I Corrupt All Cops (金錢帝國) is a 2009 film out of Hong Kong. The main stars are Anthony Wong, Tony Leung, Alex Fong and Eason Chan. Supporting cast include Wong Jing, Liu Yang, Kate Tsui, and Bowie Lam.
The movie is about the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s corrupt Hong Kong police force. Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is the play on the acronym. Being transformed to "I Corrupt All Cops". My translation for the title is the emperor of the gold country.
The movie follows the Tony Leung as Lak, Eason Chan as Gale, Alex Fong as Bong, and Anthony Wong as Unicorn. Lak is the head of the police force and with Gold, played by Wong Jing, established a bribe system for local gangs and police. Gale runs in Lak's inner circle and is presented as an all around good guy. Unicorn is a hot headed police officer that gets on the wrong side of Lak and is demoted to patrol the water bank. The first half of the movie is to present the current situation of bribes for police and system of corruption. The second half is the formation of ICAC and how it brings down Lak's circle and tries to weed out corruption in the police force.
The movie was pretty intense and I loved the subject matter. It brought back memories of Andy Lau's Lee Rock film series. But the story telling was very unfocused and the character development seem forced. In the end, I didn't care for these guys much. Liu Yang had a breakout performance as Rose and hope to see more of her.
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