The Stool Pigeon

Hong Kong–based filmmaker Dante Lam helms this visceral crime thriller about an undercover informant facing severe pressures from both sides of the law. Kowloon detective Don Lee (Nick Cheung) is looking at an investigative slowdown when his prized source of information has his cover blown. The snitch does manage to escape from a crime mob, but the experience leaves him emotionally damaged. Desperate to pursue his case, Lee finds a replacement in ex-con street racer Ghost Jr. (Nicholas Tse), offering him a hefty reward to infiltrate a gang of armed robbers. Ghost Jr. wants to use the money to save his sister, who's been working as a prostitute during his incarceration, but the situation grows tricky when he winds up falling in love with Dee (Kwai Lunmei), the girlfriend of the gang's brutal leader, Barbarian (Lu Yi). The Stool Pigeon is sometimes a bit flabby around the edges—an extra plotline involving Lee's amnesiac and suicidal wife could easily have been cut—but its raw action sequences, combined with Tse and Cheung's full-throttle performances, and Lam's often breathtaking direction, more than compensate. Recommended. (P. Hall)