Maverick

What chance does a rookie cop have in a corrupt world? Yeh (Chris Wang) is a recent transferee who is assigned to a group trying to take down a gambling den. When inside, they find a city councilman’s son Black Monkey (Huang Teng-hui) high as a kite and essentially bulletproof from any legal action. Headstrong and unable to handle the corruption he sees around him, Yeh keeps picking at the case despite warnings. He recruits veteran police officer Ming (Chuang Kai-Hsun) to his cause, but he turns out to have issues of his own, and is trying to pay off the debt the brother of his bar-hostess girlfriend Ann (Jian Man-Shu) owes to loan sharks. Money and power corrupt absolutely, but maybe there is a chance that Yeh’s innocence will allow different choices to be made. Strong performances from the lead actors, an effective love story between Ann and Ming that gives the film a heart, and an unusual (for the genre anyway) sense of optimism elevate Maverick as one of the most impressive Taiwanese films we watched this year. Presented with the support of the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York.