"I miss the taste of crime..." After his impressive forays into horror with Hungry Ghost Ritual and The Keeper of Darkness, Nick Cheung takes on crime noir in his third directorial effort The Trough. The award-winning actor himself stars as an anguished undercover cop in a gritty fictional city that is saturated in both rain and crime. The pulpy, hyper-stylized thriller lines up underworld adversaries played by the likes of Hong Kong veterans Michael Miu, Lam Suet and Yuen Wah, while Xu Jinglei makes a charismatic turn as the final boss. The Trough also co-stars top Chinese television host He Qiong of Happy Camp fame, and features appearances by Yu Nan, Paul Chun, Louis Cheung, Philip Ng and Maggie Cheung Ho Yee. Thanks to the skillful strategizing of his superior Jim (He Qiong), Yu Chau (Nick Cheung) successfully infiltrates the mob but he gets in so deep that he loses himself. He begins to believe that extreme measures are necessary to deliver justice. During one particular operation, he puts everything on the line to take down a mobster, resulting in grave loss of life. In this gray and immoral world, Yu Chau wants to walk away, but his burning desire to fight crime brings him back to the trough. This time, Jim gives him a new mission to investigate the notorious criminal mastermind known only as "Boss" (Xu Jinglei). |