PUNISHED (Hong Kong, 2011)
Directed by: Law Wing-cheong
Starring: Anthony Wong, Richie Ren, Janice Man, Maggie Cheung, Lam Lee, Charlie Cho

If there's one thing we at the New York Asian Film Festival have learned from decades of Hong Kong cinema, it's that nobody - but nobody - messes with Anthony Wong. He’s Hong Kong’s favorite character actor, a rugged badass who’s the winner of 10 major awards for “Best Actor” and “Best Supporting Actor” and he’s got zero tolerance for shenanigans. He’s also the anchor for this latest offering from producer Johnnie To’s Milkyway Image. Wong plays a dirty-dealing real estate tycoon who violently crushes village dissidents with his squadron of slick lieutenants, but when it comes to his drugged-out teenage daughter Daisy (Janice Man), he’s just a hangdog martinet with control issues.  His rebellious hellspawn drives him crazy, and when she’s kidnapped by a mysterious band of rogues, he’s out for blood.  Little does he know that it’s more than a simple ransom demand, and before it’s over, everyone and everything in his life will be PUNISHED.

Within hours of the kidnapping, Wong has dispatched his minions to threaten suspects with circular saws to the face.  His loyal retainer Cher (Richie Ren) hunts down every lead, only to turn up more and more questions about what really happened.  As the search for Daisy spirals out of control, Wong’s world sinks into a fog of black recriminations, bloody vengeance, melancholy kill-orders and, finally, a lethal catharsis with a choice that will test all the dog-eat-dog dogma Wong has ever held dear.

Longtime editor and assistant director for Johnnie To and Milkyway Image, Law Wing-Cheong (PTU: COMRADES IN ARMS) delivers PUNISHED as a “hostage drama” in the truest sense of the word, honoring the company’s longtime focus on character-driven storytelling by exploring the psychology of our antiheroes.  Wong can’t stand for anything out of place in his life: from the Visconti-esque murals on the walls, to his assistant-turned-trophy-wife, everything is “perfect.” Yet he can’t reward loyalty, or love, when it’s in front of him, and any show of emotion or vulnerability only makes him dig his steel heels in deeper.  PUNISHED is a deadly family affair, a pitch-black parable about weary fathers lost in an unfamiliar world, with ungrateful kids taking American names, eluding their elders who are lost in a maze of bad parenting and worse life choices.  By the time the movie ends, punishment is a way of life.