Asian Film Review: "Overheard 2" (竊聽風雲2, 2011)

Finally caught 'Overheard 2', the anticipated follow up to 2009's 'Overheard' ( my review of that film here and pics from the HK premiere here).  Of course those of you who have seen the previous film may wonder how they could do a sequel to that story... so let me clarify --  Overheard 2 is not actually a sequel.  Its just another film with the same cast and crew and a similar theme --> investigating financial crime through wire tapping and video surveillance.

In this case they mix it up a bit. Instead of the leads Lau Chingwan, Louis Koo and Daniel Wu playing three police officers working together,  in this case they take roles on opposite sides of the story -

In this case, Lau is a the financial executive caught up in a group of insider traders,  Daniel is a former military man out to get revenge against the traders and Louis is a police officer investigating them both.

Actually like the previous film, don't get the wrong impression that this is an action movie.... it might have slightly more action than the previous film, but overall its mostly a crime drama about financial market manipulation.... sounds sexy doesn't it?!? :-P

That's the main detraction from the film.... it spends a lot of time talking about relatively complicated financial market manipulation, etc.    Might not be easy for the average person to follow...  or find entertaining.  actually I think this may have a huge impact on whether you enjoy this movie or think it totally blows. (I'm watching bloomberg right now, so you can guess where I fall in those two groups).

I give the movie credit (as I did the last one) in bringing to the public's attention that there are criminals ripping people off for billions every day on Wall Street (or in this case off the Hang Seng Index) without ever getting caught.  They retire to their Swiss Chalets, polishing their Rolex collections for the rest of their lives, forever avoiding paying for their crimes...

I give the movie a solid 7/10. 

ps - there are a few things I don't get (maybe i missed it in the dialogue or something... but why is Daniel's nose always bleeding?  was he a coke head?  a hemophiliac?!?  wtf!