Foreign films always tend to be a crapshoot for me. Not whether they’re good or not; that’s a toss-up with all movies. It’s just that sometimes it’s difficult to judge a foreign movie if it is too dependent upon the culture it comes from. A film may be great in its own nation, but if it relies too much on concepts and ideas unique to that nation, then it becomes incomprehensible to foreign audiences who do not share the necessary cultural upbringing. Fortunately, the story of That Demon Within (魔警) explores ideas universal to all people.
That Demon Within (魔警), created by Hong Kong director Dante Lam, follows police officer Dave Wong as he helps the Hong Kong PD track down a gang of murderous jewel thieves who always wear demon masks during their crimes. As Dave works to track them down, however, not all is as it seems. Slowly, the movie reveals a dash of psychological horror as Dave slowly loses his mind. Just as he fights external villains, he must also struggle with his own internal battle. While it never achieves full horror film levels, it manages to balance well-choreographed and satisfactory fight scenes with an (un)healthy dose of mental insanity.
Films from foreign studios sometimes have a few technical issues as they lack the resources available to many Hollywood studios, and this film has a couple of those issues. There are inevitably a few questionable translations, dodgy special effects, and one of the actresses seems to have had virtually every one of her lines dubbed over in postproduction for some reason. However, none of these issues are major hindrances to enjoying the film (even if the dubbed over lines are a bit distracting).
Films from foreign studios sometimes have a few technical issues as they lack the resources available to many Hollywood studios, and this film has a couple of those issues. There are inevitably a few questionable translations, dodgy special effects, and one of the actresses seems to have had virtually every one of her lines dubbed over in postproduction for some reason. However, none of these issues are major hindrances to enjoying the film (even if the dubbed over lines are a bit distracting).
I think the key to foreign films is whether their stories have the ability to speak across cultural and linguistic barriers and say something universal about all people, and That Demon Within (魔警) succeeds at that. We all have parts of ourselves we would like to suppress, we all have done things we would rather forget. We all have our own demons. We can all sympathize with Dave because we can all relate to him; all place ourselves in his shoes. Any one of us could be him, with a push in the wrong direction, and that’s the scariest part. Dave is all of us, and every one of us is him, and that speaks to every one of us, no matter where we grew up or what tongue we speak. That Demon Within could just as easily be mine or yours.
Grade: B
Grade: B
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