Hong Kong action director Johnnie To takes on the relationship between the media and the police in this taut, cynical thriller. In an atmosphere of unflattering press coverage, government criticism and public hostility to the Hong Kong police force, ambitious police commissioner Rebecca Fong (Kelly Chen) decides to fight fire with fire. After news cameras capture a uniformed officer surrendering to armed bank robbers during a shootout on a crowded city street, she sets up a public-relations war room to spin the ongoing story in the department's favor. She hires an experienced PR executive (Maggie Shiu) to write statements and press releases, brings in a movie director to edit footage so it shows off the cops to their best advantage, and promises half-hour feeds to the story-hungry media. But there are serious obstacles to the "good show" Commissioner Fong promises her superiors, including bitter infighting between various factions of the department, the fact that the crooks have Internet access and know how to use it to counteract the official version of events, and street-smart Inspector Cheung (Nick Cheung), who intends to apprehend the thieves in his own way rather than take orders from the bigwigs in Fong's division. Cheung and his men track the thieves to a huge, middle-class apartment complex, but when they invade the gang's hideout on the ninth floor, the crooks split up. Two vanish into the building's maze of corridors and the others — leader Yuan (Richie Jen) and trigger-happy Chung (Li Hai Tau) — take hostages on the floor below. Holed up in apartment 8E with taxi driver and buffoonish single-dad Yip (the unfortunately named Suet Lam) and his two small children, Yuen begins to retaliate against Commissioner Fong's disinformation campaign. She in turn orders Cheung and his men to evacuate tenants and sends in her own SWAT teams equipped with minicams that feed images back to the control center. The complications multiply, the situation escalates and every new wrinkle makes the real-time game of media one-upmanship more volatile. Though To's crisp storytelling leaves little room for complex characterizations, pop singer Chen is convincing as the no-nonsense Commissioner Fong, and Richie Jen finds some nuance in the part of Yuan, who's pragmatic without being ruthless. (In Mandarin, with English subtitles) --Maitland McDonagh
