"Detective vs Sleuths" or "Cold Detective" is a movie with big names, like Sean Lau Ching Wan, Raymond Lam Fung, Carman Lee and Charlene Choi. This line-up attracted me to watch this movie.

Unfortunately, this movie is a let-down. It's not unwatchable, but you just can't help but think it could have been better.

The beginning of the movie was not bad. Despite a slow start, the main characters are being introduced to us. As newer victims were killed, we begin to wonder who is the serial killer. Is it the Mad Detective? Is it someone from the police? Or would there be no answer, like Bong Joon-Ho's "Memories of Murder"? The suspense was kept relatively well until the final part.

Sean Lau is an amazing actor. He brought the character of Li Jun, the Mad Detective to life. The split-personality scenes were commendable. Raymond Lam Fung was not bad, but his role could have been more interesting with better writing. Carman Lee was under-utilised, what a waste. Charlene Choi was okay in this movie.

However, even Sean Lau couldn't save this movie's quality. One criteria of a quality movie to me is storyline and originality. The final part of this movie, is simply too rushed and everything is supposed to make sense when the serial killer's identity is revealed. I think some ideas were inspired from TVN's "Mouse", like how serial killers are emotionless psychopaths that go near their victims pretending to care for them.

Apart from the blazing Michael Bay-style, plausibility is also in question. When you have a woman who just gave birth leaping into the waters and coming back to fire a machine gun, wow, that is unacceptable. Besides, you have 2 cops who were of the same syndicate being placed in the same department. I also couldn't get the ending, which is the mirror scene. To me, that is just overzealous.

I like the original promise to be a continuation for the first film but the mystery whether the lead character has special power or not was part of the charm, this sequel sadly ruined some of that.

Quite a number of surprises although some was a bit lame. Part of the stories felt forced and was shock for the sake out it, a some of the characters could do with a few more acting lessons from the lead actor.

The film really was saved by Lau Ching Wan alone, his portrait is so good it made it almost uncomfortable to watch.

Overall, I found the film entertaining enough and is one of the better hk films in recent years.

When I stumbled upon the 2022 Hong Kong crime mystery "San Taam Daai Zin" (aka "Detective vs Sleuths"), I had to sit down and watch it.

First of all, it was a Hong Kong movie that I hadn't already seen, and that in itself is more than sufficient to make me watch it. But the movie also has Ching Wan Lau and Charlene Choi on the cast list and they usually tend to make okay movies.

However, the storyline in "San Taam Daai Zin", as written by Lu Jia, Li Jie, Ka-Fai Wai and Yibing Wang, was a swing and a miss for me. The storyline was incredibly cluttered and made for a very confusing viewing. Whatever was going on in the movie just wasn't properly introduced or described to the audience, and as such I felt like I was sitting in darkness trying to make sense of the barrage of events, killings and characters that came rushing at me on the screen.

For a crime mystery, then director Ka-Fai Wai just went a bit overboard in terms of setting out to accomplish way too much with the storyline.

The acting performances in the movie were good, and especially Ching Wan Lau portrayed the disturbed Lee Chun character quite well.

Lots of nice locations throughout the course of the movie, and there was a nice dynamic feel to the movie and the way it was filmed, and that at least helped make the movie somewhat more watchable.

This is not a shining gem in the Hong Kong cinema, and it is definitely not a movie that I would recommend fans of the Hong Kong cinema to rush out and get to watch. In fact, this movie is one that I will never return to watch a second time. There are indeed far better crime mysteries in the Hong Kong cinema, if that particular genre is what you enjoy.

My rating of "San Taam Daai Zin" lands on a very generous four out of ten stars.