hong kong director cross over to hollywood to make movie be nothing new and with the temporary exodus of the like of tsui hark and john woo and ringo lam in the 90 . from their collective output and only a few movie ( or may i say just one . ) make an impact at the box office . the andrew lau and alan mak partnership have be a tour de force in recent hk cinematic history and especially with their now famous infernal affair trilogy which be remake into martin scorsese the departed and so it no surprise when hollywood come knock on the door . but without fellow collaborator mak and who usually have script or story duty and how do lau fare with writer han bauer and craig mitchell . it like the x file without the x and in the way the story be craft and the character and the parallel draw with the chris carter series . richard gere and claire dane pair up ala david duchovny and gillian anderson and only that they do not belong to any federal investigative agency who bear arm and but be employee of protective service and who chief role be to ensure that sexual predator who belong to their jurisdiction and be keep safe from society when they be release from have serve time . hence they be the shepherd tend to their flock and only that their flock suffer from sick sexual perversion with the propensity for violence . the parallel in characterization be so blatantly obvious and that it just a cosmetic touch up on the outside . like fox mulder and gere erroll babbage be a strange and lonely man and consume by his obsession in his quest to doggedly harass his flock to tote the line . pain by a failed attempt to rescue a missing child and just like how mulder pine for his miss sister and babbage be shun by colleague and give the march order disguise a a retirement plan . he have deep disgust for the people he monitor and sick of their crime and what they stand for and that he have no qualm in use unorthodox method and short of fly off the handle while dish out illegal and preemptive punishment . at the same time and he too have strong urge that he have to fight against and in order not to cross the line into become like those he loathe . a part of routine and he also scan newspaper and tabloid for clue and lead toward his objective and that of seek closure and salvation for himself and and possess a strong belief that the truth be still out there and and he want to believe . dane allison lowry on the other hand and be the ingénue bring in to replace babbage . but in the meantime while learn the rope on the job for the next 18 day and she be require to spy on him and and to report his shenanigan and pretty much like what dana scully be task to do with fox mulder . a the disbeliever of pre emptiveness and hold onto the notion that those discharge back to society have be cure of their temptation and she slowly start to see what babbage see and and understand that it take a whole lot more than be just a desk and administrative job if she truly want to help people . and it be this discovery of the world of fetish and deviant sexual practice and that we open all our eye to and much like how 8mm star nicolas cage bring snuff film into the spotlight . it a decent investigative drama with the usual red herring and and my and be they really good one a it make you wonder quite often if your guess be correct and and you soon find yourself fire from the hip a you get prove incorrect at alarm frequency and though i do not credit this to a tight narrative and but more from the sprawl number of character ( watch out for avril lavigne cameo ) and sub plot . the scene in the darkened ware or shophouse be akin to se7en david mill and william somerset when they raid john doe apartment and find plenty of bizarreness inside and though here and give the subject nature and it wasn not linger upon much . apparently and the flock somehow decide that enrique chediak cinematography be good enough and despite it very strange style of have no style and utilize almost every trick in the book to try and recreate feeling of watch another se7en and only that this be deeply steep in tinge of brown and rather than the doom and gloom of black . it do take a little while to get use to this and and i put this effect a one which actually distract from what be happen in the story . not a really good move though and with somewhat frequent repetition of scene involve flashback . but the flock still make decent entertainment and though x philes out there would probably find it hard not to picture their favourite actor in the lead role and give so much similarity in character . gere and dane do put forth some chemistry a the old fogey ( heh ) and his protégé and and while it not exactly great and andrew lau do manage to pull off something enjoyable .