Chow, whose face is capable only of sour amusement and maniacal glee, is in his maniacal mode. He makes Dirty Harry look clean and Mike Hammer look tolerant. It is interesting despite what it lacks. It is noir in content as well as appearance. Chow maintains a kind of thieves' honor in his dealings, something most of the thieves have forgotten.
Duplicity is everywhere.
The movie's cinematography and editing partly compensates. The Corruptor is bloodier than classic noir, but a moral is delivered amidst the Sam Peckinpaugh splatter by Wahlberg's dad, a petty crook in trouble with the Italian mob. The means are what you live with. Elfman's Music Soundtracks have come to mean pop songs strung together meaningfully, or something just to give audiences sounds when dialogue falls silent or stupid. But the old art of crafting a symphonic score to fit moving images hasn't entirely died.