At first glance, “A Witness out of the blue (犯罪現場)” is just a typical murder mystery thriller. When a robber is found murdered, his partner in crime, Sean Wong (Louis Koo) becomes the main suspect, and the only eye witness is a parrot at the crime scene. The direct translation of the movie title “犯罪現場” literally means “crime scene”, and refers to the opening scene of the movie. This crime scene becomes the central cause of tension among the film’s characters and is also the source of Wong’s psychological trauma and various hallucinations. Hot on his trail is Detective Larry Lam (Louis Cheung) and Commanding Officer Yip Sau Ching (Philip Keung), who will stop at nothing to arrest Wong. Yip firmly believes Wong is the killer, but Lam is unsure.
The main issue I have with the film is that the mystery is too predictable. Halfway through the movie, it becomes very obvious who the culprit was. Or were. The setup for the mystery was interesting, but towards the end of the film it got quite sloppy and some moments played out disappointingly.
Despite this, Louis Koo’s chilling performance is intensely captivating. Wong is a ruthless robber who doesn’t hesitate to gun down police officers and is not remorseful for the crimes he committed. Yet his brotherhood with the other robbers is evident when they get surrounded by the police in the jewellery shop, and he simply says, “I’ll take the fall”, before firing at the police. His cold heart soon begins to melt after meeting the legally blind landlady Joy (Jessica Hsuan). During his stay at Joy’s apartment, Joy and the other elderly tenants become a surrogate family for Wong, and it is here where we first see Wong smile. In a later scene, where Joy believes Wong saved her life, she gives him a hug. After she leaves, Wong struggles to hold back his tears, and even though he does not cry, it is that internal struggle that tears at our hearts as we realise he is just a lonely, stressed-out man in need of care and love.
Although “A Witness out of the Blue” has a somewhat happy ending, its message is heavy. Security guard Tony Ho (Andy On) mentions in the film, “The world is not supposed to be like this.” Indeed, the world should be fair. But it isn’t. There is no absolute black and white, and nobody is purely good or evil. Just as there are two sides to a coin, there are two sides to humanity. And with that, Fung Chih Chiang’s mystery thriller turns out to be much more than what’s on the surface.
★★★½ (3.5 stars out of 5)
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