Where the Wind Blows

Philip Yung's Where the Wind Blows plays like a mid-00s Hong Kong crime flick (think Andrew Lau's Confession of Pain), but with a more Kar-Wai-like aesthetic and some contemporary Hong Kong cinema limitations. It's a solid flick, but it fails to excel as a genre work and a Philip Yung film.

Kong and Lok are two righteous cops surrounded by corruption. They do their best to keep their heads above water, but the system is so corrupt that their good intentions cannot prevail. Through the turbulent history of Hong Kong itself, we follow their lives as they spiral out of control.

Tony Leung, Aaron Kwok, and Du Juan shine in this star-studded crime epic, the rest of the cast is solid too. The soundtrack is interesting and the cinematography is a step up from the usual Hong Kong fare, but the plot is basic and the runtime excessive. In a niche that's been done to death, you need to stand out, and that's where Yung fails. Fine genre filler, but not the future classic it aimed to be.