As I've stated, the film is based around a cop, Lo (Lam Suet), trying to get his gun back after he loses it. He lost it after he was knocked unconscious in a late night scuffle with a group of young triads. I guess from fearing that he would be disciplined for losing the gun, he asks for help from his friends in the Police Tactical Unit (PTU), lead by Simon Yam, in retrieving the gun. In the same timeframe, a triad boss' son is murdered by another triad, and the boss is out for revenge. Investigating this case is Maggie Siu from the CID. She soon discovers a link in the case to Lo, and is out to find out what his connection really is. The PTU and Lo have until dawn to retrieve the gun, otherwise it will have to be officially reported.

See, I told you the plot was rather simple in scale didn't I?! In the main story there are several plot threads, and it is the interaction between these that is the films undoubted strong point. A simple event is shown, and it is the knock on consequences of this event and the people that are affected by it that make the film. I did think at first, "Why not just own up to your gun being stolen when you were unconscious?" While it wouldn't have been liked, I didn't think it would be regarded as your own fault. Maybe I just don't appreciate the importance of a policeman losing his gun... oh well.

In a lot of the Hong Kong films that I have seen in the past, the police have frequently not been portrayed as the good moral guys that you would expect to see. They have often used violence on suspects to beat the truth out of them, and have also been shown to be quite corrupt. PTU is no exception. The officers in the PTU are all guilty of those things I've mentioned, but what is also made very clear is the apparent moral code that exists between fellow officers. As is stated in the film by Simon Yam "Anyone wearing the uniform is one of our own", and they look out for each other.

In helping Lo find his gun, Yam and his team are shown to be anything but the law-abiding officers that they should be. They beat suspects, where possible they remove any evidence that implicates them, and they will bend rules to breaking point or beyond if necessary. However, the comfort in carrying out these corrupt acts is only there when they are within their own team. When someone who they don't know and trust as much is in their presence they are far more reluctant to go against the rules. In contrast to this is the CID officer played by Maggie Siu, and her team. They seem to be the type that goes by the rules, maybe bending them a little (on one occasion it looks as though they break the rules, but it is explained), and she basically wants to capture anyone who is guilty. With these different units operating in different ways, but effectively both playing for the same team, as the saying goes, something's got to give.

Credit has to be given to To and his team for not making anything at all in the film over the top. The merits of the film work because of their simplicity. Dialogue is at a minimum to get the necessary point across, special effects and glamorisation are also at a minimum, as is the pace. There is no in your face action with everything happening hyper-kinetically, the events just draw on at their own natural speed. For some this may not be entirely to your tastes, and I have to admit I did find the film dragged a bit in places as a result of this - I will mention my thoughts on this in a moment. First though a few comments on the effect of the minimalist dialogue approach. By not having elaborate speech from any character, it helped keep everything simple with no unnecessary complications thrown in. It additionally made the characters primarily be defined by their actions rather than by what they said. For Simon Yam's character this is most clear in the arcade scene. He wants something, and his actions shows the manner in which he is going to go about getting what he wants.

When a film moves slowly throughout, I usually associate this with a slow but gradual build up to a great finale, but in PTU this was not the case. I found the ending of the film to be somewhat of an anti-climax. I wasn't expecting huge explosions or anything like that, but I was expecting something that was a little less contrived looking than what is actually given. That being said I did find the conclusion to the missing gun plot thread to be quite funny! Decreasing a lot of the impact that the scenes in the film could have had is the musical score. I thought it was simply awful. It reminded me of all that crap synth style tunes that you heard in the 80s films from Hong Kong. Silence would have been better. I know some people may like the music, but I just couldn't stand it, and that may have had an affect on the outcome of the film as far as my opinion goes.

Something that I am unsure as to whether it works for or against the film is the characterisation. With most films you are told something about the background and history of the important characters as the story progresses. This way you are either given something to relate to, something to show how they have changed or something like that, you know what I am meaning anyway. This does not happen in PTU; the characters simply are. They are PTU officers; they are there on shift that night and that is it. They simply exist and nothing more. As a result emotion towards the characters suffers, as there isn't really anything you can relate to so that you can feel for them or against them. In addition character development is also at a minimum, although this is probably due to the short time-scale in which the film takes place, as you can't expect much change to happen in 6 hours of someone's life! To a degree I did find the relative lack of growing or changing of the characters to be quite refreshing, as it seems that in most films these days the main protagonists have to undergo some form of character change to make them a better person, or something like that. PTU largely chooses to go against this unwritten rule.

This 'simply existing' extends to another aspect of the film, the kid on the bike. Unless I missed something, there is no explanation for him. He is simply there that night, maybe committing a few crimes, but that is it. He is not involved in any of the plots in the film; he just turns up every now and then as the film progresses. There wasn't even a little explanation about him, with the rest left as a mystery for you to think about, there was no explanation at all. Without any explanation by the end of the film, I was left a little confused as to why he was even there, but thinking about it a bit more, I came to the conclusion that this was something I liked. Like with absolutely everything around us in our lives, whatever is happening in our own little 'stories' or 'plots', there is a world existing outside of them that may not have any effect or significance to them, but can still be seen nonetheless. For me, that is what the kid represents. In Hong Kong I would find it hard to believe, even in the dead of the night, that the only things stirring at that time were all connected to the events in the film. The kid may be insignificant, but he shows the world outside the film.

In the acting department pretty much everyone uses the quiet restrained approach, with the exception on Lam Suet. He is desperately panicked about the loss of his gun and what he gets himself involved in as a result, and this panic is clearly portrayed in his performance. In all the films that I have seen which he has been in, he has always been one of the second string actors, but this is the first one I've seen where he has one the main starring roles. Despite being higher up on the billing list, he handles his role very well.

The main actor though is Simon Yam. His character never has much of a range of emotions to portray. He is determined towards what he is doing, and the lack of emotion does highlight this determination in his character. Maybe I am reading too much into his performance and character there, but Simon Yam is an actor that I've always been a fan of, and have thought of as being right up among the top actors in Hong Kong. Due to that I am giving him the benefit of the doubt here. The same comment about the lack of emotion and determination applies to Maggie Siu's CID character. I don't know whether it is because she is female, but her determination and lack of emotion makes her come across as a potentially far nastier person than Simon Yam's character. In the mood and setting of the film, both of these understated performances work.

My last comments on PTU will be about the thing that you are most likely to remember after watching the film. That is the cinematography. In a practically polar opposite way to the likes of Zhang Yimou's Hero, PTU is simply stunning to look at. In the majority of shots, camera positions and angles are chosen to highlight as much as possible the contrast between the darkness of the night and streets and the sections illuminated by the streetlights. I hope that the screen grabs I've taken can show to an extent what I am meaning, but in all the films I have ever seen that have been set in Hong Kong, I have never seen the streets made to look this way. They are unlikely to fill you with the awe and splendour that you'd get from watching Hero but you have to admire the work that has gone into making the contrasting appearance. It is as if the film is saying that there is black and white, and not really that much in between.

Audio & Subtitles
PTU features both a Cantonese DD5.1 and DTS audio track. I watched the film with the latter. A lot of people state that in many cases there is very little, if any, difference between DD5.1 and DTS tracks so choosing one of the other does give any benefits. In some cases though, the DTS track is meant to be better. So if you are not losing anything with DTS, and on some occasions it is better, I think it is reasonable then to choose the DTS option whenever it is available. If I have any repeat viewings, I will then choose the DD5.1 for possible comparison.

Anyway, the audio in PTU is very good. All the fine detail and faint noises that you could hope to hear are here. The creaking of the leather boots and things like that are particularly effective and crisp sounding. The surrounds are also used to good effect with plenty of discrete effects coming from the surround speakers. Basically I have nothing to complain about here.

The subtitles are generally of a similar standard to the audio quality. Throughout they are entirely legible and feature very good spelling and grammar. I only recall noticing one mistake which was 'you' was printed instead of 'your'. The only complaint I have is that at the very start of the film a radio is on and someone is giving a news report. At first the speech isn't subtitled until the reporter changes news story and starts talking about other news. From this point on the radio speech is subtitled. While what preceded the news report probably wasn't required from the film's point of view, it would still have been nice to have the speech subtitled. Not subtitling it, and then subtitling the new story drew attention to that particular story, clearly labelling it and making it obvious that something to do with this was going to happen later on. While it would have been reasonably obvious anyway, it would have been better if it just blended in with the other news reports.

Quality
The film is presented with an anamorphic widescreen transfer, which is largely clear of any dirt or other print blemishes. For a film that takes place at night, and features many scenes with very significant contrast between the dark and light parts of the streets, I couldn't see any evidence of colour bleeding between the two areas. Colours are on the whole strong and vibrant. The blacks are deep which is a good thing, but I didn't think there was much detail in the darkness. The greyscale colours that you would hope for to show shadow detail just don't really seem to be there. This may be a deliberate ploy on the part of the filmmakers to further highlight the contrast between the dark and light, but it would have been nice to have a bit more shadow depth. That being said in the dark areas I didn't notice any grain effects, and the overall detail of the print was very good.

DVD & Extras
The PTU DVD comes with animated menus that have an intro before them. While that in itself I have no complaints about, I do think the intro to the main menu when you first load the DVD is far too long. It clocks in at 47 seconds, before the menu options are actually there to be chosen. For extras there is the usual trailer for the film, a Data Bank that is the film synopsis and cast and crew, both in Chinese and English, a Best Buy option that is the trailer for 20/30 Dictionary and lastly a Director/Actor interview. This is 17.5 minutes long but unfortunately does not include any subtitles.

Overall
Despite all its merits PTU was still a film that fell a little flat with me. The cinematography is stunning, the acting compliments the film very well and the story is ok. But that is pretty much it. I didn't find it to be an overly intelligent film or have any other stand out features. I was interested but not highly engaged. For me PTU is simply a little above average.

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