Behind the Shadows 私家偵探 Review: The Otherwise Competent Cast isn’t Enough to Elevate Louis Koo-starred Routine Crime Thriller

The first thing that interested me about Behind the Shadows is that Jonathan Li and screenwriter Chou Man-Yu were attached as co-directors, best known for their work in Dust to Dust starring Lam Ka-Tung. The movie also enlisted Soi Cheang as one of the producers, whose Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In notched nine wins at this year’s 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards.

Shot entirely in Malaysia, specifically Kuala Lumpur, this Hong Kong-Malaysia co-production marks the second time Louis Koo’s One Cool Film Production tries to expand its market after the lacklustre Philip Keung-starred The Locksmith. But unlike the latter, Behind the Shadows looks more promising, especially given the calibre of the behind-the-scenes crew.

The movie starts slow but is competent enough to keep me invested in the story to a certain extent, focusing on Au Yeung Wai Yip’s (Louis Koo) daily routine as a private investigator from Hong Kong who sets up an office in Kuala Lumpur. He specialises in handling adultery cases, but back home, he and his wife of twenty years, Kuan Weng Sam (Chrissie Chau), barely speak to each other.

Au Yeung had a successful career in Hong Kong, but ever since he migrated to Malaysia, it’s been nothing more than living in the shadow of his former self. Earlier in the movie, we see Au Yeung is tasked by his gangster friend (Raymond Wong) to investigate his boss’ girlfriend, Betty (Renci Yeung) and then, there’s a man showing up in his office paying him to find out more about his girlfriend, who turns out to be Kuan.

There’s another case that Au Yeung needs to take care of: locating a missing person played by Yumi Wong. The latter is where the story proper takes shape with the lead police officer, Chen (Liu Kuan-Ting), in charge of the investigation. But Li and Yu take their time to address the estranged marriage between Au Yeung and Kuan. Their marital problem often ends up with them pointing fingers at each other and while both Koo and Chau did effective jobs playing a married couple struggling to keep their relationship afloat, it’s kind of odd for the movie to prioritise more on Au Yeung and Kuan’s personal issues rather than depicted them as a subplot.

Not sure if the co-directors intend to flip the script by subverting one’s expectations, but whatever they try to pull off here, it might work better if it’s the other way around. By putting the subplot headfirst, this makes the subsequent murder investigation feel like an afterthought, and the mystery itself isn’t as intriguing as I thought. If you are expecting something as intricate as Dust to Dust, you will likely be disappointed by Li and Yu’s rather straightforward approach. Given the involvement of Soi Cheang in the producer capacity, I was expecting there to be a distinct Milkyway vibe to elevate this otherwise routine crime thriller. Well, it was wishful thinking anyway.

As the second half focuses primarily on Au Yeung finding himself in hot water for getting too involved with the murder case, the story does have its moments, namely the elaborate scene revolving around tailing a person. But I just can’t help but feel the one thing that bothers me the most is the decision to depict the Malaysian police in a fictional manner, similar to the ones often seen in Chinese thrillers.

This, in turn, takes me off the movie, making the whole idea of shooting a Hong Kong-Malaysia co-production in the first place like a waste of an opportunity. The rest of the cast does what they can here with decent support coming from Liu Kuan-Ting’s stressed-out cop Chen to Renci Yeung’s feisty Betty and Raymond Wong’s comic-relief turn as Au Yeung’s gangster friend.