Heroic Duo (2003)

Tough cop Ken Li (Cheng) is at the top of his game, but he's going to need some help to solve a grisly crime that the offender, a respected police officer, doesn't even remember committing. He seeks out Jack Lai (Lai), a former psychologist now in disgrace and behind bars, who has an uncanny ability to bend people to his will. Making an uneasy truce, this unconventional pair set out on a mission to find the man responsible, a master of hypnotism who will stop at nothing to get his revenge!

Average Thriller: Could Have Been So Much More!

The reviewer below, K.Jones, has written a very good review of this film, and basically encapsulates the entire film. This South Korean thriller has a great premise, and a very good beginning, however, that is not enough to save this film. I purchased this film a few years ago, but would advise others to rent it first. It may appeal to some, but I found the film dragging in too many areas. It is a real shame too, because the film starts off very good, and the character Jack Lai (Leon Lai) who portrays the hypnotist in the film gave a pretty decent portrayal in the film.

If the film "Heroic Duo" had maintained an intelligent and clever twist, and continued along as a suspenseful thriller, then this film would have been great. Yet, neither the director, nor the writers gave this film a genuinely good and intelligent plot. The film basically deals with a battle of wits between the hypnotist Jack Lai, who is in prison, and another hypnotist whom the prisoner refers to as the "Mindhunter," who also happens to be the mentor of the imprisoned Lai.

Lai is released from prison in order to help the police, and in particular a detective named Ken (Ekin Chang) with his investigation of a suicide committed by a policeman who also happened to have burned documents in a police safe. I will not go into to much more detail, as the plot line has already been given by reviewer K. Jones, however, this film falls apart pretty quickly and is never able to draw you back to the film. Suspension of disbelief can only go so far. Moreover, the film veers into silly subplots and misses whatever it had going for it in the beginning. I recommend this film with caution. Rent it first. August 16, 2007

Just A 3 Star Movie

Heroic Duo begins with a very interesting scene that sets high expectations for the rest of the film. A man and his crew of goons are holding a cop and his family hostage in their own home. The man is looking for someone and tells the cop that if he tells him where the man is he will do no harm to his family. Well the cop told him but of course the man was lying to the cop and well you can imagine what happens next. The man was looking for is named Jack Lai and is a hypnotist who can of course hypnotize people but he doesn't use a swinging watch and doesn't even snap his fingers. He uses, well I don't know how he does it but he just says some things and your hypnotized.

The police need Jack to assist them in catching another hypnotist named the Mindhunter who just happens to be Jack's old teacher. The Heroic Duo starts up when Jack teams up with Ken the head officer on the case and try to track down the Mindhunter. As the movie goes on you find out a lot of things like why Jack was in prison and if he even did the crimes he was accused of. I saw Heroic Duo in the video store just sitting there with a ton of dust on it like it had been in that same exact spot since it came to the store. I was going to pass up on it after reading the synopsis but changed my mind when I saw "Tartan Asia Extreme" written on the front. I thought that it might surprise me because all the other films from T.A.E are great.

To my surprise it wasn't as good as I'd thought. There are some twists that give the film some spice to it but nothing unexpected or too exciting. Action wise this film could have been way better and Ekin Cheng who plays officer Ken could have been used a lot better than this. He could've had way better fight scenes and more of them. This movie is really forgettable and so are the actors. I found myself fast forwarding through the last scene, which was way too prolonged just to get to the end to see what the outcome was. I think that overall when you put everything in this film together it's just a 3 star movie. May 4, 2007

Spelbinding

The movie's basically about a cop (Ekin) trying to catch a mob boss. This cop find the mobster's partner, who use to be a cop, gets him out of jail so he can help with catching the mobster. The ex-cop was taught by the mobster how to hyponize people just by using their weakness and the person would do whatever they were told to do. I was expecting to see a martial arts movie with little acting. I just picked the movie up because I am a fan of Ekin Cheung. But when I started watching the movie it completely exceeded my expectations. It's not as good as "The One", Jet Li's movie, but you care about the characters, where Ekin and Leon had real good chemistry working together . Although it was a typical action cop movie the director did a great job with what he had. The movie could have had a better ending but it is worth buying if you are a big martial arts fan. February 19, 2005

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