Film in Competition: Life Without Principle (Dyut Ming Gam)

Film in Competition: Life Without Principle (Dyut Ming Gam)

Hong Kong auteur and Festival favourite Johnnie To returns with Life Without Principle, a suspenseful drama starring Denise Ho, Lau Ching Wan and Richie Jen. The film takes a hard look at Hong Kong’s money-obsessed culture through three characters whose destinies collide one fateful day. Teresa (Ho), a customer service manager at a bank, is under pressure to make her sales quota with a high-risk investment fund. Although she knows the sale is only for the bank’s benefit, she pitches it to some of her clients, including a shady loan shark and a clueless housewife.

Small-time gangster Buzzard (Lau) is going through a tough time — like many fellow Triad members — and relies on scams to make money. When the police raid a meeting and arrest one of his friends, Buzzard has to raise the bail. So he decides to try his luck at a gambling operation that bets on the financial markets run by main­land Chinese gangsters.

Inspector Cheung (Jen) is a dedicated police officer who earns a good salary and has no interest in investments. His wife, however, is pressuring him to buy a property that they can’t really afford. Unbeknownst to him, she has already signed the paperwork and agreed to purchase the apartment.

When troubling economic news suddenly sends the Hong Kong financial markets tumbling, Teresa, Buzzard and Cheung are all forced to make major decisions that will change the course of their lives.

To’s latest film is a sharply observed tale of contemporary Hong Kong life in the financial panic of the twenty-first century. The director has crafted a com­plex and ambiguous scheme in which characters are forced to make morally questionable choices in a society mad with turning a profit. With strong perfor­mances from its cast, To’s assured direction and a great script, Life Without Principle is a dark projection of what happens when the cash runs low in an already wild and des­perate world.