Lau Ching-wan, Louis Koo and Alex Fong in Overheard
Overheard (2009) Chinese Movie Information
Title in Chinese – 窃听风云
Title in Pinyin – Qie Ting Feng Yun
Genre – Crime Thriller
Subject/theme – Police investigating a securities company start using inside information they overhear
Language – Mandarin
Region – Hong Kong
Release date
China – 24th July 2009
Hong Kong – 30th July 2009
Germany – 2nd November 2009
Director – Alan Mak and Felix Chong
Cast & Role Played
Lau Ching-wan – Johnny Leung, CIB officer and team leader
Louis Koo – Gene Yeung, CIB officer and team member
Daniel Wu – Max Lam, CIB officer and team member
Alex Fong – Kelvin Lee, CIB team leader
Zhang Jingchu – Mandy Yam, Johny’s girlfriend & Kelvin’s wife
Michael Wong – Willie Ma, criminal boss
Story
A securities company is suspected of inside trading so Hong Kong’s Criminal Intelligence Bureau (CIB) set up two teams who bug the company’s office and monitor company’s activities 24 hours a day. Johhny is the head of the team on night shift and is having an affair with Mandy who is the wife of his friend Kelvin, the team leader of the day shift. The two members of Johnny’s team are Gene who is about to be married to a wealthy man’s daughter and Max who’s son suffers from a serious illness.
During the early stages of the investigation Gene and Max overhear a plan to increase the price of the company’s shares. They delete the records of that tip and use it to buy stock. Johhnny catches them but is too late to stop them from buying millions of dollars of shares. The trading of the shares is chaotic and halted is suspended on the suspicion of unfair trading. While trading is suspended, Johnny and his team use an un sanctioned bug to over hear the a plan to kill one of the company’s executives. Johnny plans to come clean to the CIB chief to avert the murder but Gene and Max beg him to let the murder go ahead because the life of one scum is not worth the ruin of their careers or families.
Faced with a moral dilemma Johnny and his team disguise themselves and secretly the murder with unexpected consequences. The share trading resumes the following day with the prices of the shares sky rocketing and Johnny, Gene and Max rapidly losing control of the situation.
Editor’s Review of Oerheard – Score 8/10
Lau Ching-wan, Louis Koo and Daniel Woo are all excellent actors and ideally suited to the characters they play in Overhead. Excellent casting together with a gripping plot make Overhead an extremely enjoyable movie to watch. The tension starts to build within the first few minutes of the movie and leaves you sitting on the edge of your seat just waiting to see what happens next. The characterization in the movie is very well done with each of the characters quirks and flaws as well as their relationships smoothly mixing in the plot and making the movie more realistic and compelling to watch.
The ending is not too predictable or over the top and has several twist that make it a fitting conclusion to an excellent and suspenseful movie.