Sun cheung sau
Tags: revenge

Plot synopsis:
The opening scene begins in a forested area lashed by heavy rain at night. Amid the thick foliage we see a sniper in camouflage perched in a tree, as he trains his sights at a hut in the forest. Beneath him is another sniper, who sees three men talking outside the hut. The scene shifts to a nearby road where a uniformed police officer, OJ (Edison Chen) was checking some parked vehicles together with his partner. They hear over the radio a description of a suspicious vehicle, and are surprised to discover it at their location. OJ touches the vehicle to see if it is warm, and looks around, spotting a hut in the distance, the same one the snipers are observing. As OJ and his partner approach the hut, the snipers spotted them. One of them, Hartman (Richie Ren) suggests assisting the officers if necessary. His partner, Shan Ge (Bowie Lam) reminds him that they are only on an observation mission and should not reveal themselves. Hartman considers action necessary as the situation has changed unexpectedly.Two men leaves the hut as the two uniformed officers approach from the side unseen. OJ reminds his nervous partner to turn down his radio, as they peer through a hole on the wall of the hut and sees a man welding a large parang as they discuss over a meal. The two officers tense up and OJ instructs his partner to cover another part of the hut. The partner turns and accidental hits his gear against a pillar causing noise. Without hesitation, OJ advances straight into the hut and tells the hut's occupants to freeze with arms drawn. The thugs respond with parangs drawn, as OJ's partner also enters the hut and both instructs them to put down their arms which they refuse. The officer's calls alerts the two thuds who left the hut earlier., and they return to investigate.In the standoff, one of the thugs intercepts OJ's partner and holds him hostage with his parang at his neck while ordering OJ to drop his gun. Another two thugs in the hut threaten OJ from the rear. As the situation deteriorates, Hartman informs Shan Ge that he is going in to help. OJ's partner drops his revolver as instructed, which one of the thugs picks up. OJ refuses to drop his weapon, and the thug responds by slashing OJ's partner in the right thigh. He begins to howl in pain as blood bleeds profusely to the floor. Suddenly, Hartman shoots the head of the thug holding the revolver from outside the hut while Shan Ge shoots one of the returning thugs about to ambush OJ from behind. Both the remaining thugs and OJ react in surprise.Hartman smashes into the hut with a handgun, moves beside OJ and helps to provide all-round cover by aiming at the remaining thug while OJ continues to face the thug holding his partner hostage. Hartman instructs OJ to take a deep breath and to aim for the thug's eye for an instant kill. The two successfully kills their respective targets through shots to the eye, and OJ rushes forward to help his fallen partner. Henceforth, OJ's qualities as a good sniper was discovered and he was enlisted into the Special Duties Unit Sniper Team.Hartman and Shan Ge observes OJ during training and Shan Ge expresses concern that OK may be too self-confident. Still, OJ easily passed basic training, including retaining possession of his weapon, ability to read flashing text from extended distances, and visually estimating distances. OJ notices that the team members have a "Sniper" tattoo on their backs and proceeds to have one too. During shooting practise, Hartman advises OJ to better coordinate his breathing with his shooting, and to relax his grip on his weapon. Hartman demonstrates his skills by penetrating the coin without damaging the apple upon which it is on.OJ looks at a commemorative board listing the Top Shooter Champions of the Sniper Team with Shan Ge. He notes that Hartman has won the competition numerous times, including four times consecutively since 2004 in the 400m. He commented that Shan Ge was the winner once, but Shan Ge humbly says Hartman had a flu that year. OJ then notices an individual named Ling Jing winning the competition in the 500m category for four times consecutively from 2000 to 2003, and asks who he is. Shan Ge replies that he was the only member in the team who could hit a target 500 metres away in high winds, but left four years ago. He was the most talented sniper, but was not well-liked by the team.Hartman watches the two snipers at the commemorative board from his office and reflects on the times when he and Ling Jing were competing for promotion to lead the Sniper Team. Although Ling Jing was the more talented of the two, some of his superiors feel he was too temperamental and that Hartman would be the better leader. Ultimately, the promotion board decided to promote and appoint Ling Jing much to Hartman's disappointment. Back to the present, Hartman picks up his calender and notes Jing's name written on the 20th of April.The scene transits to show Jing in prison clothes wearing a ring just as he is released from prison. Shan Ge meets him at the gate and takes him to an eatery, where he shows him a photo of his four-year-old child. Jing appears disinterested while he busies himself with his food. Shan Ge drives him home, and offers him $20,000 for routine expenses and offers more if he needs. Jing takes a $20 bill and leaves. Later, Hartman contacts Shan Ge, revealing that Shan Ge was acting under the instructions of Hartman. Shan Ge reports that Jing appears to be emotionally stable, and that he took only $20. Hartman reacts with disappointment but asks Shan Ge to continue to watch over himIn a 7-11 convenience store, Jing reaches out to touch a block of chocolates, and has flashbacks of his wife consuming them. However, he shakes with fear when he suddenly sees a man in black jacket staring at him from across the street. He leaves for home, where it was revealed to be fully furnished with an aquarium as a masterpiece. He stares into the aquarium where a ring can be seen suspended on a rock in the water, and the image of his wife appears on the other side of the tank. They embrace and kiss. The wife flips through their marriage photographs and laments that they are finally able to see the photographs together. Jing expresses his remorse for getting into trouble soon after their marriage and forcing her to wait four years for him.Day time. Jing walks into a fish market and dumps a small package into a basket of ice while a stall tender watches. The stall tender pushes the basket to another stall on a trolley, where the package is removed by another man as Jing watches from afar. He follows the man as he walks amongst the tanks of fish and taps a particular tank. Jing fishes an elongated package from the tank.Night time in a street outside a gambling den, a man tends to a booth. OJ walks up to him and hands him his allowance for the month, revealing that the man was his father. But it was clear that they do not have a cordial relationship. OJ advises his father to use the money wisely, but his father reacts in anger and tells him of, accusing his son of looking down on him. OJ's girlfriend appears and tries to calm the man down with a drink, but OJ's father insults her instead. OJ pulls her away. She asks if his father was the leader of a gang, but OJ reveals that his father was once the co-owner of the den, but has since fallen from grace, but could not accept this current position. OJ is determined to prove his father wrong that he can do well as a police officer.Hartman drives his reluctant daughter to his separated wife's residence. When he returns, he receives a distraught call from his daughter and rushes back just in time to save his wife who has attempted suicide by slitting her wrist. At the hospital, he spots Jing watching them from afar, but Jing disappears. However, Jing leaves behind a mobile phone for him through the hospital staff.A gangster called Er Ge stands outside the prison as a fellow gangster, Guan Hua is released. They go for a meal, where Er Ge offers him, but Guan Hua says he wish to be on his own. Guan Hua talks him around and asks him to return to help him. He reveals that Da Ge will be transported to the hospital from prison and asks Guang Hua to help rescue him. Their conversation is observed by Jing.As the two gangsters drive to a construction site, Jing follows behind and observes the surroundings buildings. Back in his residence in an unknown barren location, he opens the package he has retrieved from the fish market which contains a sniper rifle. He proceeds to weight and load his weapon with a cache of ammunition.In Hartman's office, Hartment receives a message "10 am Central Boulevard" in the phone Jing left for him. He drives to the scene. In a nearby building, Jing is perched in a communications tower above a skyscraper with weapon in hand. Inside a prisons transport, Da Ge, heavily guarded by police escort, appears to look apprehensive. The transport is escorted by two traffic police officers in front and a police van in the rear. As the escort turns into Central Boulevard, Da Ge plants both his legs onto the metal cage in front of him, catching the attention of the prisons escort.A tractor appears from the right as the escort passes a junction and smashes into the two traffic officers, while the prisons transport rams into the side of the truck. The force sent the prisons officers flying, but Da Ge remained in his seat having taken precautions earlier. A traffic officer slides into a blockage on the road side before being promptly smashed by his skidding motorcycle. Five gangsters, including Er Ge and Guan Hua emerge hooded and armed with huge weapons. Hartman rushes to the aid of one of the traffic policemen who has ended up slumped against his car, but finding him unconscious, retrieves the officer's weapon as the gangsters begin firing at the four policemen taking cover behind the police van and the driver of the prisons transport was machine gunned to death.As the gunfight ensures between the gangsters and the police and Hartman rushes to help the officers, he hears the distinctive sound of sniper fire as it smashes into a policeman's thigh and incapacitates him. The gangsters were similarly surprised when yet another officer goes down with a similar wound. Hartman looks up but could not find the sniper's location, but rushed forward and fires at the gangsters as they prepare to enter the prisons transport while taking cover behind a postbox. He takes down two of the gangsters, but was kept at bay by Er Ge's fire. Still, he manages to kill the driver of the trailer. Er Ge instructs Guan Hua to take over the trailer, while Hartman attempts to disable the gangster trying to free Da Ge inside the transport. He manages to injure the gangster, but the gangster frees Da Ge as they stumble out of the transport. Da Ge was still tied to a metal chain however, which the injured prisons officer held on to. As the gangster boarded the transport to finish the officer off, a sniper bullet breaks the metal chain to everyone's surprise. The remaining gangsters boarded the trailer, and as Hartman takes aim at them, his weapon was knocked out of his hands by another sniper bullet. The trailer escapes while Jing abseils down undetected from the rooftop as the wails of approaching police vehicles could be heard.(to be continued)

Review: If not for the picture scandal, this film would have been released about a year ago, and would likely have solidified Edison Chen's position as box office draw given his stellar performance in crime-action flicks like Dog Eat Dog and Blood Brothers, and pop idol fare such as Initial D.
But we know what had happened over the span of a year, though I suppose the decision to hold this film back would have helped it in increasing the curiosity surrounding this, given his last / first performance since the scandal.
After all, the producers have to make the best out of the situation.His character in Sniper is a typical Edison Chen persona – young, brash and impatient, toeing the line of the good and possessing that streak of arrogance.
As OJ, he aspires to be the top shooter amongst the SDU Sniper Unit, and is mentored by the team leader Hartman (Richie Jen, who also starred as a sharpshooter in Johnnie To's Exiled) who discovered him during a mission, and is impressed by the upstart.
Given the attributes of a sniper – confidence, decisiveness and ruthlessly accurate, egos are swelled and clashes are part of the game, where while it's a team effort, you can't deny those strong individual desire to excel above the rest.The unfinished business of the earlier generation comes back to haunt the team in the form of the disgraced, and once top shooter Lincoln (Huang Xiaoming), who in a rash, negligent act gets sentenced to imprisonment, and upon release swears revenge on his once buddies.
For a moment there was a tussle for the apprentice ala Star Wars style, where the young one found his training under his mentor too stifling and never appreciative of his abilities, and on the other, darker side, becomes seduced by sexier techniques which seem to be the path toward instant results and glory.But alas the story unfortunately becomes quite fluffy, with the dramatic moments just excuses to string the action sequences together.
The runtime under 90 minutes also provided a feeling that the film has been super summarized, given a lot of sub plots being introduced briefly, but never really reaching second base, especially with the relationships of the snipers and the opposite sex.
You would wonder why they had even bothered to devote time to this aspect, just to know that the crazed nut Lincoln is terribly infatuated with his girlfriend, OJ's girlfriend is a one scene wonder, and Hartman's estranged wife lies comatose most of the time, waking only to shed tears and raise her voice.
I guess in a sniper's life, the only "wife" they take care of, as in the prologue, is their rifles, to protect it with their life or professionally, they're screwed.Dante Lam's star has been shining rather brightly, and I have enjoyed his recent effort in Beast Stalker.
Here, he crafted some wonderful sniper action scenes without resorting too much on the looking-through-the-scope syndrome, striking a balance in being instructional, yet adequately paced to be tension-filled.
What I appreciated is his fusion of that psychological element a sniper brings to the table, of the ability of how one man well hidden, and well trained, can take out a platoon or company, because of that element of fear that is introduced.
Too bad for the many cardboard supporting villains and victims though, and that strange need to CG some dark clouds and fake lightning to drape many scenes.Undoubtedly the show belongs to the ensemble cast in oozing machismo as they do battle, but you can't help but to feel that it is Edison who's pulling in the crowds in what could be his last hurrah.
There are many great HK action movies.
And even after John Woo went Hollywood (although he went back, his recent movie being Red Cliff, which was produced in Asia) there was someone (Johnnie To) who filled in his shoes.
It has some good action scenes and the intentions of it's filmmaker is noble, but unfortunately it takes too long to get to places, which makes it drag a little.
Not bad by any means, but not really what you could/would expect from a good HK Action movie either..
Tagline: More like a video game than an actual movie Review by Neo: For whatever reason, The Sniper does not seem like a movie, but rather like a kid playing the latest shooting video game.
Maybe it is because of the producer cutting and chopping every possible scenes of the notorious Edison Chen, The Sniper just never seems to care about the characters or the story for that matter.
The film is ultimately uneven, makes next to no sense and rather like a mindless action flick, with zero substance.The movie is basically about sniper cops fighting criminals.
Richie Ren is a top sniper cop and somehow recruits Edison Chen after witnessing his snipe-ring abilities.
Huang Xiaoming used to be the very best sniper cop, but after an accidental killing in an hostage situation, Huang is jailed and subsequently dismissed from the force.
As with all routine and cliché movies goes, Huang ends up moving on to the dark side and help the criminals to hunt down sniper cops...Not a clever or intriguing story, especially one would expect more from the director of Beast Cops and Beast Stalker.
Usually, it is safe to say that Dante Lam likes to focus on characters and a look at Anthony Wong, award winning display in Beast Cops and Nick Cheung in Beast Stalker, already provides adequate evidence.
Here, director Lam forgets the need of a story, partly due to the relentless cutting of most of Edison's scenes.
Unfortunately, the movie suffers and by the final showdown, there is no character for the audience to care about and no emotions to be felt by the awaiting audience.Firstly the performance of Edison Chen is quite frankly uninteresting, bland and quite crap.
It goes without saying that Edison can't act and despite having praised his abilities to play a dog in Dog Bite Dog, there is no doubt within my mind that Edison still cannot act and thinks he is cool, when obviously he is not.
Maybe, he can play another dog or mentally disturbed character, if he wants to prove me wrong.
While cutting his scenes, makes the film uneven or even raising questions of making no senses, at the end of the day, the film is far better without Edison, than with it.
So my advice to him, is stay away from Hong Kong for the better.Moving on to Richie Ren, it's been a while since Richie last made a decent movie with a decent enough role.
Richie is a decent actor with decent presence, but it's been 3 yrs since Johnnie To's Exiled and to see him go further and further away from reaching his potential in useless flicks like Contract Lover and The Sniper, it is just frustrating.
Sure, he has enough presence to carry the flick, but career-wise, Richie isn't heading the correct direction.
As for Huang Xiao-Ming, his overacting is more frustrating to endure and quite frankly, his villainous turn fails to convince.
The much missed Mango Wong (last seen at the cinemas with Ghost Office/ Conman 2002), is a welcome addition and instill some sparks in an otherwise rather dull flick with even duller characters.All in all, The Sniper is simply a critical failure and a commercial failure.
Maybe he turned into his Heat Team (2004) mode, but even that was funny and cool at the same time.
Maybe he turned his head back in place, after this and churned out Beast Stalker.
Needless to say, the sniper shooting is cool to watch, Richie Ren is cool dude and so is Huang Xiao Ming to a degree and of course, Edison is just plain crap.
The main thing is that this is a movie, but it never seems to run like one.
Like the failure of mindless action flicks in Hollywood, for example, Ballistic - Ecks vs.
For the last time, and hopefully will be, the film is a cool and bad, but nothing can be worst than Edison, himself  (Neo 2009) I rate it 3/10www.thehkneo.com.
Solid Hong Kong Action Cop & Robber Friends.
Solid Hong Kong Action Cop & Robber Friends 'Sniper' provides the solid Hong Kong action you want.
Stylish action, and the formulaic cop vs robber who are also best friends and torn by loyalties.First off I don't speak a word of Cantonese and saw 'Sniper' without the benefit of subtitles, yet was still able to understand the plot.As with most HK films, there is far more action than in real HK.
Hence the HKPD needs a large expert sniper force armed (with airsoft guns) to the teeth to coordinate with their SWAT teams which also just happen to be right in the middle of the action.Our tragic hero cop is Fang.
A badass sniper.Our sympathetic robber is Jing a former police sniper disgraced after a hostage rescue went wrong.
Jing wants revenge on the police and the gangster would caused the whole hostage situation in the first place.
Since no one here seems to agree on the gangster's name, I'll call him Ge.Upon his release from prison Jing puts his elaborate and unique plans for revenge into action.
Jing shadows Ge's gang and learns of their plan to rescue him during a prison transport.As Ge's gang stages their elaborate armored car holdup rescue they face off against the ruthless Fang who kills 4 of them dead with one shot.But Ge's gang receives unexpected tactical support when sniper fire erupts from Jing on a sky scrapper and the rescue succeeds.
Jing has now earned his way inside Ge's gang for revenge.From the incredible accuracy of the sniper shots, Fang realizes that Jing is back and he's play for the wrong side.Never a dull moment.
It's a great film that can break the language barrier..
A Good movie.
Good HK action film about HK police snipers.
The story is about a new recruit into HK police sniper team.
In the mean time, an ex-sniper from his squad has gone rogue and killing his members.
The new recruit must take on the challenge, and hunt down his ex colleague.This is a quality movie that is entertaining.
Location scenes are also great in this movie.
It's adds fresh perspective to Hong Kong movies.
It's also one of Edison Chen's best performances.
The movie has cool looks, good action, and good acting.
It's also one of a kind movie that's about snipers in Hong King, and was a good movie to watch.7.5/10.
The Godly Gunslingers....
The Sniper is not going to reinvent the wheel, but it does approach its plot with a certain snazz that you just can't help but smile at.
The basic thrust of the film is that a Hong Kong police sniper team have just recruited a new hotshot shooter (Edison Chen) who is shaping up to be just as good as their last top shooter.
Turns out, that last guy (Xiaoming Huang) went to prison for head-shotting a hostage during a cluster.
Needless to say, the sniper scenes (both the action and training ones) are very cool.
One of the good guy snipers has a sub plot about his suicidal wife that goes absolutely nowhere.
The villains of the film have nothing to do but serve as devices for the rogue sniper's plot arc.
They could have been more important to the story and still have co-existed with Huang's character.
Aside from the young hotshot and two other snipers (including Richie Ren as the team leader), the rest of the team remains virtually silent and unknown.
They have cool code names like Forest King, Iceman and Rabbit - but no back story or anything memorable about them whatsoever.
Again, The Sniper isn't doing anything new, but what it does do is entertaining enough to enjoy it.
The English translation of the original title is Godly Gunslingers.
Outside of the action set pieces the film feels thin, but when the film is on its great.
Chinese action film isn't quite as good as the start promises, but it still a good way to spend time in the dark.
The plot has a young cop recruited by the Hong Kong Police for their sniper corps after remaining cool under fire in the films opening set piece.
From there the plot spins out as the young turk is trained, chafes at the by the book methods and flirts briefly with the dark side, in the form of an ex-sniper who wants revenge on the sniper corps.
The action scenes are well done (especially considering there is only so much you can do with sniper rifles) and are the sort of thing that you really wouldn't mind seeing again (because you'd be surprised what you can do with sniper rifles).
The problem is that the stuff away from the action or training sequences aren't as good as the rest of the film.
Part of the problem is that there seems to be too many little side bits going on for an 85 minute movie.
Things seem to be brought up and then are done away with and characters seem to come and go.
Of course this being an action movie thats not why you're watching the film, however it would have been nice if the non-shooting bits hung together better so they film had more weight and didn't seem do breezy.
Action film fans of all stripes will want to take a look..
One of the policemen OJ (Edison Chen), who manages to stay calm and double kill the criminals.
Special Duties Unit (SDU) who was present is Hartman Fong (Richie Ren) sees his potential and recruited him.At the academy, OJ spoke to Shane (Bowie Lam) about the best sniper and he sees Lincoln's name in the academy board but he is nowhere to be found.
Shane explains that Lincoln has been expelled from the academy due to an incident.A couple of days later, Lincoln Ching (Huang Xiaoming) has been released from prison after four years and is greeted by fellow officer and friend, Shane, who treats him to some dinner and sending him home.
When Lincoln returns to his apartment, he stares at the aquarium and his wife, Crystal (Mango Wong) appears and they are reunited again.In a flashback, Hartman succeeds Shane as the new leader of Hong Kong's Special Duties Unit Sniper Team.
The best sniper was Hartman's former teammate Lincoln, whose unorthodox methods and confidence makes him arrogant and disdainful of authority.
Hartman and Lincoln are two alpha males with a long-running rivalry, with only room at the top for one sharpshooter.One night, an incident at a bank robbery goes wrong when crime boss Tao (Jack Kao) was holding the son of bank chairman as hostage, Lincoln saw an opportunity for headshot because he wants to rescue everyone when he witness Tao has pulled out the grenade pin in his hand.
Lincoln was testified but no one else on the Sniper Team support his story, indeed there is a feeling that Hartman (who was the only other person who could have been in a position to see Tao with the grenade).Within days Lincoln has purchased an illegal sniper rifle.
Lincoln helps crime boss Tao escape prisoner transfer convoy.
An off-duty Hartman witnessed the incident, killing several of Tao's men but unable to prevent them from breaking their boss free.
OJ, the hot-headed rookie on the team, surprises everyone by accurately replicating the suspect's impossible shots.
He manages to do this because of advice from Lincoln when they were at a bar.As Hartman investigates the suspect, he inadvertently runs into crime boss Tao and his henchmen in the elevator of an apartment building.
Hartman manages to kill one of the criminals but while chasing after Tao, he is covered by Lincoln.
Hartman pursues Lincoln to the roof and Lincoln loses his grip on a rope and falls down.
Tao escapes but his right-hand man is cornered by police, so he flees into a restaurant and takes hostages.Hartman coordinates his sniper team but only OJ has a good shot.
Although Hartman's order is "shoot to kill", OJ instead wounds the criminal in the arm holding the gun.
Although the hostage situation has been resolved without loss of innocent life, Hartman and OJ have a heated argument over his given order.Lincoln survived the fall with no major injuries and continues his plan of revenge and kidnaps Shane, who is Lincoln's last friend and supporter from the SDU.
In a fit of rage, Lincoln takes his rifle and fires at the ghosts of Hartman and the bank chairman's son, before realizing that he has unintentionally killed Shane.A flashback shows Crystal visiting Lincoln in prison, but he tells he to go away.
Standing out on the balcony of her apartment looking at a photo of them in happier times, a wind blows away the photo, and as she lunges for it she tumbles over the railing and falls to her death.In the end, Lincoln decides to lure Hartman and the SDU sniper team into a trap at a auto scrap warehouse, leading to the ultimate showdown amongst three expert snipers.
First, Lincoln forces the crime boss Tao reenact the bank robbery hostage taking, and unlike four years ago, this time Lincoln successfully kills Tao and saves the hostage.
In the final gun battle, most of Hartman's team is wounded or killed, and Hartman volunteers to sacrifice himself and draw Lincoln's attention, allowing OJ to kill Lincoln and become the best sniper in the SDU.--The Sniper revolves around with a rookie cop turn professional sniper in the Special Duties Unite (SDU) and recently released from prison, an ex- sniper seeks revenge against his former squad because no one support his testimonial when he fires the shot at crime boss Tao, when he really saw him releasing the grenade pin.Nothing much about it.