The Mad Detective (Blu-Ray and DVD)

2007’s largest grossing film at the Hong Kong box office – the smash-hit Mad Detective – is one of the freshest and most satisfying films from that country in a decade. The traditional Hong Kong police film is turned on its head: the imaginative twist being our hero – Detective Bun (a role created for Lau Ching Wan) – who has the ability to ‘see’ people’s inner personalities or “hidden ghosts”. Breaking new ground and establishing new cinematic rules, Johnnie To’s latest giddily entertaining collaboration with Wai Ka Fai radically raises the level of storytelling in modern film. This ingenious realisation of a supernaturally gifted copper is fast-paced and furious, yet also complex and disturbingly funny.
 
Detective Bun (Lau Ching Wan) was recognised as a talented criminal profiler until he sliced off his right ear to offer as a gift at his chief’s farewell party. Branded as ‘mad’ and discharged from the force, he has lived in seclusion with his beloved wife May (Kelly Lin) ever since. Strangely, Bun has the ability to ‘see’ a person’s inner personality, their subconscious desires, emotions, and mental state. When a missing police gun is linked to several heists and murders, hotshot Inspector Ho (Andy On) calls on the valuable skills of his former mentor Bun to help unlock the killer’s identity. However, Bun’s unorthodox methods point to a fellow detective and take a schizophrenic turn for the worse…

Special Features:

• 1080p, 24fps, state of the art AVC encode, 2.35:1 original aspect ratio

• DD2.0, DD5.1, DTS-HD Master Audio, and Dolby TrueHD soundtracks

• NTSC extras, playable on all machines

• 2.35:1 original aspect ratio

• Carefully created new English subtitles

• Q&A with Johnnie To at the Cinémathèque Française Johnnie To retrospective (Paris, France, March 2008) - 35 minutes

• Exclusive cast interviews shot during the Far East Film Festival featuring Lau Ching Wan, and Lam Suet (Udine, Italy, April 2008) - 14 minutes

• Interview with Johnnie To for the French theatrical release of Mad Detective (France, 4th March 2008) - 21 minutes

• Original UK theatrical trailer

• 16-page booklet containing specially commissioned essay by David Bordwell (Jacques Ledoux Professor of Film Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison)