Divergence (2005) by Benny Chan

[cranefly]

A cop, a lawyer, and an assassin cross paths after the murder of a federal witness and the kidnapping of a famous pop star.

Aaron Kwok is the cop, who spends most of the movie teary-eyed, occasionally sobbing, over the mysterious disappearance of his fiance a decade ago.
Ekin Cheng is the lawyer, who, though making good money defending gangsters, might feel a bit guilty for getting them off scott free (though it's hard to tell, because he's so stoic).
Daniel Wu plays the assassin Coke, who is the most interesting, as he likes to break the assassin's code of conduct and dig into the circumstances of his assignments.

This is a decent flick in terms of direction and action (car chases, gun battles, a couple slick fight scenes), but the plot presents so many intertwining mysteries and they never get resolved.  There's a consensus among reviewers on the web in this regard, and I suspect the answers to all the unresolved questions exist solely in the head of the screenwriter.  Why did the fiancé leave the cop a decade ago?  Why did she marry the lawyer and start a family with him?  Why exactly does the assassin Coke let some people live while coldly killing others?

Near the end, during a meditative moment on a yacht at sea, Coke and his lover Ting (who is also his handler) discuss where their relationship stands.

Ting: "Two Erinaceids take shelter in the rain."
Coke: [After a thoughtful pause] "Why couldn't it be an Erinaceid and a crocodile?

Indeed, my very thought.

A better name for this movie would be Bewilderment.

I would have thought DM had seen this (for the Daniel Wu factor).  But my search on DOOM didn't turn it up.

[Drunk Monk]

I think this one got by me. Hard to say though because it sounds like so many HK flix. Daniel's got like 60+ flix under his belt and I've probably only seen half or a third of them. 

Where did you watch this?

[cranefly]

Oh, Kanopy.  I keep meaning to say where I saw a movie, but then forget.

[Drunk Monk]

Added to my Kanopy list. Thanks!

See here is what pains me about a lot of these streaming libraries. I've searched Daniel Wu on Kanopy et.al. and it doesn't turn up everything. For example, on Kanopy, it only shows The Last Supper and some other film by a Lucy Wu. The search engines suck on Kanopy, Hoopla and Amazon Prime. Drives me nuts. 

As an aside note, The Last Supper was my first interaction with Daniel. I had been trying to connect with him for years knowing his history as a local Wushu person. It was a promo for TLS that offered up an interview and it was our first contact. Awkwardly, although this was a period piece and had swords in it, there wasn't much martial arts. That was pre-Badlands.

[Drunk Monk]

Seen! Thanks for the rec, cf. I was entertained. 

Why did the fiancé leave the cop a decade ago?  Why did she marry the lawyer and start a family with him?  Why exactly does the assassin Coke let some people live while coldly killing others?

Wasn't the wife the hit-and-run in the flashback that Coke has to his first hit? And instead of killing her as ordered, he shoots the ground nearby. Her head injury causes her to get amnesia and somehow the lawyer finds her. It reveals the Coke isn't as cold hearted as he pretends to be. 

I know, that doesn't quite work but that's my best guess. You're right. The tangle of story arcs is one hot mess. But it's got style. I loved all the rain scenes and the odd camera angles. It felt tropical and wet. 

The Chinese title for this film translates into '3 Forks.' That makes more sense than Divergence.  I guessed the mcguffin about who was the strangler - that was pretty obvious. 

The action pieces in this are great fun - explosive and gritty. I loved the chase into the wet market and the plastic bag suffocation fight with the explosive ending. And the shootout finale was solid, even though I wasn't quite clear how everyone got there at the end. 

I did enjoy Daniel's performance tremendously. He's told me how he enjoys playing villains. He's one of my few celebrity friends that doesn't play a villain all the time. 

cf, you neglected to point out that Eric Tsang and Yu Rongguang are in this too - two of my fav character actors. Kwok was good too - this earned him a Golden Horse for Best Actor, as well as a nom from the HK Film Awards. 

Ting: "Two Erinaceids take shelter in the rain."
Coke: [After a thoughtful pause] "Why couldn't it be an Erinaceid and a crocodile?

I'm so glad you pointed this out. It really pops out in the subtitles as one of those 'wtf?' bits of dialog. I hadn't quite registered your comment on this (figured it was just another craneflynonsequitor) so when the line dropped, it gave me a good chuckle. 

No sword fights but some decent ultravi. I'm thinking this isn't DOOM recommended. Maybe the Yeti might like it if he fast forwards to the fight scenes.

[cranefly]

Yeah, Benny Chan is a very capable director for this type of story.  Even though the script had problems, his direction kept it very watchable.

Good guess about the flashback of the hit-and-run woman that Coke only pretended to kill.  That would explain how the cop's fiance (suffering amnesia) vanished back then.

Indeed, that wet market fight involving plastic bags was a standout.