The Locksmith Review: Penang-Set Hong Kong Murder-Mystery, Starring Philip Keung & Benz Hui, Doesn’t Lock In Much Thrills  

The Locksmith (NC16)

Starring Philip Keung, Benz Hui, Raymond Wong, Samantha Ko

Directed by Goh Pei Chiek

“Do you know how complicated the inside of a lock is?” someone asks.

If only this flick followed its own statement and became the caper thriller we initially thought it’d be. Instead, this Penang-based pic turns out to be a murder mystery-drama about a terminated baddie that’s basically no big shakes.

What’s locked up is the main character’s murky wrongdoing past. Not an unbreakable safe to be pried open by an Ocean’s Eleven expert burglar.

It leaves the big draw here to be Penang itself, a fresh cinematic location which Malaysian director Goh Pei Chiek shows off effectively by making it look like Hong Kong in parts since HK actors front this film.

Cheng Hao Ren (Shock Wave’s Philip Keung) is a locksmith who picks locks for the cops whenever they find a locked door. One cop, Officer Liu (House Of Mahjong’s Raymond Wong), is his good pal. At his grimy HK-style apartment block, folks like his helpful nature.

Ren is the skilled apprentice of dementia-stricken master locksmith, Uncle Shan (Benz Hui), who insists that both his deceased wife and his dying shop of locks are not dead yet. FYI — My Digital Lock is listed, without irony, as a co-presenter here.      

Three interlopers pop up to upend Ren’s world and revive his dubious history involving a fatal building fire in KL years ago which still bugs him via too many nightmares and flashbacks.

Shan’s divorced daughter, Yi Jing (From Vegas To Macau II’s Samantha Ko), returns from HK to take care of her dad and hits it off seemingly with Ren.

An old criminal accomplice, Ah Kai (Chen Puie Kong), reconnects to persuade Ren to do one more break-in which the reformed dude refuses. “Have you forgotten the bad things you’ve done in your past?’ he’s reminded.

There’s a mysterious new neighbour, Miss Guan (Malaysian actress Yumi Wong), who keeps playing an unsettling tune on a harmonica that drives Ren nuts. Is she a retribution for his prior life?

What could this be leading to? You wonder whether there’ll be something incisive to this potently anticipated locksmith angle. 

Impotently, no. The story plays like a product that’s oversold by a catchy name.

Director Goh does stage his HK-transplanted-to-Penang thriller replica scenes quite well. The apartment-block corridor looks like Johnnie To combined with Fruit Chan’s tenement horror.

But this tale drags and you don’t realise where it’s heading until you notice that the locksmith is picking apart his past more than his locks as he becomes the prime suspect in the abovementioned homicide.  

Fortunately, Keung and Hui together are the best thing here, second-banana guys given proper screen time.  

They are the key — no pun intended — to locking in our attention. (2.5/5 stars)

Photo: mm2 Entertainment