Maverick (2015) NYAFF 2016

Cheng Wen-Tang's MAVERICK is the second part of the director's planned trilogy  of police films. It was nominated for several awards including Best Supporting Actress for Man-shu Chien at the Golden Horse Film Festival, which is fitting since it's the performances that you'll remember.

Rookie cop is brought along to raid a gambling den. Things go sideways when the son of a city counsel member is found stoned out of his mind in the back. The older cops make the case go away but the newbie won't let it go. Battling the corruption which seeks to derail him, he keeps picking at the case finding out that the counsel member's son is supplying drugs to the local high schools.

Good low key crime drama is a really nice atypical look at the police in Asian. Falling somewhere between the dark cynicism of many films and the super cop rah rah that some  big action films take this is a hopeful look at one man trying to make a stand.  The film is also atypical in that the film is not full of big action set pieces that seem to be be in most recent police films. This is a slice of life drama that manages to hold your attention without having to resort to shoot'em ups every ten minutes.

While the film is probably too long at 117 minutes, the film holds you attention because the actors are so good that you believe them and feel for their plight. This is particularly true in the romance between one of the cops and a character played by Man-shu Chen. There is a rawness to their scenes that keeps things interesting.

A solid crime drama

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