The Beast Stalker or Ching Yan or 证人 shows Hong Kong at its best and worst. It’s directed and jointly written by Dante Lam, the other scriptwriting credit going to Ng Wai Ling.
At its heart, there’s a simple story of a serious criminal who orders
the kidnap of the prosecuting lawyer’s daughter and instructs her to
destroy the DNA evidence that would lead to his conviction. Needless to
say, this whole plot depends on the lawyer not disclosing the kidnap and
being willing to go to jail for obstructing justice — a fate that would
separate her from her daughter in any event.
Well, always start with a bang, so they say, and this film is no exception. There’s a police raid planned by Sergeant Tong Fei (Nicholas Tse)
to arrest Cheung, a major criminal wanted for a number of crimes
including robbery and murder. The team divides into three and each group
is supposed to co-ordinate their entry into the premises to capture the
target. Unfortunately Michael (Derek Kwok Jing-Hung), leading one of the teams is late in breaking through a door and there’s a shooting with Sun (Liu Kai-Chi)
narrowly escaping serious injury. Nevertheless, they capture Cheung
who’s almost immediately rescued from police custody. Tong and Sun take
off in pursuit. There’s a bad crash at a traffic junction, disabling all
three vehicles involved. The criminals see another vehicle parked by
the kerb. It belongs to a prosecuting lawyer, Ann / Gao Min (Zhang Jingchu)
who’s standing beside it arguing with her estranged husband on her
mobile phone. With Ann knocked to the ground, her car is driven away.
Tong emerges from the wreckage of his vehicle and starts shooting. The
fusillade of shots brings this second getaway car crashing to a halt.
When the boot is opened, Tong discovers he has accidentally shot a
little girl. The criminals found her on the back seat when they took the
car and stuffed her inside the boot as they drove away. Cheung is in a
coma. He’s rearrested but, after three months, he’s fit to be tried.
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