Dai Si Gein

Johnnie To

IndieLisboa 2004 •

Hong Kong, Fiction, 2004, 90′

When an ambulatory TV news unit live broadcasts the embarrassing defeat of a police battalion by five bank robbers in a ballistic showdown, the credibility of the police force drops to a nadir. Vowing to capture the robbers at all cost, the policemen in the whole city, some thirty thousand of them, are mobilized to patrol every possible exit route and city border. While on a separate investigation in a run-down building. While on a separate investigation on a run-down buiding, detective Cheung of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau accidentally discovers the hideout of the robbers. Led by the ultra-cool Yuen, the five-man gang soon find the building besieged by thousands of policemen. Cheung and his men have also entered the building, getting ready to take their foes out any minute. Meanwhile, in order to beat the media at its own game, Inspector Rebecca decides to turn the stakeout into a breaking news show. Entering the building accompanied by officers with wireless cameras atop their helmets, she promises to feed live footages of their operation to the media. The whole of Hong kong is glued to their TV sets, eager to devour the latest action in real time. Oblivious to them all, the building is occupied by yet another gang. Attacked from both sides, Cheung’s team suffers from serious casualities but Rebecca doctors her footage, reporting nothing but good news. Only when Yuen has taken some residents hostage and releases the close-circuit TV footage to the news stations is she forced to release the true footage to the public in all its gory details.