Rookie Sergeant Lee (Shawn Yue) is injured in a shoot-out and is assigned to the dubious-sounding Miscellaneous Affairs Department (MAD). There, he is paired up with Inspector Wong (Ekin Cheng), a jaded and alcoholic veteran who explains that MAD's role is to answer supernatural calls. Wong explains MAD's rule number one - there are no ghosts. For every seemingly inexplicable phenomenon, there is a corresponding scientific and rational explanation. MAD begins investigating a string of bizarre teenage suicides - impossible suicides, unless the victims were possessed. As Lee and Wong follow the clues, they realise something sinister is heading their way.
by weilong2002
on 20/10/2008 1 of 3 people found this review helpful
What I loved most: none
What I really hated: I don't understand the story of the movie!
After watching 2 local horror movies " The Maid" and " Men in White" directed by local director Kelvin Tong, I expect to see this horror movie " Rule Number One" which was filmed in Hong Kong and starring Hong Kong actors Shawn Yue and Ekin Cheng to be better than " The Maid" and " Men in White". But to my disappointment, I really don't understand the story of the movie and what the movie is talking about! Although some of the scenes when the ghosts appeared in the movie were scary, gore and disturbing, there are some parts of the movie which left me puzzled and confusing. What happened to Shawn Yue in the end of the movie? Did he killed his girlfriend Fiona Xie? Did Shawn Yue possessed by the ghosts? Why did Ekin Cheng appeared in the end of the movie when he was killed by Shawn Yue? Was that Ekin Cheng's ghostly spirits? Why did Shawn Yue and Ekin Cheng can killed and shot the innocent victims possessed by ghosts when both of them are cops? These are some of the questions I want to know about the movie. I think this horror movie is really boring and complicated and nothing else!
If you've seen Kelvin Tong's last film, the Singaporean-flavoured "Men In White", then you'd be pardoned for thinking of giving this a miss. How wrong you'd be!
Since he directed "The Maid", the good director seemed poised for some level of international fame as a Southeast Asian horror auteur, but took a dip in direction with "Men In White" limiting itself to only those who understand the peculiar cultural bits of Singaporeana. With "Rule Number One", Tong seems less playful and more game to play with the big boys.
"Rule Number One" still suffers from being a markedly derivative idea but it is nevertheless well shot, well contained and very well delivered. While it still resorts to the usual loud shrieks and grinding sound effects we have come to expect from tired Japanese horrors, "Rule" offers a decent story with enough decent acting to make us care for its characters.
Shawn Yue (last seen by Malaysians in "Playboy Cops" and "Invisible Target") stars as a boring cop who witnesses some pretty scary stuff on the job and gets transferred to the hilariously dubbed MAD (Miscellaneous Affairs Department) by his superiors against all police logic. Instead of 'taking it easy', his mental state takes a turn for the worse when paired with an alcoholic Ekin Cheng for a new boss. It's not long before we are sucked into a neo-noir adventure of sorts, with old flames, haunted cinemas, mysterious suicides and even ballroom music.
Sounds like a poor excuse for a story? Not quite. At once easy to watch, "Rule Number One" actually makes the stoic Ekin Cheng and Shawn Yue into good actors - they were not required to do anything that dislodges the audience from its sombre setting. Singaporean upstart Fiona Xie plays a sultry housewife to Yue and could have been more memorable if the director went for eye candy exposure. Still, all the cast benefited from the attractive flow of the story and look very comfortable in their roles.
The best thing about "Rule Number One" is that it's not one of those movies with the now notorious ending of "they were dead all along"! It has a certain art value to it that distinguishes it from your average commercial film, thereby inevitably drawing some criticism for being too complex for the conventional horror fan. Do not be deterred - you can be assured that "Rule Number One" sits nicely on either side of the fence as something anybody who watches horror movies can enjoy.
