A crime film but also a sensitive character drama with one of To’s regular actors, Lau Ching Wan, in a convincing leading role. Carman Lee plays opposite him with equal conviction. Lau plays a scruffy police officer who mainly spends his time seducing women and consuming alcohol. Lee plays his neglected wife, who goes her own way and has meanwhile become pregnant by another man. The story soon takes a strange turn when the policeman is shot through the head by someone looking for revenge. He survives the attack, but is temporarily entirely dependent on his wife. He has also lost his sense of smell and taste, which forces him to value life differently. The film is very well made on all levels – from the acting through to the cutting. Much of the story development is set in the mind of the characters, but the director consciously does not use the usual procedure in the genre of monologue intérieur. He tells everything with pictures, which makes the film so special. In 1995 – not unusual for him – To scooped all the Hong Kong film prizes with this work. (GjZ)
