Mad Detective

Director: Johnny To and Wai Ka Fai
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 1.5

Title "schizo" (in a movie sense) is an effective but eccentric investigator who gets so involved in his cases that he re-enacts them and, by almost psychic means, solves them. Daft premise gets erratic treatment by directors To and Ka-Fai, whose kinetic style make this even more baffling and ridiculous than it already is - the mad detective can supposedly "see" people's "inner personalities," so with every cut different individuals appear in the place of different characters, or characters who don't exist appear one minute and not the next (if the goal is to disorient the viewer, that goal is met, though it generates more frustration than awe). In fact, the main character is so deranged it seems implausible he'd be allowed to actually live on his own - he should be in a nice cozy, padded room surrounded by lots of newspapers and nice people in coats who can feed him, administer his grab-bag of medication and prevent him from cutting off parts of his body. At least with Van Gogh you can blame the absinthe....