Mad Detective

Original title: San taam

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

8.3K

YOUR RATING

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Crime Mystery Thriller

A rookie cop teams up with a former detective with a supernatural gift to hunt down a serial killer.A rookie cop teams up with a former detective with a supernatural gift to hunt down a serial killer.A rookie cop teams up with a former detective with a supernatural gift to hunt down a serial killer.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

8.3K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 7 wins & 11 nominations total

Bun
(as Lau Ching Wan)

Andy On

Inspector Ho Ka-on

Ka-Tung Lam

Ko Chi-wai
(as Lam Ka Tung)

Kelly Lin

May Cheung

Kwok-Lun Lee

Wong Kwok-chu
(as Lee Kwok Lun)

Choi-ning Lee

Gigi
(as Karen Lee)

Flora Chan

May Cheung - in Bun's eyes

Eddie Cheung

Violent Man - Ko's Inner Personality
(as Cheung Siu Fai)

Suet Lam

Fatso - Ko's Inner Personality
(as Lam Suet)

Jay Lau

Calculating Woman - Ko's Inner Personality
(as Lau Kam Ling)

Eddy Ko

The Chief

Jo Kuk

Cunning Woman - Ho's Inner Personality
(as Jo Koo)

Ling-To Yuen

Policeman
(as Yuen Ling To)

Jonathan Yat-Sing Lee

Weak Boy - Ho's Inner Personality
(as Jonathan Lee)

Ronald Yan

Ko's Boss

Wah-Wo Wong

Restaurant Manager

Apple Chow

7-11 Worker
(as Apple Chau)

Jackson Ha

Ko's Colleague

Directors
- Johnnie To
- Ka-Fai Wai
Writers
- Ka-Fai Wai
- Kin-Yee Au
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Goofs
At the beginning of the movie, when the main character is cutting his ear off, we can clearly see the half of it. (at around 63 mins) when the ear unfolds from the bandage we see a whole piece of it.

Quotes
Inspector Bun: [Bun talks to himself] If you shoot, you will be no different from everyone else.
Inspector Bun: [on second thought] I am human too. Why should I be any different?
[Bun pulls the trigger]

Crazy credits
In the part of the end credits sequence before the comprehensive lists of cast and crew begin to scroll, the lines of text of the credits are tilted counter clockwise, forming roughly thirty-degree slope/incline.

Alternate versions
Johnnie To and Ka-Fai Wai approved a new cut of the movie for the international market, with two scenes from the Hong Kong cut removed:
A scene after Bun buries himself under the ground visualizing a scenario where Ko Chi-Wai's spirits are planting fake evidence on the Indian as a murder suspect. The scene removed shows Bun "dreaming" and visualizing another scenario of Ho Ka-On's child spirit being chased and overpowered by Chi-Wai's seven spirits. One of Chi-Wai's spirits urges another of his spirits to shoot the child spirit dead, to complicate the police investigation, to which that spirit responds shooting the child spirit. This moment awakes Bun from his "sleep" under the ground.
The scene where Ho Ka-On is chasing a mask-wearing suspect through the streets before the two of them bump onto a moving truck separating each other. What follows are two different outcomes for respective cuts. In the Hong Kong cut, Ka-On is about to get up and sees the suspect who looks at Ka-On. The suspect starts to run towards Ka-On, who tries to reach for his gun but realizes that it's missing. The suspect points his gun at Ka-On and proceeds to search him and asks him where Ka-On has his gun. Ka-On responds saying that he lost it, and then the suspect kicks him down and starts hitting him with his gun while repeatedly asking for Ka-On's gun while Ka-On, being on his knees injured, repeats saying that he lost his gun. The suspect is shown pointing his gun at Ka-On again while thinking it's not worth killing him, and starts walking away. An overhead shot of Ka-On lying on the ground is shown afterward.

Connections
References Stray Dog (1949)

User reviews32

Review

Featured review

8/10

Re-thinking the detective genre

Johnnie To and Ka-Fai Wai have reinvented the detective genre and things will probably never be the same.

Inspector Ho is stumped by the disappearance of a detective 18 months earlier.Desperate for a break he looks to Bun, a genius profiler with whom he briefly worked years before...when Bun went crazy and was thrown off the force. A funny, tense un-nerving cop drama where nothing is certain. Is Bun a genius or crazy? Has Ho lost his mind? Where will it all end? Its a trip. I'd tell you more but I'm still trying to process what I saw since things shift from our reality to Bun's, often so its not clear. Its a trip and then some. Actually I'd be very surprised if this film doesn't end up with a cult following, an American remake and lots of articles written about it. Its just a nifty little thriller.

Definitely worth a viewing or two.