Heroic Duo (2003)

Director: Benny Chan

Writer: Yuen Kam Lun, Shun Fai Kwan

Producer: Benny Chan

Cast: Leon Lai Ming, Ekin Cheng Yee-Kin, Francis Ng Chun-Yu, Karena Lam (Ka Yan), Xu Jinglei (Xu Jing Lei), Raymond Wong, Samuel Pang King-Chi, Anson Leung (Chun Yat), Rico Kwok (Nik Hang)

Running Time: 101 mins

Plot: Kin, a member of the special G4 force, enlists the help of a psychologist to help him catch a police-officer-turned-thief who Kin believes has been hypnotized.

Availability: This title is available at HKflix.com

EQUINOX21'S REVIEW: What can I say about the movie that changed my opinion on the acting abilities of Leon Lai? Well, it wasn’t bad, that’s for sure. Heroic Duo was a fun and action filled movie out of Hong Kong that packs a good amount of entertainment punch… assuming you check in your disbelief in at the door.

When a well respected police officer breaks into the station’s storage locker and sets it on fire after stealing millions in diamonds, Kin (Ekin Cheng), head of the G4 unit, is brought in to investigate. The officer claims to have been hypnotized, before finally wrestling away a gun from another officer and blowing his own head off. Kin believs him and looks for incarcerated prisoners that might have been hypnotists in the past, he finds one in Jack Lai (Leon Lai). They release Jack into Kin’s custody where he eventually escapes with some more diamonds, with the help of a hypnotized Kin.  Kin is blamed and Jack is gone.  As none of the police believe Kin’s story, he is forced to escape, too. It’s then a cat and mouse game of searching for the diamonds, evading the police, and trying not to be killed by the generic evil bad guy (Francis Ng, playing his usual evil character to full effect). The story goes deeper than that, but you’ll just have to watch it to find out the details.

There are a lot of instances in this movie when I found myself getting angry at the stupid things the characters were or weren’t doing. But just ignoring the discrepancies between the movie world and real life, I was able to enjoy it for the most part. I mean, how many times does it take to learn that you don’t leave an expert hypnotist alone with ONE police officer guarding him? Oh well.

Leon Lai actually decided to come out of his normal shell and put on his acting face in this movie. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed him in other movies (he was brilliant in A Hero Never Dies, but his character was not meant to be flamboyant or show much in the way of emotion), but he’s always so straight faced. In Heroic Duo, get this, Leon Lai actually smiles! It was quick, and if you blink you might miss it, but it was there, sure enough. Not to knock the guy, but he just seems to play the same character in every movie, however in this one he did a bit more emoting than in any of his other movies that I’ve seen.

The other actors and actresses were all pretty decent. There wasn’t much to any of the characters, really. They were all fairly generic, but it was enjoyable enough. Karena Lam (as Kin’s girlfriend, and fellow cop, Brenda) and Francis Ng were both good in their parts. But, I’m sure this movie will end up as but a blip on their career screens.

Heroic Duo is, for all intents and purposes, the poor man’s “Running Out of Time”. Not a bad flick, but nothing to write home about (ironically, I’m writing this at home… hmmm). It’s probably not for everyone, but it’s at least worth a look-see.

EQUINOX21'S RATING: 7/10