Lend all the gracious mentions as you may to notable directors like Jesse Johnson, Liam O’Donnell and Isaac Florentine for all your action cinema needs. Otherwise, feel free to leave room for director Herman Yau’s place in your hierarchal lists of filmmaker faves given the thrills he’s dished out in the last several years to add to his diverse resumè, helming two explosive sequels with The White Storm 2: Drug Lords, and Shock Wave 2, both featuring actor Andy Lau.
If you’ve seen those titles then you’re in full understanding of the dangers of letting a good thing slip by. Alas, it is Yau who will soon be bookending a long and winding journey that began in 2018 with the forthcoming release of his latest crime thriller, Death Notice, now finally making headway these days with an official trailer ahead of a December 10 release. The film joins Yau with The White Storm 2 actor Louis Koo along with a cast that includes Julian Cheung, Francis Ng, Myolie Wu and Pakho Chau.
A killer called “E” has been leaving a death notification card before killing scumbags who evaded the law. Police reacted by forming a task force with the elite personnels from each field to capture the vigilante. But in reality, what each department did was dumping their best but most eccentric members to the task force.
There is the high IQ but low EQ criminalist Luo Fei, the ill-mannered profiler Mu Jian Yun, the inflexible captain Han Hao, the cowardly crime lab specialist Yin Jian, the gothic loving forensic pathologist Liang Yin, the hacker Zeng Ri Hua, and the volatile combat specialist Xiong Yuan. With each murder, the task force uncovers the crimes the victims had committed, at the same time, gets closer to finding the mysterious vigilante.
