Review: Using one night to tell his story, PTU uses his full acting potential with a very clever storyline of dirty cops and gangsters dealing with an unfortunate chain of events. The movie might not have a script as polished as the now classic HK police/thriller movie Infernal Affairs, but PTU holds Johnnie To’s signature proudly.

PTU, which mean Police Tactical Unit, uses a rather simple premise, but don’t worry, things get much deeper as the story develops. A lot of questioning and interrogation will appear along with this evolution and some of them will be answered, while others will stay unclear. The problem is not exactly with the story but with the relationship between some characters. Why is Fay Sa involved with a triad boss? Why Mike is helping him is also never clearly explained. However, with the exception of a few details, the script is clever, funny and exploits bad luck as his best weapon to surprise the audience. There’s really a small chance that you will figure out the ending before the right moment, which is probably the greatest asset of most Johnnie To movies.

Johnnie To likes to exploit feelings of friendship between his characters. However, he also likes to use nasty individuals to balance the good and evil and this movie is no different. We don’t see Law Suet playing a major role very often and in PTU he shows that he has no problem handling a major character. Fay Sa is the kind of character that likes to use his authority to oppress other individuals such as small gangsters, but physically and mentally he can’t and doesn’t have the courage to face serious situations. That is where Mike Ho, played by Simon Yam, comes in to play. Mike is willing to compromise the work of his own team to help Fay and his methods are sometimes really extreme. When he wants to get answers, sensible hearts beware. However, he is also a very interesting character and Simon Yam, remembering his numerous appearances in CatIII movies, was just perfect for the role of the over the top Mike Ho.

The photography is another strong point of the movie. The movie was all shot during the night, and the use of lighting gives a fantastic feeling of a stage play to the movie. Looking at the PTU team moving down the streets on a rainy night only illuminated by a few spotlights was really fascinating. On the other side, the pace of the movie suffers from too many calm moments, the action is almost non-existent until you reach the climactic ending, and the dialogues are also very few and far between.