So Close

A Hong Kong action film. Two sisters work as contract killers. Lynn is in the field; she goes in, finishes the job and leaves. Sue is on the technical side; with software left by their father she gets into every camera in the city and guides her sister from a distance. A job goes wrong. They find themselves in the middle of something they were set up for, and the client wants them cleared away as well. A police officer is against them. Kong Yat Hong is a woman detective; she is after the two sisters and trying to understand them. From there the film becomes a relationship between three women. The officer and her target face each other, then find themselves on the same side. The action carries the whole weight. Guns and swords are used together, the fights mix with wire work, and the lift sequence is one of the genre's known scenes. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but sisterhood: the tension between the two matters more than their quarrel with the system. Shu Qi and Zhao Wei take the leads, with Karen Mok as the officer. The scenes with all three are the best thing in the film. Corey Yuen directed; he is known for fight choreography. Who it is for: anyone who likes Hong Kong action of the 2000s and fight films centred on women. Who it is not for: anyone looking for realism; the technology is entirely invented and the plot pays no attention to physics.