Insanity 暴瘋語

Insanity is a 2015 movie directed by David Lee purporting to be a psychological thriller, with Hong Kong’s Sean Lau and China’s Huang Xiaoming as the leads.  Fiona Sit, Alex Fong and Paw Hee-ching supported the cast.

Sean Lau played a man who descended into schizophrenia and pushed his wife out of a window after the death of his son.  Freakishly, his wife landed on the pavement below their apartment, a tad too late for her inconsolable mother.  As his psychiatrist, Huang Xiaoming deemed Sean to have recovered from schizophrenia three years after he was committed to an asylum by the courts and recommended that Sean be discharged, much to the opposition of his colleagues who feared the public and media’s reaction should news of Sean’s release be known, and especially should Sean have a relapse.

As Sean sought to live a normal life after his release, his mother-in-law started harassing him, forcing Sean to job and house-hop in an attempt to avoid his mother-in-law. 

Fearful of his reputation being tarnished should Sean be jailed for the murder of a drug addict, Huang Xiaoming had Sean locked up in a room to continue his treatment.  The result was an increasingly emboldened Sean and an increasingly desperate Huang Xiaoming.

The end of Insanity was a twist.  Instead of Huang Xiaoming treating Sean, the 2^nd half of Insanity was in fact Huang Xiaoming descending into his own schizophrenia.  He had projected his own insanity on a non-existent Sean and it was only Huang Xiaoming himself in the locked room all along.  Fearful of his hereditary condition (Huang Xiaoming’s mother killed herself due to schizophrenia), Huang Xiaoming refused to have children with his girlfriend Fiona.  However, Fiona was revealed to be pregnant and promised to wait for Huang Xiaoming to recover from schizophrenia.

Insanity examined the heavy topic of mental health, more specifically that of schizophrenia.  Modern society was stressful and while schizophrenia could manifest itself and tip people over the edge, there was the possibility of recovery, as fleshed out by Sean Lau.  Schizophrenia could also be hereditary, in Huang Xiaoming’s case.  However, with intervention, appropriate treatment and strong support from family and friends, as demonstrated by Fiona and Alex, Huang Xiaoming’s recovery was hopeful.

While Insanity was promoted as a Hong Kong movie, I thought it wasn’t as Hong Kong as the 2016 Mad World 一念无明， which explored bipolar illness, and had a tighter cast.  In Insanity, Sean Lau turned in a dependable performance as a man who lost it after the death of his son and thought his wife was unfaithful to him.  Paw Hee-ching as usual turned in a dependable performance.  The selection of Alex Fong and Fiona Sit for Insanity seemed strange to me.  In their roles, both were believable.  Alex Fong as the irritating colleague who seemed ready to steal Huang Xiaoming’s lunch anytime, and Fiona as a social worker and girlfriend of Huang Xiaoming.  However, both did not seem to have enough on-screen chemistry with Huang Xiaoming to make their on-screen relationships with him real.

I guess, without Chinese financial backing, Insanity might not have made it to the screens, and to sell a movie to a market of billions, it makes business sense to include in the cast actors/actresses that appeal to the market.

However, I also guess that not every marketable actor/actress can hold their own against Sean Lau and Paw Hee-ching.  Both Sean Lau and Paw Hee-ching have had many many years honing their craft, and I am pretty certain they did not start out as good as they are now.  To pair either of them with an actor/actress with far less experience may help the junior hone his/her craft, but the gap shows on the screen.  I am not saying that Huang Xiaoming is an awful actor.  He just cannot hold his own against Sean Lau in Insanity.  In addition to overly dramatic emoting, his on-screen relationship with Fiona Sit was also unconvincing.  As Insanity unfolded, 2 questions kept repeating themselves.  Would it have been better to have an actress that Huang Xiaoming was personally familiar with taking Fiona’s character?  Could another actor taking Huang Xiaoming’s character make the comparison with Sean Lau less jarring?  Louis Khoo’s face kept popping up in my mind.  Duh it seems like the Overheard series 窃听风云 is too sticky in my mind...