killer. Can these incorruptible cops stop the assassination before Zhengbei and Pang make a mockery of the electoral process?