The Sparring Partner: A Brilliant Crime Thriller

Release Date：Dec/9/2022

Genre：Crime/Drama

Director：Cheuk Tin Ho

Cast：Wai-lun Yeung、Pui Tung Mak、Louisa So、Wan-Yee Yip、Michael Chow

Viola's Rating：8.9

In 2015, Port of Call, which was directed, edited and written by Hong Kong director Philip Yung, was critically acclaimed. The feature film was based on a real murder case where a dismembered corpse of a murdered 16-year-old female prostitute was found in Hong Kong in 2008. 7 years later, Yung became the producer of another crime thriller including dismembering, The Sparring Partner, which was released limited on Dec 9, 2022.

Based on a shocking case in real life, the murder of Glory Chau and Moon Siu in 2013, the plot of this crime drama talks about how a young man partners with his friend to murder and dismember his parents. Defense attorneys from the young man and his friend plead not guilty to the crime and face each other as nine jurors grapple with the truth.

There are a bunch of analogies in The Sparring Partner displaying how the character prototype of the protagonist is like in real life. The character prototype auditioned for 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy, a Hong Kong 3D erotic costume drama, showing that he cared for fame and was willing to do anything to achieve it, which was also one of the reasons the general public in Hong Kong thought he killed his parents for.

Also, the character prototype admired Adolf Hitler very much, and The Sparring Partner made sure that this attribute was portrayed faithfully. A big amount of fantasy scenes was used also for allowing the audience to understand the protagonist more.

In the real case, Siu Lam Psychiatric Center conducted an IQ test for both defendants along with other medical institutions. All the expert witnesses are presented in The Sparring Partner, aiming to display the real trial. As in the real case, the debate and discussions over the IQ of the protagonist’s accomplice is shown in the film.

While presenting a lot of scenes of killing and dismembering, The Sparring Partner not only focuses more on the judicial system in Hong Kong, but also mainly on the jury system. The flick displays the process of discussing among the nine jurors along with their quarrels. By walking through the trial with the jurors, moviegoers can understand the reason why the jurors made the final decisions, but at the same time, the motion picture hopes the audience would ponder over the justice through jurors’ eyes.

Even with gruesome shots, The Sparring Partner succeeds in building up the tension through the courtroom scenes. Besides balancing the court proceedings and jury discussions, the movie still provides some bright side of humanity and open ending just like how the actual case ended.

Picture Credit: IMDb