Rule #1 第一诫

Every day, the Police Force receives 185 phone calls.

180 of them are about burglaries, murders, rapes and kidnappings.

The remaining 5 begin with: “There is something strange in my house, can you please send someone over to take a look?”

For rookie Sergeant Lee (Shawn Yu), being a cop means running down crooks and upholding the law. Injured in a shoot-out, he finds out to his horror that he is reassigned to the dubious-sounding Miscellaneous Affairs Department (MAD).

There, he is paired up with Inspector Wong (Ekin Cheng), a jaded and alcoholic veteran who explains that MAD’s role is to answer supernatural calls.

A swimming pool caretaker calls the Police about strange noises at his workplace. Lee and Wong are dispatched to the scene. Lee seems to be on the brink of uncovering something sinister when Wong traces the source of the ghastly noise–a clogged-up water pump.

Putting Lee down, Wong explains MAD’s rule number one–There are no ghosts.

For every seemingly-inexplicable phenomenon, there is a corresponding scientific and rational explanation.

When Lee and Wong arrive at a nursing home to investigate a bizarre TV that keeps turning itself on and off, the veteran cop immediately uncovers the culprit. A man in the opposite apartment is channel-surfing with a remote control that is of the same brand as the TV in the nursing home.

Unconvinced by Wong’s easy explanations, Lee investigates on his own and finds himself confronted by the impossible. At the swimming pool, he is haunted by the ghost of a young girl who had drowned there. At the nursing home, he encounters the spirit of an old woman who enjoyed watching TV before she passed away.

Confronted by Lee, Wong reveals the true mission of MAD. When members of the public call the Police about strange noises or ghostly shadows, MAD shows up and reassures the complainants with scientific and rational explanations. The truth must never be known or else society will descend into chaos.

A firm believer of truth and justice, Lee cannot reconcile himself to MAD’s shady practices. As he rebels against the system, the young cop realizes that there is a grain of truth in Wong’s advice.

Slowly, Lee is sucked into a world of deceit and cover-ups. His relationship with his girlfriend May (Fiona Xie) suffers as MAD begins investigating a string of bizarre teenage suicides.

A girl is found to have hung herself from a height of five feet.

Another girl is discovered to have drowned herself in a fish tank.

Impossible suicides. Unless, the victims were possessed.

As Lee and Wong follow the clues, they realize that something sinister is heading their way.

A serial killer who was shot by Lee before his reassignment to MAD is back–as a ghost. He is moving from girl to girl, leaving a grisly trail of carnage in his wake.

While Lee doggedly pursues this ancient feud, Wong has second thoughts about his flagging career at MAD. The veteran hooks up with his former wife Esther (Stephanie Che) and makes plans to quit the force.

On Wong’s last day, Lee tracks the serial killer’s ghost down to a warehouse. A showdown ensues–in which nobody is let off.

 

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

 

It started with a simple what if.

What if there are ghosts and the Police know about it? Do they then tell the truth or do they lie? Therein lies the premise of Rule #1.

I wanted a film that explored the spectrum between black and white. I was interested in making a film that is gray. With Rule #1, I was able to achieve that with a storyline that was about two cops confronted by the supernatural and their subsequent struggle to reconcile their awful knowledge with their mission to serve and protect the public. In other words, to really protect the innocent, do you tell them that there is a ghost in their apartment or do you lie and blame the strange noises on a faulty water pipe?

Rule #1 is a horror-thriller about cops. There are no helpless female victims here. Instead, the prey are policemen who, despite possessing guns, find themselves at their wits’ end when confronted by bloodthirsty ghouls and spirits.

Rule #1 takes place in an unnamed Asian city and tells the story about two cops-a rookie and veteran. As the body-count rises and our two protagonists find themselves ankle-deep in blood, themes of bonding, faith, heroism and betrayal are explored.

As good battles evil, the line is drawn somewhere between the truth and lies. This is no man’s land. This is gray.

 

PRODUCTION DETAILS

 

Filmed entirely in Hong Kong, Kelvin Tong’s horror-thriller Rule #1 took in locations around the atmospheric city. Iconic landmarks such as Lingnan University, Hong Kong Plaza in Causeway Bay, a romantic beach-side bar in Repulse Bay and a disused water-filtration plant in Stanley which was featured in many Johnnie To films, served as the US$ 2 million movie’s locales. Principal photography began in 6 September 2007 and lasted for 19 days.

Offline post-production was completed at China Star Production Services Ltd while Cinedigit Sound Ltd handled the audio work. Music scoring was undertaken in Singapore and integrated into the film’s final dolby mix in Hong Kong. Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Ltd produced the final prints of Rule #1.

 

Check out some interesting comments on movie here…

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2. on twitchfilm.net
3. on moviexclusive.com
4. on thoo2.net

~ by kelvintong on March 13, 2008.