Connected (2008 film)

Connected is a 2008 action-crime thriller film co-written and directed by Benny Chan. A co-production between Hong Kong and China, the film is a remake of the 2004 film Cellular. Connected stars Louis Koo as a man who receives a distressing phone call on his cellular phone from a young woman who has been kidnapped by a gang of corrupt Interpol agents who have a hidden agenda.

Director: Benny Chan

Producers: Benny Chan, Albert Lee, Jiang Tao & Kevin Yung

Writer: Alan Yuen, Benny Chan & Xu Bing

Cast: Louis Koo, Barbie Hsu, Nick Cheung & Liu Ye

Budget: HK$45 million

Bob (Louis Koo) is a single father with a dead-end job as a debt collector. Essentially an easygoing, helpful guy, Bob tries in earnest to perform well in his new position while dealing attempting to clean up his act so his sister won't move to China with his son. He's making progress too, so when he receives a frantic phone call from a woman named Grace who claims she's been kidnapped, he reports the disturbing call to the local police. Although the detective on duty dismisses the call as a prank, Bob's instincts tell him differently and he quickly makes the decision to investigate. Realizing that he's the only personal capable of saving Grace and her daughter from a painful demise, Bob prepares to risk everything - including his own family - in order to save two people he's never met, and may not even exist.

The film was shot entirely in Hong Kong under a budget of HK$45 million (US$5.8 million), a conservative figure among growing Chinese movie budgets. Benny Chan described the film as the most demanding film in his career, as he and co-screenwriters Alan Yuen and Xu Bing tried to make the film appeal to Chinese audiences. The director first filmed Barbie Hsu’s scenes before filming Louis Koo’s portion. Both actors, however, share one scene together. During filming, the Hong Kong Government refused to grant a permit to film a flying car scene in a busy city district, thus the filmmakers could only shift filming to the outskirts of Hong Kong, proving that they could do the same without the government’s help.

Louis Koo performed his own stunts, stating, "Whether it’s a car chase, rolling down a hill or jumping out of a falling car, I’m fine with the stunts as long as the outcome gives the effect we want." He later revealed that he suffered from external injuries. For the film's car chase sequence, Koo persuaded Chan to let him perform the stunt himself, feeling that the “result of which would be more believable.”

Review

When we hear of remakes, we lament Hollywood raiding Asian content, repackaging and most of the time dumbing them down for mass consumption, often to dismal results. Some get A-list cast and crew attached, while others put whoever's the flavour of the moment to attempt to be the next scream or drama queen. With Benny Chan's remake of Hollywood's Cellular, I guess the remake street cuts both ways now, and while I had enjoyed the original with Chris Evans running around like a headless chicken, I embrace this version with Louis Koo in the leading role wholeheartedly as well.

If you've not seen the original, then you might just want to start with the remake instead. It surpasses in its intensity, frustration, and the leads, while almost never sharing the same scene together, individually made themselves very believable as the damsel-in-distress, and the knight in shining armour. Benny Chan adds a whole lot of fresh air to his filmography with this effort, even if it's from remake territory and adopting the same way to close the credits, but does an excellent job out of it.