The Movie

The Hong Kong film Moving Targets is about two childhood friends who became cops with the Hong Kong Police and how their lives begin to unfold after they graduate the police academy. In the beginning of the movie, the main characters Fit (Edison Chen) and Cheung Wai-Kit (Nicholas Tse) and two of their buddies are out celebrating. In midst of a wild night, they run into a group of Triad gangsters. There is a pretty intense action/gunfight scene, followed by a change in the wind. Because of their valiant efforts, the four friends get assigned to a major case squad. Oddly enough, the detail is run by Kit's father (Simon Yam), who doesn't know Kit is his son. Soap opera alert? Kit's father walked out on him when he was a young boy and since then, Kit has changed his name and his father doesn't recognize him. As the story continues to unfold, the lives of Kit and Fit are outlined. Kit's career moves ahead with a promotion to the internal investigation bureau. On the other hand, Fit begins to run in trouble when a Triad boss blackmails him. The underlying story and attraction is watching these two characters move in nearly opposite stations in life.

What I liked about his movie is that there were plenty of action sequences to keep me entertained. What I didn't like about the movie is it seemed pretty short. There was also a fairly big imbalance on the character development. The character of Kit had a substantial focus on his youth and how his father's action feeds his anger. I thought this flashback approach offers good insight to what kind of character Kit has become. On the other hand we completely miss out on the past of Fit, as well we never see how Kit and Fit grew up as good friends. I believe these two additions could have really improved the quality of the characters.

Another important relationship that was sort of skipped over is the love triangle between Fit, Kit, and Wing (Gillian Chung, The Twins Effect 1 & 2). Since the relationships between the three are skipped over, we miss out on a lot of great opportunities for character development and tear jerking drama. The he loves her, she loves him, but he loves... can always be interesting and add some great drama, as well insights to the characters. But, the story never really covers their relationships in detail. Instead, it becomes a very minor side story that probably could have been omitted and the movie would come off the same.

On a positive, note the two main characters are developed quite well (in the present). Kit and Fit both have their own problems they have to deal with. Kit is struggling with the past, as he is forced to face his father on a daily basis. Fit's problems get a little worse. He dumpy father gets caught up with the Triad gangsters and it puts Fit in a quite the predicament. As earlier mentioned, it's really these two different character paths that make this moving more than just a dumb action film. Of course, the action sequences also add something to keep you entertained and ultimately, it helps bring Moving Targets together.

Overall, despite I thought there could have been several improvements on the character development in general, the story itself is intriguing and entertaining. In a way it resembles a very popular Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, but is not as strong. As far as a cops and robbers flick, Moving Targets is successful in its presentation with two very likeable characters and some decent action.

The DVD

Video:
The video is given in a widescreen presentation, with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The entire feature was filmed with relatively low light, which adds a dark ambience to the movie. At the same time the dark scenes bring out the defects in the video. There is a fairly noticeable grain in the video and some issues with compression artifacts. The major source of the problems is using a single-layered DVD to store all of the movie data. Overall despite its imperfections, it is viewable.

Audio:
The audio track format is given in 5.1 surround sound. There are language options include Cantonese and Mandarin. The sound quality is quite good with the dialogue tending to be flat and music and sound effects coming off fairly rich. Channel separation was used decently, with the distinction between left and right channels are being pretty good. This release also comes equipped with English subtitles. The subtitles are written poorly. Sometimes you might to pause and think about what you just read, because it does not really make sense.

Extras:
The extras are pretty dull, which includes the theatrical trailer, a music video, and a making of featurette. The featurette is approximately five minutes long and unless you speak Chinese you won't get very much from it. The spoken dialogue and subtitles are in Chinese.

Final Thoughts:
Moving Targets is not quite brilliant, but not bad either. There is enough action in this movie to keep you entertained. I enjoyed how the story unfolds. However, I think the movie could have used some work in the way it handle some of its characters. Overall, I have no problem recommending Moving Targets for purchase.