Film / The Most Wanted

Sean Lau is not having a good day

The Most Wanted is a 1994 Hong Kong Crime Film directed by Wong Gam-Din and produced by Clarence Yip Wai-Chung. It stars Sean Lau Ching Wan, Bowie Lam, Eileen Tung, Kent Cheng, Mark Cheung Lui, Kam Hing Yin, Lee Kwok Lun, Lee Siu Kei, Leung Hak Shun, and Robin Shou. This would be Robin Shou's last Hong Kong Film before he took the role as The Chosen One in 1995.

An undercover cop is betrayed by the police force that he believed would never betray him. Despite their best efforts, the police simply cannot seem to catch and arrest violent gang leader Yip Foon. When undercover cop Cat agrees to go undercover and bring the kingpin down, all seems to go according to plan until the worst occurs: Cat is shot and a group of innocent civilians and policemen are killed during the robbery and the gang's escape. With their reputation on the line and an enraged public clamoring for justice, the police force attempts to save face. By getting Cat's blood at the crime site, they go forward to protect their status by scapegoating Cat as one of the city's most wanted criminals.

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The Most Wanted provides the following tropes:

• Bottomless Magazines: Yip Foon uses an machine gun when committing the jewelry store robbery WITHOUT replacing the clip once.
• Dirty Cop: Officer Wang, but he isn't helping the bad guys. He's just lousy at his job to where he lets Cat take the fall.
• Distressed Dude: Officer Wang in the climax by Cat, but he had it coming for scapegoating Cat.
• Flowers of Romance: Cat had a vase full of flowers to give to Lily. When someone approached the hideout, he turned in hopes to see Lily. It was Sap. Angry at Sap leaving him to die, he chucked the vase at Sap.
• Foreshadowing: When Cat is shot during the jewelry robbery, his blood unknowingly gives the police a chance to save their own hides by saying he is a traitor even though the higher ups cancelled the mission to catch Yip Foon.
• Goodbye, Cruel World!: Played with. After getting attacked by Loan Shark Chiang, Cat returns to his apartment and records his personal message. Though, it sounds more like it's leading on to becoming a suicide message than a regular message. It's cut short due to Yip Foon mugging Lily for her purse.
  Today is the 23rd of January. It’s 3 A.M. I’m at home. I’m parking cars as usual and betting as usual. I now owe the loan shark $0.8 million. I hope the Government will take my debt or else I’ll be killed in the street one day.
• Have We Met?: Yip Foon, speaking with Sap, thinks he and Cat have met before. This is due to Cat stopping him from mugging Lily outside of his home. It's a strange plot development only because when Lily see's Yip Foon again, she doesn't recognize him. Though, it could be because she was mugged in the dark. So she didn't get a good look at him.
• Inside Job: Cat is an undercover Cop secretly infiltrating Yip Foon's gang to bring them down from the inside.
• Isn't It Ironic?: There's a song that Cat and Sap sing that appears twice in the film. It has an upbeat melody, but the lyrics reflect the dark theme of the whole film. Not helping is the fact that it's sung by two men who just finished their time in prison.
  Those tortoises always lease me
  He’s in love with a policewoman
  Body searching is severe
  He pretends to be the boss, so I'm always in trouble
  I’ll kill you soon and take your wife
  Go home and stay away from me
  Do you think I am smart?
  Am I smart? Am I smart?

• Mercy Kill: Cat does this to Lily after Yip Foon throws her into an active Bonfire to slowly burn to death.
• Mugged for Disguise: Cat does this is a fellow Officer who enters the Lavatory. What's disturbing about the scene is that the viewer doesn't hear the struggle go down. It's unknown on if the Officer survived the attack, as Cat steals his uniform quickly and then leaves the scene.
• No Honor Among Thieves: The whole film focuses on this theme while Cat is undercover.
• Oh, Crap!: Multiple scenes have this throughout the film:
  • When Yip Foon tries to mug Lily in the dark, he has this reaction when Cat catches him trying to steal Lily's purse.
  • When Cat is shot by the police while acting as a lookout, he has this reaction even when the mask is on.
  • After Cat survives and escapes being shot during the robbery, Yip Foon tries to kill him believing he is the traitor. Sap, however, saves Cat's life by saying that the other robber with them was on the phone the same day Cat called the police to warn of the robbery. The other robber has this reaction before Yip Foon kills him.
  • When Cat accidentally shots Sap, his face has this expression and later the same expression when the police frame him for Sap's death.
• Police Are Useless: When Cat fails to arrest Yip Foon and accidentally kills Sap, the police throw him under the bus to save their hides from public backlash.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Cat does this to a fault after the police higher ups cancel Operation Jail the Dragon. He promises to not return until he arrest Yip Foon. It later leads him to his death.
• Title Drop: In the opening, when Yip Foon's robberies are listed while showing his many sketches, the headlines call him this.