So Close (film)

So Close is a 2002 Hong Kong action film directed by Corey Yuen and starring Shu Qi, Zhao Wei and Karen Mok.

So Close
Film poster
Traditional夕陽天使
Simplified夕阳天使
MandarinXīyáng Tiānshǐ
CantoneseZik6-joeng4 Tin1-si2
Directed byCorey Yuen
Produced byPo-Chu Chui
Written byJeffrey Lau
StarringShu Qi
Vicki Zhao
Karen Mok
Song Seung-heon
Music bySam Kao
Kenjo Tan
CinematographyVenus Keung
Chan Chi-ying
Edited byCheung Ka-fai
Production
company
Eastern Film Production (HK)
Distributed byColumbia Pictures (US)
Sony Pictures Classics
(US)
Release date
  • 6 September 2002 (2002-09-06)
Running time
110 minutes
CountryHong Kong
LanguageCantonese
Box officeHK$880,332[1]

The film's English title is derived from The Carpenters' song "Close to You", which has a prominent role in the film.

Plot

Lynn and her sister Sue are computer hackers, assassins and espionage specialists who use their late father's secret satellite technology to gain an advantage over their rivals and law enforcement agents. At the beginning of the film, they infiltrate a high security building and assassinate Chow Lui, the chairman of a top company in China.

After their successful mission, a police inspector named Kong Yat-hung is assigned to investigate the case and she manages to track down the assassins. In the meantime, Chow Lui's younger brother Chow Nung, who hired Lynn and Sue to kill his brother so that he can become the chairman, wants to kill the assassins to silence them. The cat-and-mouse chase becomes more complicated as both the police and the thugs are out to get Lynn and Sue.

Sue has always been playing the role of the assistant by staying on the computer and helping to disable the security systems and giving instructions on navigating the area, while Lynn, who is older and more experienced, does all the field work. Sue is jealous and thinks that Lynn refuses to let her participate more actively because she is less adept, but actually Lynn is trying to protect her sister from danger. Their relationship becomes strained when Lynn falls in love with her friend's cousin Yen and wants to give up her job and marry Yen. Sue intends to continue her career as a contract killer so that she can prove that she is as good as her sister.

Kong Yat-hung tracks down Sue in a bakery, where Sue is buying a birthday cake, and this leads to a frantic car chase. When Sue realises that she is being cornered by the police, she calls Lynn at home and asks her sister for help. At the same time, Chow Nung's assassins break into the house and kill Lynn and frame Kong Yat-hung for the murder. Sue escapes from the police and finds out the true identities of her sister's killers from the CCTVs in the house. She rescues Kong Yat-hung from custody and offers to help her clear her name, but Kong must assist her in avenging her sister. Left with no choice, Kong Yat-hung agrees to team up with Sue to hunt down and kill Chow Nung and his henchmen. Over the course of planning the counter-attack, Sue and Kong Yat-hung bonded.

Sue and Kong Yat-hung succeeded in defeating Chow Nung. Both of them agree that if not due to the nature of their line of work (one a police and the other a criminal), they might have been bestfriends. With that, they parted ways.

Sue visited Lynn's grave, saying thank you for everything that her sister had done, and she can now take care of herself. She promised Lynn that she will tell Yen the whole ordeal, knowing that Yen is “the guy Lynn loves the most”. The film ends with a scene where Yen is still waiting for Lynn at a restaurant which they had promised to meet.

Cast
  • Shu Qi as Lynn
  • Zhao Wei as Sue
  • Karen Mok as Kong Yat-hung
  • Song Seung-heon as Yen
  • Michael Wai as Ma Siu-ma
  • Kurata Yasuaki as Master
  • Deric Wan as Chow Nung
  • Shek Sau as Chow Lui
  • Josephine Lam as Alice Chow
  • Ben Lam as Ben
  • Ricardo Mamood as Peter
  • May Kwong as May
  • Henry Fong as Lynn and Sue's father
  • Paw Hee-ching as Lynn and Sue's mother
  • Tats Lau as Ghost King
  • Kam Hing-yin as Captain
  • Josie Ho as Ching
  • Jude Poyer as murderer
  • Dave Taylor as murderer
  • David John Saunders as murderer
  • Leon Head as murderer
  • Lam Seung-mo as Lai Kai-joe
  • Leo Ku as man in lift
  • Wong So-bik as May
  • Ben Yuen as Mr Yeung
  • Huang Kaisen as Wong Fat-chi
  • Victy Wong as bodyguard
  • Wong Wai-fai as bodyguard
  • So Wai-nam as bodyguard
  • Kong Foo-keung as robber
  • John Cheung as cop
  • Keung Hak-shing as Lee Hong-fai
  • Adam Chan
  • Tanigaki Kenji
  • Lam Kwok-git

Reception

So Close holds an average rating of 6.7/10 based on 37 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes[2] and an average score of 66/100 based on 18 reviews on Metacritic.[3]

Awards and nominations
Awards
Award Category Name Outcome
Central Ohio Film Critics Association Best Foreign-Language Film Nominated
Hong Kong Film Awards Best Action Choreography Corey Yuen
Jianyong Gao		 Nominated
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See also

References
  1. "So Close (2002)". Hong Kong Movie Database. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  2. "So Close (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  3. "So Close". Metacritic. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
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