Alfred Cheung's On the Run was the last film shown in a 12-hour Hong Kong marathon I attended. And wow, what a downer to end on. Even though both heroes survive and the bad guys die, it was an emotional Pyrrhic victory. The film is desperately sad and even nihilistic. Filmed during a time when Hong Kong began its transition from British to China control and everyone was trying to emigrate abroad, it follows a police officer and the hitwoman hired to kill his wife fighting back against a ruthless homicide division that runs a heroin business on the side. Nowhere is the brutality more poignant than a scene where the two discover that the police officer's young daughter had been killed during a chase. Ghastly stuff, but it's a necessary look into a culture in painful transition.
7/10
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