Double Tap (2000)

Double Tap (2000)
Original Title: 鎗王
Translation: Gun King

 

Starring: Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing, Alex Fong Chung-Sun, Ruby Wong Cheuk-Ling, Monica Chan Fat-Yung, Vincent Kok Tak-Chiu, Alexander Chan Mong-Wah, Joseph Cheung Man-Kwong, Raven Choi Yip-San, Lawrence Lau Kwok-Cheong, Henry Fong Ping
Director: Lo Chi-Leung
Action Director: Phillip Kwok

 

Double Tap is a lesser-known police thriller, having come out the same year as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Tokyo Raiders. It had a belated sequel, Triple Tap, come out ten years afterward. But it has almost been forgotten by Hong Kong cinephiles, although I’m not really sure why. I mean, people still remember Gen Y Cops, even if it’s because that movie sucked on levels that nobody could have imagined, even in 2000. Double Tap did get a DVD release here in Brazil as Prazer de Matar—transl. “Pleasure in Killing,” which explains the second half of the film.

Leslie Cheung (of Ashes of Time and A Better Tomorrow) plays Rick Pang, a former shooting champion who runs a shooting range and does gunsmithing work, including for the police. He is also a bit of an introvert, confiding mainly in his girlfriend and assistant, Colleen (Ruby Wong, of the Running Out of Time films). Colleen herself is an introvert and possibly a bit depressive, although she’s very supportive of her man. Rick hasn’t taken on any students in a formal mentor-pupil relationship in a while, and it’s suggested that he quit competitions for the lack of just that: competitions. That is about to change.

Colleen convinces him to take on a pupil, a police forensics technician named Vincent Ng (Vincent Kok, of Big Bullet and The God of Cookery). Overweight and more than a little doofy, Ng isn’t a particularly quick learner, although he does improve his game after convincing his teacher to fire at a chicken carcass instead of a paper target (FORESHADOWING!!!). Pang also receives a visit from Inspector Miu (Alex Fong, of the Angel  trilogy), who is an expert criminal profiler and a marksman as well. Miu gives a demonstration of his shooting prowess at Rick’s shooting range, which convinces the latter to get back into the competitive shooting business.

During a formal competition, both Miu and Pang face off, along with a handful of other competitors. Most of those are wholly unimportant, but keep on an eye on Yu (Alexander Chan, of Project Guttenberg and One Second Champion), one of Miu’s colleagues. Miu is leading against Pang after the first day of the competition. By the end of events on the second day, both men are tied. However, as this is going on, we see Yu’s convertible getting towed away and see Plot-Point Specific newspaper mentioning some company he’d invested in tanking. In other words, Yu has suddenly gone penniless. The stress of the loss causes him to snap during the conversation, trying to cause a police-assisted suicide that will somehow guarantee his family’s support.

Yu shoots the other instructor from Pang’s shooting range, who was acting as a sort of judge-guard. He terrorizes the spectators in hopes of provoking the police into shooting him. Inspector Miu points his weapon at him, but it is Rick Pang who ultimately puts two bullets in his forehead when Yu turns his attention to Colleen. Inspector Miu blames himself for not firing first, considering that he’s a good enough marksman that he could’ve disarmed his colleague without killing him. Pang goes to counseling and is let go with a pat on the back, having hid from his psychiatrist the important fact that he felt good after the killing.

Three years later, Inspector Miu is still a great detective, although he still carries around a lot of guilt for Yu’s death. One day, the police are called into a hotel room where five dead bodies have been discovered. Four of them belong to policemen who were protecting a witness in a case against a scummy businessman named C.C. Yeung (Henry Fong, of White Hair Devil Lady and Dragon Fight). Vincent Ng is at the scene analyzing the bodies, noting that everybody was shot twice and that the police bodyguards were killed before they even had a chance to draw their guns. When Miu himself visits the crime scene, he notes that in at least one kill, there were signs of a double tap…where the marksman is able to hit the same spot in two successive shots. Only a handful of people in Hong Kong have ever pulled that feat off in any sort of competitive shooting instance, including Rick Pang…

First and foremost, I have to emphasize that Douple Tap is not a police action movie (despite having the same action director as Hard Boiled), but a police thriller. The second half is something of a cat-and-mouse chase between Inspector Miu and Rick Pang, culminating in a tense (if underwhelming) stand-off between the two at a mall. It doesn’t take long for Miu to suspect Pang of the murder, especially after observing his smug behavior during interrogation. However, smug behavior doesn’t guarantee anything in court, so Miu bending the rules and distorting the facts in order to force Pang’s hand. But in doing so, he is going to cost a lot of policemen their lives.

This is mainly a showcase for both Leslie Cheung and Alex Fong. Cheung does a good job as quiet introvert with little passion for life, until he discovers killing. After that, he grows increasingly unhinged until he goes complete sociopath during the final showdown between him and the police. Both he and Fong have their moments of histrionics, the former during a flashback and the latter when he has a fit during a ride to work. But mainly, these men are perpetually cool and level-headed, which makes them perfect opponents for each other. While Leslie Cheung has always been a respected actor, I always like Alex Fong was able to graduate from stuff like Angel II to more respectable fare like One Nite in Mongkok (directed by Derek Yee, who produced and wrote the story for this film).

My main problem with this film is the Cheung's descent into madness isn't really detailed, except in a flashback about an hour in. Said flashback comes at a time that we should be getting ready for the climax, so it's a bit of a momentum killer. I would've preferred the film without the three-year jump, instead showing Leung settling into his new "calling" as hired assassin, becoming more dependent on it to feel anything. I mean, it would've turned Double Tap into a different film, but I think I would've enjoyed that journey more.

There is some action in Double Tap, which earned Phillip Kwok a nomination for Best Action Choreography at the 2000 Taiwan Golden Horse Awards—it lost to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Most of the “action” in the first half is relegated to the shooting competition, which is staged in an exciting way. In the second half, there is a really good shoot-out between Pang and the police at his old shooting range, which is portrayed in a more or less realistic fashion. It falls somewhere between The Mission and your typical John Woo film, although leaning a little more toward the former. There is a bit early on where they talk about the bullets that Rick Pang makes, which carry more gunpowder, thus allowing for a bigger blast that would fire the bullets at a greater momentum. Said momentum makes it harder to stop, thus his bullets are penetrating walls and oil drums and hitting people when they think they're safe. It even pays attention to different angles of exit wounds--due to the change in density of mediums that bullet passes through. One poor sucker takes a bullet in the shoulder, which comes out at a 45º angle and (I think) hits him again in the foot. The finale at the mall could have been a little better, as it focuses more on tension and suspense than over-the-top shooting madness. That said, people who are put off by the excesses of Hong Kong action might enjoy this (relatively) realistic little thriller.