Masters of Cinema Marathon #2 - Mad Detective (2007)

[@WolfGratz]

I finally got round to watching this last night. Stack me it's an impressive, if less than logically consistent, piece of work. I think the various alternative translations of "hidden personalities" may make more sense, especially given the ending, but then that ambiguity is an essential part of the film - as Boardwell points out in his essay an American movie would probably have inserted some bs clinical diagnosis and the story s=would have been poorer for it. On the ending - love the homage to Welles' Lady From Shanghai (this is that scene on steroids), the last twist and the impossibility of a tidy resolution.

[@RazorwireReviews]

Yeah that mirror scene is so great. And yep, no doubt a Psycho-esque "so here's what you just saw" scene would have been included in a more western take of this!

[@jamesfaulks2365]

Mad detective was great, I just found it a little confusing and boring during the middle, but the last 20 minutes is excellent and the idea of the inner personalities is so original. 8/10

[@RazorwireReviews]

+James Faulks I totally get that, totally, and that's kind of how I felt about it on the first watch. If you haven't given it a second look maybe you'd dig it more, maybe you wouldn't, but I'm so glad I decided to rewatch it for this video!

[@yongmai4913]

Need to watch twice or three times to undertand the whole ideas.

[@petejones2494]

Great to see the continuation of this series, been looking forward to this. Will have to watch in full tomorrow, but hope you're feeling better soon :)

[@RazorwireReviews]

+Pete Jones Thanks! This was filmed about six weeks ago so I'm feeling much better haha.

[@petejones2494]

+RazorwireReviews Glad to hear :) I skipped the end as I intend to purchase this in the near future but enjoyed what I watched of the review. I'll have to start buying more quickly to get 'ahead' of your reviews.

[@RazorwireReviews]

Cool! Thanks for watching. Yeah I plan on speeding up considerably with this series so you might very well have to haha.

[@SuccessforLifester]

I find it interesting that you gave a series of warnings about spoilers towards the end and yet provided plotlines as you continued 😁

[@Mijonju]

Does no one realize that the ending cannot be solved by making up a story because of the ID on the gun plus who shot who. It's brilliant..

[@Mijonju]

Write it in a paper try to solve it,

[@SuccessforLifester]

Spoilers A trivia : in the China Chinese version, they removed the guns switching in the end and the rookie called the police to confess about the crime. By the way it is possible that the Rookie might have to kill his girlfriend too to cover up the perfect crime.

[@GrantScullion]

Great video, you've convinced me to finally watch Mad Detective [it's been on my shelf for about a year...]. I'm really looking forward to your next video in the series as I loved Tokyo Sonata and would love to hear someone else thoughts on the films as it seem fairly under the radar [and I consider it to be a masterpiece, apart from an awkward tonal shift midway through].

[@RazorwireReviews]

+AnimeFanGrant62 Great! I hope you enjoy it. I just watched Tokyo Sonata two days ago, so the video will be coming very soon :)

[@jamesfaulks2365]

Great video mate, these are the best videos of yours, looking forward to seeing your opinion on Tokyo Sonata (#3) cause I loved that film

[@RazorwireReviews]

+James Faulks Thanks man, didn't see this second comment at first! Cool, #3 will be coming VERY soon :)

[@RayRayYo0ng9Uyo0n9]

I here to tell you the answer why Bun cut off the ear and give it to officers. Cantonese have a word Mou yi( wai bou=no things can worthy to repay/rewards = cause the senior officers is the only person Bun didn't see any(ghost) from him.means the officers are integrity.Bun is giving a full respect. Yi is also as same meaning (Ear) in Cantonese

[@Mijonju]

Please do a review for minbo no onna

[@ATouchOfFilm1]

Great review man! I really liked Mad Detective. Johnnie To did make some better films though with Election and Drug War. But Mad Detective is a great movie.

[@RazorwireReviews]

+A Touch Of Film Cheers man. Never seen anything else he's done so nothing to judge on. It is indeed!

[@RMarsupial]

I don't think it's entirely fair to just let Johnnie To "off the hook" because it might be cultural or something. There's probably a bit of a difference but I don't think it's a good excuse. I think what's kind of more interesting is that if you think about, many, MANY films are just as "chauvinist" as Johnnie To's films, and they aren't usually asked about and don't usually give a reason, but really their reason is probably just as bad. Love this film. Don't have the Masters of Cinema edition though. I would seriously recommend Drug War and Election and Election 2. Also if you look at Johnnie To's ouput, I think he *might* be a "Mad Director"! EDIT: Also Yokyo Sonata is brilliant!

[@RazorwireReviews]

+R. Ringshifter Well I may not have expressed my thoughts on the matter as clear as I would've liked. His comments have definitely soured me to him personally, and I also feel like he's trying to downplay certain things. I'm sure he's very happy with Mad Detective, but yet he acts as if it was made completely on the fly and he just happened to make it work without much planning, don't think I buy it. And I was merely taking the cultural side of it into account to perhaps begin to explain his perception of women, but not to let him off the hook per se. Besides it's an uneducated guess on my part, I really have no idea how women are treated and perceived over there. I suppose, though I never got any kind of chauvinist vibe from the film, it was only when asked about women in the Q&A and his response was "I'm a chauvinist", that I even thought about Johnnie To's view of female actresses. Thanks for the recommendations, I'd be intrigued to check out more of his work for sure, but as I say, his comments in the special features soured me on him a little to say the least. I mean, sure, he has balls for being honest about it, I'll give him that, but it's not much to give either. Yes I just watched that this week and will be reviewing it very soon, thanks for the comment!

[@RMarsupial]

RazorwireReviews I wouldn't let his attitude put you off his (brilliant) films. It is that kind of thing, were one film (like this one) where female characters aren't a big deal or just cause trouble isn't chauvinist on it's own, but it's kind of the fact that so many films work like that that kind of makes the whole "situation" "chauvinist". So I mean he's saying he's chauvinist because he doesn't think women are as important in films but really a lot of films are like that so is it really that different? The only difference is that he's saying he's a chauvinist whereas other filmmakers would probably say something like "female protagonist don't sell" or something. I would kind of need to see the interview... I get the feeling he might be being sort of sardonic. But yeah I agree with you about him saying the film just sort of fell together... but on the otherhand, he DOES make a crazy amount of films.