The Corruptor Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
You can't play by the rules when there aren't any.
Geen recht. Geen regels. Geen gerechtigheid.
No law. No rules. No justice. [translation Dutch tagline]
A New York police officer (Wahlberg) goes undercover in a dangerous crime scene to investigate abductions and drug-trafficking operations. He obtains backup with the help of another brave Hong Kong police officer (Yun-Fat) who works for the NYPD. They partner up together to stop the operation before the city goes down. The criminal orginization is called the "Fukanese Dragons" who are likely terrorists and illegal immigrants who are about to tear up Chinatown in New York City.
| Yun-Fat Chow | Nick Chen |
| Mark Wahlberg | Danny Wallace |
| Ric Young | Henry Lee |
| Paul Ben-Victor | Schabacker |
| Jonkit Lee | Jack |
| Andrew Pang | Willy Ung |
| Elizabeth Lindsey | Louise Deng |
| Brian Cox | Sean Wallace |
| Byron Mann | Bobby Vu |
| Kim Chan | Benny Wong |
| Bill MacDonald | Vince Kirkpatrick |
| Susie Trinh | Amy San |
| Ho Chow | Black Eyes |
| Olivia Yap | Tai |
| Lynda Chiu | Kim |
| James Foley |
5.60 out of 10 (4840 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Solid crime thriller
posted on 02 May 2009Nick Chen is a tough as nails New York cop who works on both sides of the law. When a new rookie cop is assigned to his unit he sees how the local crime boss tries to corrupt him and Chen reconsiders his ethics. All the while a few twists and turns show who is really playing who.This is by no means a very original movie, especially for Chow Yun-Fat. His first American film, 'The Replacement Killers,' also was kind of a re-run, but what is there to say? He's good at this type of stuff.Just like 'The Replacement Killers' this film was also a flop at the box office and it is probably through its gritty and uncompromising tone. Yeah, there's action and intense shootouts, but it is not like 'Die Hard' or anything. Innocent people die, the ending isn't happy, but what matters is that the film isn't cheesy - it pulls no sucker punches or cheap thrills. It sticks to the characters while keeping the action secondary, but no less intense. The plot too is also pretty interesting and is a little more intricate than 'The Replacement Killers' or Chow Yun-Fat's cult hits from Hong Kong like 'Hard Boiled.' It is not quite a masterpiece of genre, but remains a solid crime thriller nonetheless. 8/10Rated R: strong violence, and profanity
Pretty lame
posted on 31 Mar 2009Unlike The Replacement Killers, Chow-Yun Fat finally got a decent role, and a movie where they actually did more than shoot little guns all day, but it's still pretty boring. It's also somewhat racist, having that generic negative portrayal of Chinatown and all, if anybody cares. I'd just say skip this and go watch a real action flick like Rush Hour instead.
Wahlberg is Wonderful
posted on 15 Dec 2008The Corruptor was an excellent film. It's a must for anyone interested in action and suspense film. One of Mark Wahlberg's best films. The chemistry between Chow Yun Fat and Mark Wahlberg is outstanding. The Corruptor keeps you in suspense til the very end!!!!
Less story than Replacement Killers, but a better storyline.
posted on 29 Nov 2008Contrary to many other peoples opinions, I loved The Replacement Killers. I was really looking forward to seeing Chow Yun Fats 2nd Hollywood film and I wasn't disappointed. It concentrates on the storyline more than the action (like R.K), but that is cool as well. Chow Yun Fat is as cool as ever and seems to have a better grasp of the English language than in R.K too and has much more dialogue. Mark Wahlberg is decent too, but personally I think Chow blows him off the screen. Be warned though, there are some disturbing moments in this film, so if you are easily offended you may want to steer clear of it...
A dispairing action movie
posted on 22 Oct 2008I left the theatre feeling very unsettled. Maybe it was because the guy to the left of me wheezed so loud everytime he breathed through his nose, I thought it was Darth Vader. I know people are excited about the prequels, but please!Anyways, the movie paints a dismal view of Chinatown by centering upon gangsters, thugs, and corrupt people (thus the title). As I watched the first hour, I kept wondering to myself what the redeeming quality of the protagonist, of anyone would be. And the answer, is that there are none. Repeated shots of gambling and carousings, the rancous sexual encounters, the glorified violent slayings, and the really bad racial jokes (mostly made by Chow's Chinese partner) were all too much and too little to make me want to care about these individuals.It wasn't until the end, where the main conflict reaches a climax that I cannot give away here, but suffice to say, it is was the only 'good' thing about this movie. But even then, I did not connect to, nor care about any of the characters.Perhaps that is the message of this film, I supposed I can't expect theories and themes in an action movie such as this, but listen up filmmakers! Without character connections you get frustrations from the audience, as you can read in the comments above this one.
A decent flick, Chow Yun Fat gets a better role
posted on 24 Jul 2008This was a good movie. Not a great one, not a terrible one. I was surprised by Chow Yun Fat in this one. My only previous exposure to him was "The Replacement Killers", in which he played a very quiet and sullen character. Definitely a much livelier rold for him, and he seems to do well with it. The main downer on him is that his command of English is not the best. There were parts of the movie where I could not understand a word he was saying(I have nightmares of him doing a movie with Van Damme)Mark Wahlberg does a good job here, though not as good as previous roles. But he still goes on to prove that Marky Mark can act.Excellent casting or Ric Young as the bad guy. Though there was no evidence of it in the rold he played, he looks like a pervert. No mistaking him for anything other than evil.Might be worth a trip to the theater if you like shoot em ups, otherwise grab it when it comes to video
Way Better Than You'd Expect!
posted on 14 Jul 2008I bought this movie when I was away from home and needed some entertainment. I found a close out bin of movies and remembered seeing Mark Wahlberg in "The Truth About Charlie", another surprising movie, and gave it a shot. I was very glad that I did.Chow Yun-Fat plays a NYC policeman who is part of the Asian Crimes Division. Mark Wahlberg joins the team as a member against the wishes of Yun-Fat who doesn't think a white cop can be effective in China Town.Very soon we find Wahlberg being gently drawn into a world of corruption by the leaders of the Chinese underworld who are out to see to the safety of their operations. Wahlberg is fed info that enables him to crack a series of murders of unidentified illegal Chines immigrant women and becomes a decorated hero in the department. He also learns that the same "corruptor" who is steering him has his partner, Yun-Fat, in his pocket.As the movie builds, we learn that all is not as it seems as Wahlberg's character is in fact undercover to gain evidence on Yun-Fat for Internal Affairs. And despite the two men's budding friendship and the fact that they save each others life during the action; the movie does build to a head and a bitter-sweet climax.One of life's pleasant little surprises. Highly recommended to anyone who is not afraid of a little language and some adult situations.
Still a good flick with a charismatic Chow.
posted on 10 Jul 2008Let me start by saying I'm a Chow-Yun Fat fan. I have seen all of his best Hong Kong works and both The Replacement Killers and The Corruptor. And his last film is much more than your typical Hong Kong actioner rip-off.First of all the Corruptor has a much more complex story than the Replacement Killers. It involves a rookie white cop being partners with a hard-boiled and street smart Chinese cop (Chow). They start off making a good team, investigating gang crimes in Chinatown, New York. After working with Chen(Chow) a while, Wallace(Wahlberg) start to realize that his partner has underground ties with the local Triads. And that he's one of many pawns of The Corruptor. And at the same time, without giving anything away, Chen finds out something dark and secret about his partner as well.Action wise this movie definitely delivers the goods, it begins with Chen in a local Chinese store busting a group of gang members single handedly, pumping heat from both hands. Another part of the movie finds our heroes in close pursuit with two gangsters, one driving and one pouring lead back at our heroes from a uzi. The chase takes us through Chinatown, innocent bystanders gets mowed down, cars ram into buildings at high speeds, explosions goes off immediately after. This movie's definitely not for the squirmish. While the movies delivers high caliber action, it also powerfully portraits the villians and the outrageous and inhuman things they do, like explode a store and blast the only survivor, and keep Chinese women in dark basements for pornography purposes. There is only one thing I can say: disturbing.The Corruptor is more than your average day actioner, but it's still got some holes in it's complex plot, never the less, Chow delivers an electrifying performance that's not to be passed up. So I recommend this flick to anyone who enjoys an entertaining shoot em-up with a serious plot.
Chinatown
posted on 13 May 2008New York's Chinatown is the background for this story about cops assigned to the area who are pursuing the Chinese gangs that operate within the neighborhood. Nick Chen, is a much admired cop who understands the people and the underground. When a white cop arrives to Chen's precinct things get a bit tense. Nick Chen takes Wallace under his wing and shows him the ropes.The film starts with a big bang, as a Chinese gang has wired a corner restaurant and blows it in a big explosion. Danny Wallace, who is at first cautious, is able to overcome his awkwardness and gains Chen's support. When Danny is almost killed, he tells Chen he owes him his life. What Chen doesn't suspect is that Danny is doing his own undercover investigation about what goes on in Chinatown.When prostitutes begin appearing dead in empty trash bins, Wallace realizes there is much more going on in the area. All points out of Uncle Benny's doing, but also involved is the powerful Henry Lee, a man that has a lot of interests in Chinatown and has his hands into gambling, prostitution and illegal smuggling. Nick Chen might be involved in some of the corruption. Danny Wallace's father, also a cop, comes to his son for money to keep his habit, and finally is found in his son's apartment, where he has collapsed. Nick and Danny's friendship will be put through a test.James Foley, an otherwise good director, brings some good ideas, but clearly, this genre demands someone else with more experience. Mr. Foley produced a stylishly looking film with a superb cinematography by Juan Ruiz-Anchia who loves to photograph from the air. His take of the Chinatown location is one of the best things in the movie. Also, the moody music by Carter Burwell seems to go hand in hand with what we are watching. Robert Pucci's screen play is full of twists and complications.Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg show an easy chemistry in their work. These actors compliment one another and make their characters seem real. The terrific Ric Young is perfectly reptile as he develops his Henry Lee, a corrupt man. Brian Cox turns up briefly as Sean Wallace, Danny's father.Be prepared for a lot of action!
Chow Chow does it again
posted on 01 Apr 2008After seeing Chow Yun Fat in all his Hong Kong movies I couldn't wait till he came to America. Then Replacement Killers came out, it was ok but nothing up to his standards. Now this movie comes out, Oliver Stone is Ex. Producer :) This shows his acting abilities and his action abilities. The movie overall was great. The story good and some major twists near the end. It was an American film but made with Hong Kong ways such as ammo limitations(infinite), innocents killed (Always great) and great action stunts. Go see this movie!!!!
High hopes wre shot down
posted on 02 Mar 2008I had high for The Corruptor , I thought a movie with Yun-Fat and Walhberg would be decent but I was wrong. The direction by James Foley is very slow paced and the action seqeunces are long and drawn out. I say if you're a die hard fan of Yun-Fat check this out other wise avoid it.
All That Was Needed Was Limehouse Blues
posted on 27 Feb 2008If The Corrupter had been filmed back in the days of the studio system the only thing missing would have been Limehouse Blues on the soundtrack. Even given the fact that it was filmed on location right in New York City's Chinatown and I recognized a lot of the spots, it has the feel of one of those RKO noir type films with a couple of car chases thrown in. The location though really adds to the film.In The Corrupter the precinct of location is the fictitious 15th precinct which coincidentally enough is the one where Andy Sipowicz and the rest of those cops labored on NYPD Blue. Chinatown in Manhattan is actually in the NYPD Fifth precinct. A lot of police of Oriental ancestry get assigned there as a matter of course because of language skills. But Chow Yun Fat who heads the squad there does not need Mark Wahlberg assigned who's wet behind the ears. Additionally Wahlberg's dad was a former detective who got tossed out for a gambling problem that led to his downfall. The situation they've both got is a turf war going on in Chinatown between the old triads who like to run things with a minimum of headlines and a new crew of immigrants from China's Fukien province who are known as the Fukien Dragons. This is a really violent bunch who apparently just like to shoot things and people for enjoyment at times, make a lot of unnecessary noise.One thing I did like about The Corrupter was the fact that I've rarely seen films involving police chases where innocent bystanders get killed and injured. Here the collateral damage between the gangs and the police and the gangs is appalling. It couldn't be any other way because those narrow streets you see the police cars and the bad guys careening down are those in Chinatown.A few twists and turns in the plot give the film some added suspense. We only find out in the end who the real corrupt ones are.
Mark Wahlberg...?
posted on 29 Nov 2007What business does Mark Wahlberg have acting?He was dull and stupid with a blank expression on his face in THE BASKETBALL DIARIES.He was dull and stupid with a blank expression on his face in FEAR.He was dull and stupid with a blank expression on his face in BOOGIE NIGHTS.He was dull and stupid with a blank expression on his face in THE BIG HIT.He was dull and stupid with a blank expression on his face in THE CORRUPTOR.Someone stop him before he acts again! He's not even an actor! (Hell, he's a failed rap artist and TV talk show host whose main claim to fame are CK ads and wearing a fake penis in a movie.)
great potential but the script is too weak. The pace is wrong and the actors are not used to their full potential.
posted on 23 Nov 2007Although the plot seems promising, neither the screenwriter nor the director were able to bring the film to life. Pucci just puts several scenes together that very often lack the direct link. The director is unable to exploit the talents of Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg (who proved himself as an action actor in 'The Big Hit'). Also, neither writer nor director are able to knit drama and action together as John Woo and Ringo Lam could. The film tries too hard to copy Hong Kong cinema and it just didn't succeed. Whereas 'The Replacement Killers' profited from Chow Yun-Fat's presence, this movie is unable to excitingly portray the gunfights. The fights are useless as no attempt is made to make them look graceful.Furthermore, the director relies too much on a weak script without even attempting to change it in order to improve it. Scenes are linked together with gratuitous shots of NYC and the camera angles used often make the scenes more boring than more exciting. The pace of the movie is abysmal: too fast in the beginning and too slow in the end. The director is unable to pace the movie correctly and hence makes it worse than it is. 3 or 4 one-liners are used to give the audience a good laugh but that's it. They have got nothing to do with the story and they appear to being collected by the scriptwriter during his nights out.All in all, this movie is absolutely not worth watching and I've got no idea why Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg did get involved. It's a shame that Foley did not have enough vision to use the talents of the actors or to recognise the weaknesses in the screenplay.
Corrupted from the very beginning
posted on 05 Nov 2007In a world of no rules (as the log line says), films like this are bound to happen. Without a foundation from which to tell a story, corruption isn't just something that happens to be part of the title of this film, it's at the very core of why this film even exists.Very briefly, this film is about two cops who work in the middle of gangland Chinatown in New York. One cop, Nick Chen (played by Chow Yun-Fat), knows that he has to break some rules to get to the bad guys. The other cop, Don Wallace (Mark Wahlberg) is a rookie cop who seems to be as straight-laced as Jimmy Stewart. So with this cliche all set, the film moves into a storyline of two gangs at war with each other and detectives Nick and Don dive in head first.After all of the set-up then, the rest of the film is a very bad attempt at being clever: The double- and triple-crosses aren't nearly as surprising as finding the morning paper on your doorstep every morning. The action is gratuitous and lends nothing to the film, let alone the imagination. The violence is unbearable and most alarmingly, goes towards glorifying gang warfare and not discouraging it. The sex is... well, it's what it is in all movies these days: unnecessary, uninvolving, brutal, irresponsible, and stupid. The high-key lighting style of the cinematographer is completely out of place in this film since there's nothing to really be suspenseful about. And this film absolutely does not merit any comparison to the film-noir genre even though you get the sense (if being pounded over your head with something means "sense") that the director tries for it. For all of the black and white spaces created by using high-key lighting, the underpinning absence of a clear morality actually undermines this story instead of enhancing it.Usually, audiences assume that when you're a cop, you stand for all that is good. Well, at least that's what people used to assume. In any case, even in an absence of a clear line of good and bad, a strong story with good, strong characters will arise and tell a tale that makes people think about what is good and bad. This film just makes you wonder if there are any good cops out there at all (I don't mean boy scouts).Why does everyone have to be so corrupted in movies these days? Why does it have to be so dark? I don't believe the line that says, "It's dark because that's reality." It's only a portion of reality and even then, it's only because certain people in this society think it's cool to have a smoking gun and a smoking piece of garbage in your mouth. How dumb is that?Bottom line is, this film lacks a moral underpinning that makes all movies great. Whether this morality is challenged, questioned, or turned upside-down makes no difference. At least a morality exists. In THE CORRUPTOR, there is no morality to do anything with. That's why in this film, the violence is gratuitous, the sex uninteresting, the double- and triple-crosses obvious. It's just a stupid movie.
Good Showcase For Both Actors
posted on 24 Oct 2007The Corruptor is a good film. The movie gives the two actors something: it finally let's Yun-Fat talk more, let's him overact a little, just like the way he captured his audience in HK. The other thing this movie does is that it finally shows that Mark Wahlberg isn't Marky Mark anymore, he has grown up. Great movie, great action and good dialogue.
Palatable, but forgettable
posted on 18 Oct 2007This movie was ok, but only ok. The writing was excellent, with some very interesting twists.However, it was only ok. Fat seems out of his element in this film, and a few of his scenes seem awkward and forced. He seems to feel that American film is like HK films, where the absurd and the dramatic can be used in consecutive shots. However, his few moments of absurdity seriously undermine his character, and I was brought back into the reality of a great HK actor in an average American film.Overall, I felt the writing was good, but everything else was just on the verge of greatness, without exceeding the threshold.
well conceived...
posted on 14 Oct 2007*one minor spoiler*My thoughts on this one.... I liked this. The Corruptor is a good blend of action and drama. In this you may believe that gun-ninja, Chow Yun-Fat is to be a bad guy but you realize that he isn't. He is actuall a corrupt, but good cop in what I can say is a contradictory role for Yun-Fat(in a different role from the one in Replacement Killers). I liked how he went to extreme measures on his cases including one part where there was a rival officer on his case from the FBI. In this with him is Mark Wahlberg as a rookie cop interested in the well being of the Chinese immigrants but also has a secret of his own. The buddy role between Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg is pretty cool and the action in this film was well-done including one car chase that really stood out like a black sheep in a flock of white.
It can be confusing at times but sometimes to enjoy something you must suspend thought even though this was a decent story with heart and action.
Chow Yun Fat, Excellent as Always
posted on 16 May 2009With a much better command of the English language, Chow fills out this role much better than his first American effort, the Replacement Killers. But even if the guy doesn't speak a word, he has 10 times the charisma of anyone else in films these days.That aside, I have read a number of the other reviews and I cannot understand how anyone can say that this movie doesn't have a plot. It seems like the "action fans" don't think it has enough action and the "film fans" don't like the writing and direction. You could call it the "thinking man's" action movie. The film explores some very interesting moral questions and is a very interesting examination of how different people react to temptation. The "corruptor" (not the Chowster as some other viewers have maintained) is a Chinese gangster played by Ric Young, who is excellent. In summary, Chow hasn't yet gotten the right flick yet in his American career, but any Chow is better than 9/10s of the other stuff out there.