Overheard

2009 [CANTONESE]

Action / Crime / Thriller

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 77%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 77% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.1/10 10 3671 3.7K

Plot summary

The story revolves around three members of a police surveillance squad conducting an investigation into a financial investment group involved in criminal fraud. The focus of the plot, however, is actually on the three officers themselves who stumble upon an opportunity to capitalize on information they gathered during their surveillance.

Director

Alan Mak Photo
Alan Mak

Top cast

Louis Koo Photo
Louis Koo as Gene
Daniel Wu Photo
Daniel Wu as Max
Ben Yuen Photo
Ben Yuen as Raymend Tsui
Jingchu Zhang Photo
Jingchu Zhang as Mandy
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
913.2 MB
1280*544
Cantonese 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 1
1.83 GB
1920*816
Cantonese 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 9

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by lathe-of-heaven 6 / 10

I agree with Moviebest on this one... Great idea, but really diluted with a LOT of drama...

Basically that...I had seen this a while back and I remember liking it, as a matter of fact I originally gave it a '7' here. So, I wanted to see it again because I remember it being a really clever idea.It starts out great with some excellent intrigue, but very soon I feel anyway it really gets bogged way down by a TON of drama. I mean, I KNOW these Chinese movies usually include a lot of that and it does give the characters more depth and such. But, in this case, I honestly feel that they really overdid the Drama where about half way through this time, I just didn't even feel like finishing it.So, it is a very competently made film, and well acted with a nice interplay between the characters. But, like Moviebest's review here, I think that the story became to weighed down and sort of padded out with too much Drama.So, I lowered my rating to a '6' Still worthwhile, but not quite as sharp as I thought I remembered it.
Reviewed by kampolam-75813 8 / 10

Fairness Is Difficult - Review of Overheard

Alan Mak Siu-Fai and Felix Chong Man-Keung who made the last legend of Hong Kong Cinema with the "Infernal Affairs" (2002) series, the "dream combination" screenwriter-director parted ways with Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, and the two have co-directed many films, including "Moonlight in Tokyo" (2005) and "Lady Cop & Papa Crook" (2008), there have been no major breakthroughs, and the film level and box office are only mediocre. When "Overheard" (2009) cooperated with Yee Tung-Shing and Henry Fong Ping, it was brilliant. The film achieved good box office in both Hong Kong and the Mainland China. The audience and film critics responded positively. "Overheard" uses three police officers in the police intelligence department who are responsible for electronic tracking and eavesdropping. In an investigation into a listed company's suspected market creation case, he overheard the news of the expansion, and the three people were in danger for a while due to greed.The characters of the three protagonists have been clearly explained in the opening scenes of the film. Among them, the triangular relationship between Lau Ching-Wan, Zhang Jingchu and Alex Fong Chung-Shun, several paragraphs have presented the complicated relationship between couples, lovers, bosses and subordinates, and friends, their conflicts are quite clean and neat, without the sloppiness of their previous works. It seems that the producer Yee Tung-Shing deserves a credit. Louis Koo Tin-Lok's family and the troubles of terminal illness and the pressure of Daniel Wu Yin-Cho's "marrying into a wealthy family" from his father-in-law Henry Fong all caused them to have crooked thoughts. As a boss, Lau Ching-Wan faced two good partners and subordinates. He knew the law and broke the law and felt cruel to deal with it according to the law. And his own feelings towards Alex Fong and Zhang Jingchu could not distinguish right from wrong. The three tried to "quell" the incident by destroying the evidence and preventing the suspect from committing the murder, but they were still identified by Queenie Chu Wai-Man, a subordinate of the mastermind Michael Wong, which led to the murder of them and their relatives.The film highly dramatizes commercial crimes, and some of the unreasonable plots in the film become "natural" due to the tight plot and the fact that the general audience may not understand the operation of the financial market. However, there off-duty police officers went to the stock exchange to trade stocks, this behavior is unbelievable, and when the stock price continues to rise, the scene of a group of retail investors shouting and screaming is really unimaginable for Hong Kong stockholders who have experienced many ups and downs. Although the film has more or less flaws, the film is definitely the best work of the two directors since the "Infernal Affairs" series, plus the wonderful performances of many actors, including the frustrated and impulsive Louis Koo and misguided Daniel Wu, they quite competent. And Lau Ching-Wan is more able to integrate and control the rhythm of the film.At the end of the film, Lau Ching-Wan and Louis Koo fought back and took revenge on Michael Wong, who was apparently a successful businessman and philanthropist, but was actually a criminal. Even the boss Lam Ka-Wah colluded with Louis Koo and Michael Wong to drive into the sea together to "return justice" to his family and Daniel Wu. This "violence and violence' method will make the audience feel psychologically satisfied. But it lacks a kind of introspection. In their "Infernal Affairs II" (2003), after Eric Tsang Chi-Wai used Anthony Wong Chau-Sang to kill his wife's murderer Francis Ng Chun-Yu, Anthony Wong complained Eric Tsang did not have the opportunity to send a criminal to court for trial, and the film was more conscious of the law in addition to satisfying the audience.By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)
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