Taken on its' base elements, it would be easy to say that Law Wing-Cheong's Punished is your usual and tried-and-true Hong Kong rip-off/remake of a popular western picture, in this case the Liam Neeson film Taken. But, as anyone that is a fan of Milkyway Films' output might expect, things are not as cut-and-dried as they seem at first, giving this movie a sense of gravitias that puts it above your usual revenge flick.

Anthony Wong plays Chiu, a real estate tycoon whose drug-addicted daughter, Daisy (Janice Man) is kidnapped and then killed. Before internet geeks rise up the collective cry of "spoiler alert", this fact is revealed very early on in the film, with most of the running time dedicated to Wong and his bodyguard Chor (Richie Ren) finding the people responsible and extracting their own brand of justice, some of which involves choices bits such as a sledgehammer to a poor sap's kneecaps.

Though some of the revenge scenes will have most viewers cringing, Punished is not a "torture porn" film, where the emphasis is on creative and sadistic bloodshed. Though the violence is part and parcel of this movie's intent and execution, the true focus is on how the events affect the characters, Chiu in particular. And in this sense, Punished is a success. There's never a part where Chiu falls down crying while rain falls down and a Cantopop ballad plays. Rather, Anthony Wong delivers a performance that reminds fans of why he is regarded as one of Hong Kong's best actors, giving an excellently subtle look into how one can quickly delve into the realm of depression and madness, displaying just the right amount of emotion to pull the audience in without tripping over the line into melodrama.

Sadly, the same cannot be said of some of Punished's other stars, in particular Richie Ren, who just seems to be kind of there, and Maggie Cheung Ho-Yee continues the Milkyway hit-and-miss method when it comes to female characters, becoming more of a jade vase rather than they lynchpin for certain story elements she should have been. Also, the flashback-heavy nature of the storytelling gets to be a bit too much at times, leaving the viewer confused instead of giving them more insight into the characters. However, overall, Punished is a finely-made film that offers up an entree of drama with a side dish of spicy action, resulting in one of the better pictures to come out of Hong Kong over the past year.

RATING: 7