1 hour ago
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This sin-obsessed drama about a Hong Kong preacher occupies the same kind of self-flagellating territory as 1970s or 80s Scorsese or Paul Schrader. Shot in a downcast, emerald-toned pallor by directors Sen Lam and Antonio Tam (making their feature debut), if nothing else Valley of the Shadow of Death makes the descent into an impossible moral quandary look fabulously attractive. As Pastor Leung (Anthony Wong) broods on a recent family tragedy, each fastidiously arrayed room of his apartment looks like a reliquary.
Touted by his parishioners as a modern-day Job who preaches the importance of suffering, Leung must put his manna where his mouth is when homeless youth Ah Lok (George Au) turns up to stay at his church. Ah Lok talks about needing forgiveness, but the priest doesn’t reveal what he knows: that the lad is a recently released rapist apparently responsible for the suicide of his daughter Ching (Sheena Chan) three years earlier. Struggling to rein in his emotions, Leung decides to treat the situation as a stress test of Christian principles.
Or – contradicting his claims that God, not man, is responsible for mercy – is it actually all about the pastor’s own ego? Leung and Ah Lok’s penance party is recounted with chastening economy, unceremoniously interrupted by the clergyman’s traumatic memories; soon he has the kid marching up a Hong Kong mountainside with a crucifix. But in its second half, the film crumples under its own weight, succumbing to exposition-heavy flashbacks while the big questions are bypassed. Leung’s transformation into Old Testament scourge feels there for effect, rather than as a moral lapse to pore over; in the opposite direction, his initially outraged wife’s (Louisa So) dalliance with forgiveness is under-written.
Johnnie To rep player Wong brings the calvary, his darker impulses washing through his heavy-set features. But while it’s good to see young film-makers drawn to such heavyweight fare, and their work dresses for the part, Lam and Tam don’t completely close out their moral inquest.
