A mystery surrounding a stolen shipment of gold unravels when a wandering swordsman framed for the theft escapes from prison and seeks to prove his innocence.

Along with Tsui Hark’s The Butterfly Murders (1979) and Patrick Tam’s The Sword (1980), The Enigmatic Case once helped to establish the New Wave era that reached its peak in Hong Kong cinema in the early ’90s. This directorial debut for Johnnie To (PTU) brings a fresh and artistic perspective to the swordplay genre that contrasts strongly with the entertaining, yet campy studio look of the Shaw Brothers productions of the era. An emphasis on more realistic combat and production design, partnered with a complex, nonlinear storyline shows signs of what the genre was evolving into, just as demand for such films was dying.

The film’s plot shares similarities to the story in Blooded Treasury Fight (1979), about a convict recruited by a government agent to locate a large stash of stolen treasure. In Johnnie To’s film, a vagabond named Lu Tien-chung (Damian Lau) escapes from a prison with a cell mate who turns out to be a government agent. The two split up with a vicious officer in pursuit, only to reunite later. Lu returns to Stone Village, the place where he was arrested after being framed for the theft of a massive shipment of gold and for killing the thieves. His efforts to clear his name reveal a mystery concerning the whereabouts of the gold, the identity of the real killer, and the motivations of everyone concerned. The answer to this mystery ends up entwined with one woman’s (Cherie Chung) efforts to avenge her father’s death.

Right as the opening scenes unfold, The Enigmatic Case stands out with sweeping cinematography, artfully edited imagery foreshadowing the film’s events, and a memorable score that combines interesting electronic music with traditional orchestration, Canto-pop vocals, and occasional bits of music lifted from other sources. Modern jazz aficionados will note the brief use of the Master of the Spirits by The Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin.

As first-time director, Johnnie To establishes his propensity for presenting disjointed events and people who eventually fall into place through the use of various cinematic gimmicks. In this case, we see the story presented in a nonlinear fashion. The opening scene of Damian Lau sporting a beard and facial scar while wandering freely and cutting his way through unknown assailants holds no meaning for the viewer, until the end. Johnnie also seems to be using the framework of a swordplay film solely to tell a story that could be easily put into modern context. Therefore, the action is pared down significantly from a work like John Woo’s Last Hurrah For Chivalry, also starring Damian Lau. The choreography that does exist is simpler and in a way, more realistic. Although our hero is clearly an accomplished swordsman, he doesn’t leap great heights, perform acrobatics, or strike elaborate poses. I wouldn’t go so far as to call this a minimalist approach to swordplay, but it does appear to be a deconstructed form of the elaborately staged fights Lau Kar-leung and Tong Gaai produced for Shaw Brothers. The martial arts action, while adequate, is simply not as much fun to watch.

Nevertheless, The Enigmatic Case is a nice little diversion from the common martial arts films being produced in Hong Kong around the same period. Welcome Western and Japanese chambara influences can be seen in the handling of the actual production. This makes for a higher standard in terms of photography and editing, but the martial arts choreography and handling of the action just doesn’t match up. The only exception is an interesting slow-motion duel inside a cave. Yet even in this, Johnny To seems less concerned with the specific movements of the actors than with the dramatic effect of the lighting and camerawork.

Storywise, Johnnie does a fine job of holding back in order to create a compelling mystery, but the film falls into the same trap that so many swordplay films do. The plot is unnecessarily complex and convoluted. And although the film scores points for putting the action more firmly in the real world, the incomprehensible motivations of the characters remain. The overriding desire to dominate the ‘martial world’ may be replaced by the more tangible desire for wealth and justice, but the end results are the same. With less fanciful martial arts action than most swordplay films, while possessing all of the unnecessary complexities, this effort may be too vacantly cerebral for casual viewers.

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