BLIND DETECTIVE

Hong Kong, 2012, 130 minutes, Colour.
Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng.
Directed by Johnny To.

The idea behind Blind Detective seems rather whacko! How can a blind detective actually detect? This film certainly gives the answers, a blend of the serious and comic, and some outlandish scenes including a shootout and blind driving.
The film should be seen in the tradition of the Hong Kong dramas about police and crime detection. The director of this film, Johnny To, has contributed a great deal to this tradition over more than 20 years. This time he is working with the lighter touch.
We are introduced to Johnston, Andy Lau, who has lost his sight during his work as a policeman. Now he tracks down criminals and survives on the bounty money. We see him immediately in action following a large man who looks innocent but in fact has a career in throwing sulphuric acid on to crowds from the top of buildings. Johnston saves the day, but his police rival, especially for the affections of a tango dancer in the past, tricks him out of the bounty money. But he does offer to give him a meal, a considerable gift because Johnston, though very thin, has a huge appetite for food and spends a lot of the time of the film eating. But the police rival, watching Johnston through binoculars, asks the young woman in the force who is out buying food, to follow Johnston. She is hugely impressed by his work and visits him in hospital, after he has been hurt with sulphuric acid, to express her admiration and ask whether she could work with him.
The rest of the film is seeing the young woman and Johnston working together, re-creating scenes of crimes, re-living them, imagining action, asking questions, the film visualizing what is going on in Johnston’s imagination. This leads, of course, to some bizarre episodes.
However, the young woman wants to locate a school friend who disappeared and this becomes linked with quite a number of women who have disappeared in Hong Kong over a period of seven years. This does lead them to a killer, quite a bizarre killer, but the disappearance of the young schoolgirl is quite another story. And this takes smart detection, mysterious twists, including some murders, and a birth scene.
Some audiences may not get the Hong Kong sense of humour. Others may think it is all rather silly. But, if the audience surrenders to the basic idea, there is a lot to interest and entertain.

1. The Hong Kong cinema industry, tradition? Police thrillers, crime, variations on these themes?
2. The films of Johnny To, his contribution to the tradition?
3. The title, audience expectations? Character, action?
4. The Hong Kong locations, the streets, the markets, restaurants, taxis, homes, shops? Outside Hong Kong, the countryside? The bizarre location for the killer? The musical score?
5. Setting the scene, the acid thriller? The newspaper headlines? Seeing the blind detective following the man, using his senses, especially smell? Szeto and his watching, the binoculars, and her buying the food, asking Ho to follow the detective, in the streets, in the supermarket, dropping the sulphuric acid, continuing with the smells, going to the roof, Ho calling in, throwing the acid, Johnston’s arm and the injury, capturing the man? The police coordinating the evacuation?
6. The character of Ho, the police work, buying the food, following Johnston, going to the hospital, declaring her admiration? Asking his help, the meal and his drinking, sick, her taking him home, the toilet and the bath, her inherited wealth? Her asking him to take on the case?
7. Acting out the cases, going to the morgue, the assistance, the crime, acting, the visualizing of Johnston’s imagination? The corpse, the murders, the timing, Ho, a third person, the strangling? Ho and her getting involved, too intensely?
8. The method for the crimes, reliving them, recreating them, using the imagination, asking the right questions?
9. The background of the tango dancer, looking out the window, her choosing Szeto rather than Johnston? Her involvement with the police, coming to give Johnston the information?
10. Minny’s disappearance, and motivation? The disappearances of the other women? The visualising of the women, of their actions, their emotions, getting the dates, speculating on the reasons? Johnston and his control? Ho and her concern? So involved, for example, her cutting herself four times? The tattoo? Taxis and the information, leading to the driver, his madness, the encounter with him, the bones and skulls? The gun in the pot and Johnston retrieving it? Their fighting with the killer, Johnston shooting, blindly successful?
11. Minnie and her story, her appearance, the possibilities, tracking down Joe, the meal in the restaurant, his anxieties answering the questions, his partner and his wife? Joe’s wife and her pregnancy? Creating the scene? The phone calls, giving information? Johnston and his going to the restaurant, the imagining of Joe poisoning him? The story about Minnie following the taxi? Her going to the boat, getting into the container, 27 days, getting out, staying near Joe, the plastic surgery, marrying him? Pregnancy? Her madness, killing Joe and his partner’s wife? Giving birth? Ho assisting her?
12. Ho and her wounds, the driving and guiding Johnston, literally driving blind? The hospital? Her waking up, following Johnston, assisting at the birth?
13. Years later, the happy family, the little girl wanting mango ice cream, identifying the criminal, Ho chasing her? The happy family, the set-up, detection?