Overheard 2009

Hong Kong’s mighty stock market serves as both magnet and stage for those who would bend it to their will. In the city’s Commercial Crime Bureau, an undercover operation closes in on Feng Hua International, a trading company linked to a man nicknamed “Boss.” The surveillance team is led by Inspector Leung, joined by Gene Yeung Louis Koo and Max Lam Daniel Wu, who plant listening devices to monitor the company’s communications. Gene Yeung Louis Koo is a devoted family man—his wife Yeung Ling, a daughter, and a son in fragile health demand his attention—while Max Lam Daniel Wu is a bright, ambitious newcomer who is about to marry the daughter of a wealthy man. Leung is a calm, seasoned officer involved with Mandy Yam Zhang Jingchu, who happens to be the wife of his friend Lee Alex Fong-Chung-Sun.

One night, the trio overhears a plan: the stock price will surge at market opening the next day. Seizing the opportunity, Gene Yeung Louis Koo asks Max Lam Daniel Wu to erase the incriminating portion so they can profit, and Lam opens a stock account. Leung discovers the deception, but Lam has already invested on a heavy loan. The stock climbs, but trading is halted due to unusual activity.

Back at the operation center, they overhear a scheme to murder the manager with a covertly planted device. Reporting it would expose them, so Lam pleads with Leung not to intervene. After weighing the risk, Leung opts to stop the murder themselves. They ambush the would-be killer as he administers pills to fake a death scene. The manager’s girlfriend glimpses Leung’s face, and later her call to the Boss’s men sets off a deadly chain. With their shares worth about $15 million liquidated, the trio becomes a target. The Boss’s henchmen close in, orchestrating the deaths of Leung, Lam, and Yeung, along with their families. In a final, brutal moment, Wah, the Boss’s subordinate, appears to execute Leung in an unmarked grave.

A year passes, and at a charity function, the Boss’s shadowy dealings flash across a video screen. Surrounded by police and ICAC officials, the Boss is halted as the feed reveals his crimes. It turns out Leung had bribed Wah, offering the entire $15 million in exchange for not killing him before his “execution.” Wah becomes Leung’s covert asset, aiding in bringing down the Boss. Under police escort, a van carrying the Boss veers off course, and the driver is revealed to be Gene Yeung Louis Koo, the sole survivor of the earlier ambush. Yeung drives the Boss into the harbor on a murder‑suicide, while Inspector Leung calmly watches, remembering the times he shared with his two loyal subordinates, Max Lam Daniel Wu and Gene Yeung Louis Koo. The film closes on a somber note, with the toll of ambition and loyalty etched in memory.