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Cast:
Francis
Ng
Nick
Cheung
Ti
Lung
Stephanie
Che
Calvin
Poon
Producer:
Joe
Ma Wai Ho
Director:
James
Yuen
Score:
 
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CLEAN
MY NAME, MR. CORONER!
AKA:
Clean My Name, Mister Coroner!
Year:
2000 Reviewer: Andrew
Saroch
Fred
Cheung (Nick Cheung) is an undercover cop who is finding the
pressures of his assignment mounting up. His ties are cut off
from the outside world and his only contact is with three
colleagues who know is true identity. Cheung and his partner
Herman are finally afforded the opportunity to close a major
deal with high ranking triads and end their clandestine
lifestyles once and for all. However, during the final
operation, a shoot-out ensues; Herman disappears with the
money and leaves his colleague behind. Moments later, Cheung
gives chase, but when stopped by the police at a routine
roadblock, a body is discovered in his car-boot lacking a head
and hands. With the body believed to be Herman's, Cheung
becomes the main suspect and subsequently goes on the run in
an attempt to evade the law and find the real murderer. He
soon finds that even his superiors think he's the culprit and
are hot on his trail. Cheung though finds a useful ally in the
form of an initially reluctant coroner (Francis Ng) who soon
begins to realise that the body is certainly not Herman's and
could point to a conspiracy among the police.
There
is no doubt that this quirky and engrossing production has its
faults; not all of the loose ends are successfully tied up and
those that are seem to work out a little too neatly. Nick
Cheung has been paraded around as the new Chow Sing-Chi for a
while and like the canto-comic's early career, he is being
used in quite a few 'serious' productions. The flaw here is
that Cheung lacks a real screen presence and though his
performance is competent, its hardly sympathetic - though this
could be down to the under-developed character he plays.
The
major plus for this film though is Francis Ng. It can truly be
said that he currently stands as one of the best three or four
actors in Hong Kong at the moment and with every film he
enforces this. Like the equally superb Lau Ching Wan, Ng is
not just restricted to the cool hardman role he played so well
in The Mission: he really can breathe life into every
production he's in. The eccentric character he plays is
wonderfully nervy, suave and charming all at the same time,
bringing a great deal of audience sympathy to the film. Ti
Lung is able support and once again gives some indication of
his own acting excellence, but this is again Francis Ng's
film. Audiences will not doubt look forward to what he stars
in next safe in the knowledge that Ng very rarely gives what
could be called a below-par performance.
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