MIAMI VICE and ORGANIZED CRIME & TRIAD BUREAU, are bold and pulsating visions of the criminal vs the law, complicating the accepted notions of the “good against bad” structure inherent to most action films. Led by two visionary filmmakers: Michael Mann, one of the most praised and pioneering action directors of the 90’s, and Kirk Wong, the more under-sung, cinematic trendsetter of the 90’s, a visionary overshadowed by his contemporaries and thus, largely forgotten as one of the true pioneers of the Hong Kong action genre.

Wong’s 1994 pot-boiler of warring police units and drug-smuggling triad groups, is set around the eve of the impending Hong Kong handover to the mainland of China, after decades of colonial rule by the British. The film’s star Danny Lee had also made a name for himself in the role of the good-natured but tough police officer, through a series of films in the 80’s, but by the 90’s, his soft portrayal of the cop was becoming largely uncool in the wake of the post-John Woo/Ringo Lam era. CRIME BUREAU reimagined his cop-character, trading in honest police work for the kind bordering on near-facism.

Undoubtedly influenced partially by the cool and vivid cinematography of the Michael Mann-produced hit show “Miami Vice” in the mid to late 80’s, CRIME BUREAU anticipates (and nearly mirrors) the vision Mann would give decades-later to the redux of his trendsetting TV show, with the digitally-shot MIAMI VICE in 2006.

Mann’s reimagining of the characters Crockett and Tubbs, flew against the notion of the popular TV-remake bandwagon happening in Hollywood studios during this period (STARSKY & HUTCH), bucking the trend of ironic sendups and instead finding itself utterly serious and concrete in its unnerving vision of his two vice cops reimagined for the new millennium. Gone are the signature pastels donned by Phillip Michael Thomas and Don Johnson, traded in for the black and blues of Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx’s detached personalities. The environment no longer resembles the hot, sandy beach vibes of 80’s Miami, it is instead imbued with the cold-crushing, midnight neon of Mann’s specifically-calibrated digital schemas. MIAMI VICE remains one of the aughts' boldest and commanding visions, a hypnotic masterpiece punctuated by dark night and soundtracked by low-end gusts of Linkin Park + Jay-Z mashups blowing across the warm breeze.

Like a Mobius strip, the work of Mann and Wong feed into one another in an eternal battle of bullet-ridden night, trudging across humid landscapes littered with empty shells, simmering with pockets of explosive emotion bubbling just beneath the hip-as-all-Hell surface.