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Nomination
at the Hong Kong Film Awards 1989:
Best Supporting Actress (Pauline Wong)
Hong Kong cinema have certainly not spoilt us with suspense
thrillers or multiple, major opportunities for certain performers
to step out of their successful and established cinema image.
With this, David Chung's last directed movie, having churned
out admirable action efforts such as Royal Warriors
and Magnificent Warriors prior, Brigitte Lin and Joey
Wong in particular gets a chance to shed their image from
the Wuxia world of movies such as A Chinese Ghost Story
and Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain. But in the
timeline, for Lin anyway, she hadn't yet fully become the
fiery eyed fighter from Swordsman 2 and Dragon Inn
but no doubt, viewers will be exposed to Web Of Deception
(aka Deception) long after those films have been witnessed.
Time to look back. Now shall we?
When barrister Jane (Brigitte Lin) finds out her stocks have
crashed, she takes the loss and the 1.1 million that is now
left. She plans to emigrate to Canada, leaving her trusted
assistant May (Pauline Wong - Her Vengeance) behind.
Feeling betrayed, May sends a blackmail note to Jane, feeling
that's the only way she can get something out of those many
yea's of hard work. At the same time, May's roommate Queenie
(Joey Wong) desperately needs money to clear a debt to the
triads that her ex-con twin sister Cat (naturally, Joey Wong
again) has worked up. It's decided to make a break for the
money, or rather a break-in at Jane's mansion, an assignment
Queenie takes it upon herself to perform. As these things
go, the simple planning goes wrong, leaving Queenie dead in
a struggle with Jane. Now, May is still after the money and
Cat is now after revenge...
David Chung's sayonara to directing Hong Kong cinema, but
not shooting it (one of his last cinematography stints was
on Derek Yee's Full Throttle in 1995), does provide
us with the verification that he was a little engine that
could. Because in all honesty, his other credits aren't exactly
examples of a narrative master at work. While downright sloppy
at times though, Web Of Deception is an eye opener
for Chung the director and cinematographer. Backed by Tsui
Hark's Film Workshop for a second time (first one being I
Love Maria in 1988), early on Chung indicates that he's
going for style. He naturally assigned himself to director
of photography duty therefore as well but even if he hadn't
had that track of mind, I'm sure hands on producer Tsui Hark
would've had a few suggestions. In any case, stage is quite
nicely set for an atmospheric 90 minutes and it's going to
get better in that regard.
Terrific and flawed. Exhilarating and a wee bit frustrating.
That is the summary of the whole of Chung's work on this picture.
When the stylish start is over and narrative is focused on,
Chung definitely manages to log a bad setup for the next bulk
of the running time. Neither main characters gets a detailed
background, which is fine, but instead rather weak motivations
for trying to scam Brigitte Lin's Jane. She on the other hand
gets quick exposition about her desperate situation which
all good for the 90 minutes ahead but for May, Queenie and
eventually Cat, the script doesn't do them any favors. Pauline
Wong's May, who represents the weak despite her being the
so called mastermind, has such a bad excuse to venture into
crime for instance. Was there ever a grudge between her and
Jane? Not any apparent one, no. Instead the filmmakers writes
an arc for her that's about a dissatisfaction with her career
and while it speaks to the non-rational character trait, it
also comes off as far fetched.
Twins sisters Queenie and Cat get no apparent background
regarding their past bonding either so the former mercilessly
throwing herself into burglary and stealing just for the sake
of saving her jailbird bitch of a sister also is a rather
weak characterization. Only the subsequent revenge motivation
for Cat is bearable but we're not treated to meaty character
portrayals here. There lies treats ahead though as Chung soon
is relocating almost exclusively to the mansion set.
For the middle section he then pulls out all the stops, creating
an at times breathtaking suspense thriller that is high on
cinematography clichés but god damn, Chung pulls off
the dual jobs he's assigned himself to with great aplomb.
The first set piece taking place at night with the requisite
moody blue light and yes...thunderstorms is a triumph in editing,
audience participation and an almost Sun Chung-esque execution
of eerie slow-motion before violence hits. When he plays out
all the deceit within this web of deception in daylight subsequently,
some of the dark edge is lost but his stride is still there.
But oh how difficult some people have wrapping up thrillers
and without detailing obviously, Chung basically leaves it
up to us to assume certain things and that is a major no-no
here after such a terrific and tense, mostly one-set ride
of suspense. Chiu Man Hoi's effective score divides its time
between what really is stock thriller cues but also a pounding
sections reminiscent of a bell tolling for the damned. For
whom the bell tolls indeed...
For his almost all female cast, Chung does some of his best
work as well, in particular for otherwise cinema sweetheart
Joey Wong. Playing dual roles, in rather simple but effective
split screen scenes, she is the epitome of nasty and evil.
Joey is really relishing the opportunity without going into
hysterics at the wrong times. Her power struggle with Pauline
Wong, the strong vs. the weak basically, is an effective one
and while Pauline Wong has to struggle with inferior writing,
seeing the stress in her witnessing that her plan is going
completely overboard is entertaining. Between these two, Chung
even finds some dark comical touches that are very much well-integrated.
Brigitte Lin do lead the cast but is in particular overshadowed
by Joey Wong. Still, she was one of the most captivating and
stunning actresses Hong Kong cinema had ever seen and her
desperate, paranoid and victimized Jane is convincingly handled.
Waise Lee, as the sole male of importance appears for a few
minutes, fails to make an impression but his character trait
of having the police force's best nose is a nice gag, leading
into decent nailbiting moments. When all is said and done,
even his role within the framework is questionable due to
the choices in ending the story.
I didn't know David Chung had it in him and Web Of Deception
today stands as an underrated suspense-thriller that is high
on correctly handled stylistic choices. With the low attention
to characters and their motivations however, Chung isn't able
to thoroughly punish us for 90 minutes but as a rare Hong
Kong cinema genre entry, Web Of Deception packs a punch.
The DVD:
Deltamac presents the film in a slightly overmatted
1.88.1 aspect ratio approximately. Oddly enough, the end credits
revert to 2.35:1 but there's no sign of the film being a scope
production even though Chung had lensed at least one such
before. With a movie that relies much on darkness, the disc
isn't perfect but features fair black levels and shadow detail.
Colours register a bit on the washed out side but it's a look
I feel is synonymous with the era, and budget releases. Print
has minor speckling throughout but not overly distracting
despite the conscious darkness.
The Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 track is free
from distortion and handles dialogue competently. A Mandarin
2.0 dub is also included.
The English subtitles occasionally clips letters
from certain words but work generally well. 2-3 lines of dialogue,
non-crucial, are not subtitled however. Traditional and simplified
Chinese subtitles are also included. Only extra is the trailer.
Thanks to White Dragon, Mark and Balzac13
for help with identifying the screenwriting credit.
reviewed by Kenneth
Brorsson
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