shots coverage and construction

The scene starts with few montage shots of Lau walking further. These few shots are full of urban space elements, for instance, Lau’s reflection from the glass curtain wall, the extreme close up shots of the construction with Lau walking in the blurry and extreme bright background, the wide shot of harbor and buildings in distance, the close up shot of buildings and the bright sky… These shots are all so bright that makes people feel exposed and frightened.

After Yan handcuffs Lau, Lau laughs and ask, ‘Do all undercover cops like rooftops?’ Yan answers, ‘unlike you, I’m not afraid of light.’ The conflict outburst when Lau say to Yan, ‘Who knows that (you are a cop)?’ With music becomes strident, the framing changes from extreme close up of their heads to a wide shot contains the entire rooftop which audience can clearly see and feel the unsolvable antagonism between them.

Then followed by a medium wide shot, then Yan raises his gun and points at Lau, followed by an extreme close-up shot of Lau’s eyes. These changing framings shows Yan’s anger very well, when his anger hit the limit, he raises his gun. Then it is followed by a slowly zoom out. This shows Yan’s hesitation well and promotes story developments.

When Yan takes Lau as his hostage and comes downstairs with another police officer, the shot is followed by a wide still image shot of sky and clouds. It is so bright and unsettle, especially with the music. Lau’s mixed feelings and their indefinable live and death is very well shown.

mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene is great, the location is rooftop, a place full of sunlights, a place where sky meets the ground, it makes people feel like falling, it looks over exposed which is good for the scene. Everything is under expose, the truth is about to come out. The urban space is also experienced emotionally. The big glass curtain wall, the harbor in distance, the clouds and the sky are so bright. The tension and the mind game between two characters is shown very clearly.

sound track

Another great thing about this scene is the music, it’s brilliant!! It totally goes with the character’s emotion and experience. When Lau is looking for Yan, the music is slow, gentle but a bit unstable, when Lau suddenly turns his head, the music goes intense as well. When Yan points his gun at Lau’s back, the music doesn’t get out of control, instead it gets louder gently and slowly, it creates the perfect atmosphere for their conversation going to happen. when Lau says Who knows that (you are a cop)? The music hit the peak.