CINEMA SPOTLIGHT: THAT DEMON WITHIN

Hong Kong action auteur Dante Lam (THE VIRAL FACTOR (2012), UNBEATABLE (2013)) returns to U.S. screens with THAT DEMON WITHIN a taut psychological action-thriller revolving around a dutiful cop (played by the Hong Kong heartthrob Daniel Wu) guilt-ridden over saving the life of a crime boss (Winner of the Best Actor Award at 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards, Nick Cheung). When the crime head continues his violent and extreme ways, Wu’s obsession gets the better of him as he devises an outlandish plot to cause the syndicate to implode. World Premiering as a featured selection of the 64th Berlinale Panorama Showcase, which traditionally features films with an individual signature style, THAT DEMON WITHIN showcases director Lam’s provocative and insightful grace in what Screen Daily declares is a “twisted trip through one Hong Kong cop’s explosive meltdown” saying “Lam never lets up.” On April 18th, 2014 THAT DEMON WITHIN is being released by China Lion Distribution at the same time as its Hong Kong release.

Here is a giveaway drive we are doing in partnership with ChinaLion. To enter a draw to win this poster autographed by director Dante Lam and lead actor Daniel Wu, send to info@asiancinevision.org a picture of your ticket stub to any screening to THAT DEMON WITHIN from April 18th – April 20th at AMC Empire 25. Click HERE to purchase tickets. Please indicate in the subject line “THAT DEMON WITHIN Poster Giveaway” to enter the draw.

* Update: We have another poster, autographed by Nick Cheung and Dante Lam, to give away! (See Image on the left.) Email your stub image by May 1st to info@asiancinevision.org to enter the contest!

Visit THAT DEMON WITHIN’s official website to learn more about the film. Along with the theatrical release there is also an acting competition to win an iPhone 5S.

The Politics of Memory – Reflections on THAT DEMON WITHIN
By Raymond Tsang

Unlike SUPERMAN or BATMAN , the Hong Kong cops-and-gansters genre is never about saving the world, but about struggling in the face of the shifts of the political condition and identity. THAT DEMON WITHIN, directed by Dante Lam, whose latest character-driven mixed martial arts film UNBEATABLE has just won the Best Actor Award (Nick Cheung) at the 33^rd Hong Kong Film Awards, is inspired by a real case. Tsui Po-ku, a Hong Kong policeman, is implicated in a number of crimes and murders and is finally killed in a shootout against his fellow officers. This case has already inspired a Johnni To film called MAD DETECTIVE (2007), a story about a schizophrenic, former police inspector who helps to solve a complex case of murder. However, THAT DEMON WITHIN draws much reference from the psychological identity struggle as seen in the INFERNAL AFFAIRS Trilogy (2002-2004), and modernizes the archetypical DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE dynamics in a Hong Kong policeman story.

Dave Wong (Daniel Wu) is a problem cop. He suffers from the inherited mental disorder and regrets what he did in his childhood and lives in a life of repentance. Because of his paranoia, he is hospitalized. He donates blood and saves Hon Kong (Nick Cheug) without knowing that he is a robber. The face of Hon evokes the traumatic memory of Dave and later lapses into a deeper abyss where his guilt becomes a drive to purify the demon-gang, who wear eerie and demonic masks and announce to rob the $80 million worth of diamonds.

One of the prominent insertions in the film is the uncannily artistic CGI rendered depiction of the nightmare of Dave Wong informed both by the patriarchal overshadowing of his father and his own trauma. If we adopt a political reading of his memory, we can identify themes like identity anxiety, identity as performance, and struggle for subjectivity as commonly registered in Hong Kong popular imaginary, such as HE’S A WOMAN, SHE’S A MAN (1994) and ASHES OF TIME (1994). The profession of Dave Wong cannot be more symbolic and symptomatic: he is a Hong Kong policeman who joins the police force in 1996, a year before the handover. By transposing the historical time mark onto the personal history of Dave Wong, THAT DEMON WITHIN stands as an allegory for the postcolonial legacies and memories in Hong Kong, as the story is anchored in Dave to cope with the past, reconfigure the identity by revisiting or being revisited by the memory, and formulate a new subjectivity.

On the personal level, Dave Wong’s hallucination is rooted his late father’s indoctrination of an idiosyncratic set of moral codes that Dave is forced to follow, such as “There is little room between good and evil,” “clear conscience” and “righteousness.” Dave’s reaction to the Law of Father is further complicated with an Oedipian twist by the traumatic memory when Dave kills a riot control policeman who is responsible to the death of Dave’s father. Thus, Dave’s unconsciousness is doubly reined by the Law of Father and the Law of the colonial police force, manifest in his constant re-assertion: “I am a policeman.”

THAT DEMON WITHIN ends with a daily news report of Dave’s death and ordinary people living peaceful lives again. While Dave Wong’s evil side is externalized by the figure of Hon Kong, the redemption comes with the downfall of both sides of Janus. The rectification of justice is accredited to the police force, cleansed of a “problem cop” from within. Dave finally realizes his wrongdoings and sacrifices himself by helping his colleague out of a burning car, himself burnt to death. In the end, the literal and symbolic immolation of Dave reinforces the law and order. Dante Lam provides many flashbacks to suggest the formation of Dave’s evil ego, to the point that the real demon – the demon gang – lacks due presence in the film and on the chain of causality. One may also remember that Dave’s nightmare occurs every time he salutes under a British Hong Kong flag. But as the story ends, the demon within is, finally condensed into a drop of ink in a glass of water, on such a generic note:“ The heart of human being is always with a ‘dot’ of malice.” The postcolonial memory is finally reshaped to something non-historical and confined to the personal psyche.

About the writer
Hailing from Hong Kong, Raymond Tsang is a PhD candidate in Cinema Studies at New York University.