Limbo (3 Stars)

This is the seventh film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

Based on the audience reaction, this was the most popular film of the festival. There was loud applause after the film was shown. I wasn't as impressed as the others around me.

The two detectives Will Yam and Cham Lau are trying to catch a serial killer in Hong Kong. At first it isn't clear whether he's a killer or not. Severed hands are found in the city, always the left hand of a woman. How do they know it's a woman? The DNA tells them. In countries like Scotland the police wouldn't be able to decide whether it's a woman, because they need to find the person and ask her whether she identifies herself as a man or a woman.

Cham has problems that hinder his work. His wife was accidentally killed by a car thief on the run. The thief, a young woman called Wong To, is imprisoned, but when she's released Cham tries to kill her, so his partner has to intervene. Wong To is sincerely sorry and offers to assist as a police informer. Will is glad of her help, but Cham still can't forgive her.

It's a very well made film, and it was the right decision to make it in black and white. The story takes place in the city's dirtiest slums. That's what disturbed me. The city looks too dark and too dirty. Objectively speaking, my fellow festival visitors were right in praising the film, but it's not my taste.