Detective Bun was recognised as a talented criminal profiler until he sliced off his right ear to offer as a gift at farewell party of his chief. Branded as mad and discharged from the force, he has lived in seclusion with his beloved wife May ever since. Strangely, Bun has the ability to see inner personality of a person, their subconscious desires, emotions, and mental state. When a missing police gun is linked to several heists and murders, hotshot Inspector Ho calls on the valuable skills of his former mentor Bun to help unlock the identity of the killer. However, Buns unorthodox methods point to a fellow detective and take a schizophrenic turn for the worse.
If the insanely inventive and entertaining Mad Detective weren't so weird -- and in Cantonese -- hordes of action geeks would be lining the block to see it.
Film Journal International
July 18, 2008
A freewheeling narrative that twists around its central themes with manic intensity.
Mad Detective doesn't always make sense, and you cannot always tell what is real and what is imaginary, but viewers will be having too much zonked-out fun to care.
More comical than compelling, but what do you expect of a chopsocky revolving around a head case of a hero begging to be buried alive in order to channel his psychic powers?
Cleverly scripted, brilliantly acted and masterfully edited, Mad Detective explores the very human capacity to lose one's moral centre in a crisis.
AV Club
July 17, 2008
Fleeting confusion and bizarre literalization aside, Mad Detective is an effective mystery story, with an oddball hero -- like TV's Monk, but far crazier -- and some moments of visceral violence that raise the stakes.
Time Out
July 16, 2008
Every moment in Mad Detective seems engineered for maximum oddity; it almost becomes overwhelming...Yet the movie feels adventuresome, too, a new bridge to Asiaâ(TM)s soulful ghost canon. Itâ(TM)s a metaphysical mystery masquerading as a doodle.
Filmcritic.com
July 17, 2008
too cluttered to be engrossing or even entertaining
Oregonian
September 26, 2008
Expect an inferior American remake within five years.
