The undercover cop is one of the most important figures of Hong Kong cinema and Man on the Brink's title character started it all. Though not the territory's first undercover-cop movie, the film was so powerful in its depiction of the stealth agent that a subgenre was spawn, its capacity for gripping storytelling exercised up to this day. Directed by New Wave stalwart Alex Cheung, the film takes liberal inspiration from the Hollywood film Serpico (1973), creating a compelling hero out of its protagonist Ah Chiu (played with fierce intensity by Eddie Chan). Caught between two worlds and leading a double life, the undercover cop has become a mythic character that embodies all the pride and anxiety of a Hong Kong that finds itself forever squeezed in between.

1/10

(Mon)

2:00pm *

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

* Post-screening talk with Alex Cheung