I Did It My Way movie review: Andy Lau-led crime thriller about drugs on Asia’s dark web is ruined by bad writing and a silly depiction of e-commerce
2/5 stars
The drug-trafficking business meets the internet’s live-stream shopping craze in this most bizarrely conceived crime thriller, which sees producer and lead actor Andy Lau Tak-wah play a drug lord so foolhardy and unreasonable that it would take his biggest fan to feel any sympathy for his character.
I Did It My Way marks the second solo directing effort of veteran cinematographer Jason Kwan Chi-yiu (A Nail Clipper Romance), who last worked with Lau when he co-directed the 2017 crime epic Chasing the Dragon with Wong Jing.
Kwan’s film begins with an engaging first act that positions Chan Chiu-sang (Philip Keung Ho-man) as an enigmatic drug dealer nicknamed The Boss – the “founder of Asia’s dark web” – and barrister George Lam (Lau) and assassin Sau Ho ( Lam Ka-tung) as his chief accomplices.
On their case are Eddie Fong (Eddie Peng Yu-yan), police superintendent of the cybercrime investigation unit, and his superior, Chung Kam-ming (Simon Yam Tat-wah), who believe that The Boss is set to do one last drug transaction in person before moving his entire business model online.
By the time the film has raced through a thrilling series of plot twists and reached the half-hour mark, we’ve already seen Chan kill himself while in police custody, Sau reveal himself to be a conflicted undercover policeman, and Lam confirmed as The Boss himself.
Andy Lau (left) and Lam Ka-tung in a still from “I Did It My Way”.
Alas, it is all downhill from here as the narrative soon loses all semblance of reason. After Lam inexplicably decides to screw up a major deal with a South American drug dealer, a mercenary army shows up at his beachside wedding ceremony in Malaysia for a cold-blooded massacre as payback.
If the heroic participation of the Hong Kong police in the ensuing shoot-out isn’t enough to strain your suspension of disbelief, Lam’s determination to then blame the misfortune of his pregnant fiancée (Cya Liu Ya-se) entirely on the police – and, somehow, not himself – will certainly do just that.
After being sidelined in the recent release The Goldfinger by Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s larger-than-life criminal protagonist, this is meant to be Andy Lau’s turn to revel in the opportunity to dominate. But his ambition is doused by an illogical screenplay that, through his character’s misplaced vendetta, turns the film into an unintended comedy.
Eddie Peng (left) and Lau in a still from “I Did It My Way”.
Lam Ka-tung’s performance is a highlight, even if his character’s motivation remains utterly confusing. One minute he is destroying incriminating evidence, and putting a bullet in the head of a fellow police officer to preserve his own undercover mission; the next he is alienating himself from the villain for nothing.
The less said about the depiction of the internet, the better. As the second Hong Kong film in two years to be set around a rather superficial rendering of the dark web (after Cyber Heist), I Did It My Way looks foolish whenever it tries to visualise the shenanigans happening in the digital world.
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