The Corruptor-1999

I rented the DVD version of The Corruptor and was immediately drawn into the story most especially from the quality directing.From the onset in the opening sequence, we the audience realize that this isn’t your usual kung fu good cop/bad cop action movie. Again the craftmanship of the film leads the way. The use of color, lighting, and visual directing serves to only enhance the mystique and intrigue of characters – notably Chow Yun Fat’s role. The story may be nothing to all that original, but yet it still works. The violence is fitting and justified — it serves to make the movie seem that more real, rooted in the actual urban environment that is it’s backdrop.I highly recommend this film to anyone who appreciates action movies which attempt to try and not to dumb it down, or play to the lowest common denominator. Stupid quips and hollow characters will not carry a movie no matter how elaborate the explosions and martial arts may be.The Corruptor: B+/A-

The Corrupter rides high on style and action, some of it’s action sequences are awesomely and coolly shot. Parts of that car chase were breathtakingly thrilling, I felt I was there. It’s a huge surprise, considering the film is directed by James Foley who makes films I LIKE, he’s best still being in my opinion, the very underrated, At Close Range. A second inning onto the American market, Chow Yun Fat, lives this film up. I agree, he is the coolest Asian actor, who can act. Speaking of actors, their all terrific. Wahlberg’s solid as the young rookie, undercover cop, partnered with the shady head of the Asian task force, Fat, who thinks he can play on both sides of the law and still come out clean and cool, like his parading self. Ric Young who’s the godfather of Chinatown, controlling the whole corrupt show, while buying a few cops, is so slick and slimy, in his role, he’s lovable, a big paunchy China doll. Most impressive though as rising hood, climbing up the ladder, very quick before his time, is Byron Mann, as Bobby Vu, while too, I also liked Brian Cox, always solid, as Wahlberg’s, bum of a gambling, ex cop, and weathered father, who always implores his son to get him out of his indebted messes. Too, The Corrupter has an darn interesting story, if sometimes confusing, and this I think could be it’s fault, where to un confuse it, you might have to wrack your brain a bit. But it has more meat to it, than Chow’s last simple storied, show and cool action piece, The short, sharp, and sweet actioner, The Replacement Killers. Also I liked Paul Ben Victor as the Head FBI chief, butting heads with Fat, a mutual and silent hate exchanged. Fat shows great emotion, especially in parts where he finds out, he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Too, you will notice some faults in some action parts of The Corrupter, but Foley, has crafted a very slick action pic, the early scene with Fat shooting up a light store, had me underestimating the action side of it, when I saw it at the cinema in 99. From here, it was confirmed I was in for one hell of a ride. The movies cool from the word go, and I mean from the word “Go” the cool, deviously, and shady fitting music score by Carter Burwell as the opening credits fade in and out of The larger font movie Title was an impressive start, where an explosion in the first scene, is a great invitation, which you’ll get here among a little bit of T and A, too that doesn’t go astray, where Fat always looks after his partner. The action finale on that big ship, even though played out a bit, is climactic, involving and again, cool, if shockingly affecting, not just for one thing. Foley too, plays around with some beautifully overhead shots of the big Apple. Here’s a film he should be proud of, despite a lot of negativity from a few real movie critics, towards it. I almost love this as much as ACR. One of the coolest films you’ll ever see.

In a world of no rules (as the log line says), films like this are bound to happen. Without a foundation from which to tell a story, corruption isn’t just something that happens to be part of the title of this film, it’s at the very core of why this film even exists.Very briefly, this film is about two cops who work in the middle of gangland Chinatown in New York. One cop, Nick Chen (played by Chow Yun-Fat), knows that he has to break some rules to get to the bad guys. The other cop, Don Wallace (Mark Wahlberg) is a rookie cop who seems to be as straight-laced as Jimmy Stewart. So with this cliche all set, the film moves into a storyline of two gangs at war with each other and detectives Nick and Don dive in head first.After all of the set-up then, the rest of the film is a very bad attempt at being clever: The double- and triple-crosses aren’t nearly as surprising as finding the morning paper on your doorstep every morning. The action is gratuitous and lends nothing to the film, let alone the imagination. The violence is unbearable and most alarmingly, goes towards glorifying gang warfare and not discouraging it. The sex is… well, it’s what it is in all movies these days: unnecessary, uninvolving, brutal, irresponsible, and stupid. The high-key lighting style of the cinematographer is completely out of place in this film since there’s nothing to really be suspenseful about. And this film absolutely does not merit any comparison to the film-noir genre even though you get the sense (if being pounded over your head with something means “sense”) that the director tries for it. For all of the black and white spaces created by using high-key lighting, the underpinning absence of a clear morality actually undermines this story instead of enhancing it.Usually, audiences assume that when you’re a cop, you stand for all that is good. Well, at least that’s what people used to assume. In any case, even in an absence of a clear line of good and bad, a strong story with good, strong characters will arise and tell a tale that makes people think about what is good and bad. This film just makes you wonder if there are any good cops out there at all (I don’t mean boy scouts).Why does everyone have to be so corrupted in movies these days? Why does it have to be so dark? I don’t believe the line that says, “It’s dark because that’s reality.” It’s only a portion of reality and even then, it’s only because certain people in this society think it’s cool to have a smoking gun and a smoking piece of garbage in your mouth. How dumb is that?Bottom line is, this film lacks a moral underpinning that makes all movies great. Whether this morality is challenged, questioned, or turned upside-down makes no difference. At least a morality exists. In THE CORRUPTOR, there is no morality to do anything with. That’s why in this film, the violence is gratuitous, the sex uninteresting, the double- and triple-crosses obvious. It’s just a stupid movie.

Poor Chow Yun-Fat: he pays his dues in HK cinema, rising to Asian superstar, and gets a crack at Hollywood fame only to share the limelight with an ex-boy-band singer/underwear model in a mediocre crime drama.The Corrupter, directed by James Foley, opens promisingly enough with a shootout in a shop that could have been straight out of a John Woo movie, but soon settles into tedious mode with the introduction of Mark Wahlberg, who exudes all the personality of a dim sum dumpling. Wahlberg plays cop Danny Wallace, assigned to the Asian Gang Unit in New York, working alongside Lt. Chen (Yun-Fat), who is in the pocket of the Tong triads. It eventually turns out that Wallace is internal affairs, his job to collect the dirt on Chen, but predictably, he comes to realise that although Chen isn’t playing by the rules, he isn’t such a bad cop after all. Yawn.There’s quite a lot of shooting, with satisfyingly bloody squib-work, and a half-decent car chase scene midway that results in the deaths of numerous innocent bystanders, but this is heavily outweighed by the forgettable drama, which isn’t helped by some dreary guff about Wallace’s strained relationship with his father (played by Brian Cox). It wouldn’t be long before Chow Yun Fat returned to his homeland to make films, and judging by The Corrupter, who could blame him?

*one minor spoiler*My thoughts on this one…. I liked this. The Corruptor is a good blend of action and drama. In this you may believe that gun-ninja, Chow Yun-Fat is to be a bad guy but you realize that he isn’t. He is actuall a corrupt, but good cop in what I can say is a contradictory role for Yun-Fat(in a different role from the one in Replacement Killers). I liked how he went to extreme measures on his cases including one part where there was a rival officer on his case from the FBI. In this with him is Mark Wahlberg as a rookie cop interested in the well being of the Chinese immigrants but also has a secret of his own. The buddy role between Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg is pretty cool and the action in this film was well-done including one car chase that really stood out like a black sheep in a flock of white. It can be confusing at times but sometimes to enjoy something you must suspend thought even though this was a decent story with heart and action.

“The Corruptor” is a movie that can’t quite decide what it wants to be. For a long time I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t like this movie as much as some of Chow Yun-Fat’s earlier work. Unlike many, I enjoyed “The Replacement Killers,” and I was looking forward to this one, his second American effort. Upon seeing it for a second time, I think I have it figured out.The classic Chow/Woo collaborations that came out of Hong Kong in the late ’80s and early ’90s worked so well because the storylines were fairly simple, and the emphasis was on mind-blowing action. Themes such as brotherhood, loyalty and redemption were strongly emphasized. In short, they were myths. And they worked exceptionally well.Then, when all the Asian stars came to Hollywood, starting with Jackie Chan and followed by Chow, Woo, Jet Li, etc. this classic formula was imitated, but American film makers just haven’t got it right yet. “The Replacement Killers” tried, and I think succeeded in a limited sense. The action was good, but Chow’s acting ability was not fully used. Still, it stayed successfully away from the “American phenomenon.” Too often, American film makers take successful film concepts, then throw a bunch of sex and profanity in, seemingly at random, to make it “grittier,” or “more realistic.” Unfortunately, this just makes a good concept confused and reduces its impact. “The Replacement Killers” remained focused on action at all times and thus succeeded to a point.Other times one genre is unsuccessfully grafted on to another. Thus we have “The Corruptor.” It takes the Hong Kong “heroic bloodshed,” format and for some reason tries to make it into “L.A. Confidential.” The excessive violence so popular in the HK films seems out of place and gratuitous here, because it is presented in the same context and the same world as where illegal immigrants are tortured and killed and corruption works its way throughout the NYPD. Somehow, both legitimate genres are denigrated as a result. The action seems anemic if you take the movie as heroic bloodshed, and if it’s taken as film noir, the violence seems unrealistic and stupid. So it fails on both accounts.Still, its great to see Chow acting in an American movie, and he has an undeniable screen presence here, as always, while Wahlberg is competent enough and the supporting cast is pretty good.So, to summarize: The story is a little too convoluted and remains somewhat unconvincing; the action, such as it is, is good, especially the chase scene, but doesn’t work in context because it is presented in a framework of gritty realism. Finally, at the end of the movie, there seems to be no clear point to the film; unlike with the HK films, the viewer is left with no understanding of what the whole thing was really about. Add to that the rather unsympathetic main characters, who more often than not come across as pathetic losers than anti-heroes, and the movie really doesn’t work.Rating: 6.8/10, but it would be less if it didn’t have Chow Yun-Fat, my favourite actor, who does his best to try and save the film.

On the surface this is just an old fashioned tale of a slightly wet newbie cop teaming up with a hardened veteran , in short it`s a buddy movie that were very common in the late 80s/early 90s but what sets THE CORRUPTER apart from similar movies is just how stylish it all is . James Foley started his career by directing videos but with one brief exception this doesn`t really show too much with his action style being inspired by the likes of John Woo and Hong Kong action movies . There`s some superb technical aspects such as the editing and the cinematography is breath taking especially the scenes where light filters through windows and we see the spectrum imposed on the characters faces There are some flaws to the movie of course . One is Foley has cast actors whose native tongue is not English which does cause some unintentional sniggers namely when the characters mention the word ” Fokkien ” , yeah okay I know it`s set in Chinatown but as is common in movies no one will complain if the characters speak perfect English no matter their ethnic origin or upbringing . The script does get a bit confused and complicated in the final third which did spoil the movie slightly and some people will no doubt be put off by the sometimes over the top violence , but as a violent thriller I was entertained by this movie

People who are not aware of Chow Yun-Fat’s legacy in Hong Kong consider him to be skilled in ‘Kung-Fu’, something they know from watching ‘Bulletproof Monk and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’..This is a complete fallacy. Chow Yun-Fat is not trained in any sort of martial arts, he started his career doing Dramas and playing romantic roles which of course were tied in with the epic gun fights, that created an entire genre of film, now known as ‘Bloodshed’.Therefore, it was natural that Chow Yun Fat would look to expand his portfolio by conquering Hollywood, sadly that has not happened, instead he has travelled back and forth from Hollywood to Hong Kong as a shadow of an actor he once was, simply because the roles are not being given to him….Yet, the Corrupter; I felt, displayed Chow Yun-Fat’s talents as an dramatic actor capable of going toe to toe with America’s finest; he’s suave, smooth, sexy and more importantly cool.The Corrupter is about a cop named Chen, who is one of the best in China Town; unfortunately he is given a new partner, Wallace (Mark Wahlberg) who needs guidance and is a little too ‘green’ for his own good. Wallace soon realises that in order to find criminals in China Town, you have to go to bed with them…make back alley deals; give something in order to receive something. The acting is of the highest calibre, every one gives a brilliant performance, but Chow rises above them all, even out-shining Mark, the action scenes are again brilliant.

New York’s Chinatown is the background for this story about cops assigned to the area who are pursuing the Chinese gangs that operate within the neighborhood. Nick Chen, is a much admired cop who understands the people and the underground. When a white cop arrives to Chen’s precinct things get a bit tense. Nick Chen takes Wallace under his wing and shows him the ropes.The film starts with a big bang, as a Chinese gang has wired a corner restaurant and blows it in a big explosion. Danny Wallace, who is at first cautious, is able to overcome his awkwardness and gains Chen’s support. When Danny is almost killed, he tells Chen he owes him his life. What Chen doesn’t suspect is that Danny is doing his own undercover investigation about what goes on in Chinatown.When prostitutes begin appearing dead in empty trash bins, Wallace realizes there is much more going on in the area. All points out of Uncle Benny’s doing, but also involved is the powerful Henry Lee, a man that has a lot of interests in Chinatown and has his hands into gambling, prostitution and illegal smuggling. Nick Chen might be involved in some of the corruption. Danny Wallace’s father, also a cop, comes to his son for money to keep his habit, and finally is found in his son’s apartment, where he has collapsed. Nick and Danny’s friendship will be put through a test.James Foley, an otherwise good director, brings some good ideas, but clearly, this genre demands someone else with more experience. Mr. Foley produced a stylishly looking film with a superb cinematography by Juan Ruiz-Anchia who loves to photograph from the air. His take of the Chinatown location is one of the best things in the movie. Also, the moody music by Carter Burwell seems to go hand in hand with what we are watching. Robert Pucci’s screen play is full of twists and complications.Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg show an easy chemistry in their work. These actors compliment one another and make their characters seem real. The terrific Ric Young is perfectly reptile as he develops his Henry Lee, a corrupt man. Brian Cox turns up briefly as Sean Wallace, Danny’s father.Be prepared for a lot of action!

They say everyone has a secret. The Corruptor is a prime example of this saying because everyone in Chinatown is hiding something in this movie. Detective Nick Chen, played by international star Chow Yun-Fat, heads the Asian Crime Unit in his precinct. Chen is a decorated hero with many years on the force. He is also in the back pocket of Uncle Benny, the leader of the old-line gang in the city. Because of this he is fighting even harder to take down the Fukienese Dragons, a gang of young Chinese recently arrived to America. Adding to his problems Chen has a new cop in his unit, Mark Wahlberg plays Danny Wallace. Wallace is a rookie with his own secrets including a father who owes the Italian mob a large sum of money. The Corruptor is fun! Any movie that starts off with an entire storefront exploding and the one `survivor’ being gunned down as he comes out the door is bound to grab your attention. Many gunfights and chase scenes later you even realize there is a story here. Mark Wahlberg continues to improve as an actor though it is hard to think of him as anything other than `Marky Mark.’ Chow Yun-Fat is the main reason to see this movie. He was a star in China for many years before we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of him. His English has improved immensely from his first American movie, The Replacement Killers, and his charisma is at the level that it always has been. When Chow is on the screen it is hard to watch others and it will definitely be interesting to see him in the remake of The King and I with Jodie Foster. James Foley directed this movie. It’s not for everyone but if movies like Hard-Boiled and The Killer entertained you then check out The Corruptor. It’s worth it!

The Corruptor is Chow Yun-Fat`s second American film. This is more like an explosive thriller, rather than his usual non-stop action-films. There is a handful of actionscenes and a cool car chase, though. Chow Yun-Fat is Nick Chen, a cop in Chinatown, who is corrupt as you may have guessed. Mark Wahlberg is Danny Wallace, a white cop, who is transferred to Chinatown, and becomes Chen`s partner. Danny soon discovers that not everything is quite how it should be with Chen, who has a lot of money & and overlooks many crimes in Chinatown. The Corruptor is a movie about the releationship between Chen and Wallace. I must say that I didn`t like Mark Wahlberg at all, because his performance is poor. Chow Yun-Fat carries this movie by himself, and he has a lot more dialogue now than in The Replacement Killers. If you like Chow Yun-Fat or actionflicks, you should consider watching this one night. It has not got as much action as The Replacement Killers, but it has a far better story and better acting. 8/10

This is a Hong Kong action flick with a distinct taste of the west. The movie starts off with a bombing and small store shoot-out that is right out of John Woo’s stylebook but then it under goes a change. The story starts taking over and it is one of intrigue within intrigue. There are great moments of action with two guns blazing and an unbelievable amount of bullets but the story becomes the main thing. This works as glue that a lot of Hong Kong movies don’t have. There are long pauses of plot developments between double crossing bad guys that are a real change to what is a typical Hong Kong action flick.The director John Foley likes to place people in positions where they have to make critical decisions under pressure (At Close Range and Fear) and this is no exception. A caring cop caught up in a situation of corruption is under constant pressure to decide what is right. You are kept guessing as to his ultimate decision but the pressure is there under a dozen different situations. The sub-plots add to the texture of this movie and add to its richness. These side stories of the bad cop father in trouble, the interaction of rival Chinese gangs and his love of Asian culture are all parts of the puzzle that is Danny Wallace played by Mark Wahlberg. Foley knows Wahlberg from the direction of his acting breakthrough in Fear and uses him at what he does best, the confused tough guy with the sensitive agenda. (His latest movie `The Yards’ is an example of what I mean). Nick Chen the experienced street cop played by Chow Yun-Fat is the perfect slightly crazy hard-hitting loner, who has embedded himself in the struggle of rival gangs in New York’s Chinatown. There is no black and white here, only shades of gray, in a world of who is doing what to whom but like the cultural differences between East and West the relationships between individuals overcomes the hard facts of doing business on the street.A very good blend of the Hong Kong actions movie that was brought in by Chow Yun-Fat (if you hear the commentary that Foley never saw a Woo movie) and what Foley’s image is for street life in New York. Coming from New York and living and working in Asia gives me insight into the homework that went into the making of this movie and I will say they did a very good job.

Nick Chen is a tough as nails New York cop who works on both sides of the law. When a new rookie cop is assigned to his unit he sees how the local crime boss tries to corrupt him and Chen reconsiders his ethics. All the while a few twists and turns show who is really playing who.This is by no means a very original movie, especially for Chow Yun-Fat. His first American film, ‘The Replacement Killers,’ also was kind of a re-run, but what is there to say? He’s good at this type of stuff.Just like ‘The Replacement Killers’ this film was also a flop at the box office and it is probably through its gritty and uncompromising tone. Yeah, there’s action and intense shootouts, but it is not like ‘Die Hard’ or anything. Innocent people die, the ending isn’t happy, but what matters is that the film isn’t cheesy – it pulls no sucker punches or cheap thrills. It sticks to the characters while keeping the action secondary, but no less intense. The plot too is also pretty interesting and is a little more intricate than ‘The Replacement Killers’ or Chow Yun-Fat’s cult hits from Hong Kong like ‘Hard Boiled.’ It is not quite a masterpiece of genre, but remains a solid crime thriller nonetheless. 8/10Rated R: strong violence, and profanity