Review | I Did It My Way movie review: Andy Lau-led crime thriller about drugs on Asia’s dark web is ruined by bad writing and a silly depiction of e-commerce

After being overshadowed by Tony Leung Chiu-wai in recent film The Goldfinger, this movie should have been Andy Lau’s chance to shine, but it isn’t

An illogical screenplay renders Lau’s crime boss unreasonable to the point of comedy, and the visualisation of the dark web on which drugs are sold looks foolish

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Andy Lau in a still from “I Did It My Way” (category: IIB, Cantonese), directed by Jason Kwan and co-starring Lam Ka-tung and Eddie Peng.

Published: 5:15pm, 9 Jan 2024

2/5 stars

The drug-trafficking business meets the internet’s live-stream shopping craze in this most bizarrely conceived crime thriller, which sees producer and lead actor Andy Lau Tak-wah play a drug lord so foolhardy and unreasonable that it would take his biggest fan to feel any sympathy for his character.

I Did It My Way marks the second solo directing effort of veteran cinematographer Jason Kwan Chi-yiu (A Nail Clipper Romance), who last worked with Lau when he co-directed the 2017 crime epic Chasing the Dragon with Wong Jing.

Kwan’s film begins with an engaging first act that positions Chan Chiu-sang (Philip Keung Ho-man) as an enigmatic drug dealer nicknamed The Boss – the “founder of Asia’s dark web” – and barrister George Lam (Lau) and assassin Sau Ho (Lam Ka-tung) as his chief accomplices.

On their case are Eddie Fong (Eddie Peng Yu-yan), police superintendent of the cybercrime investigation unit, and his superior, Chung Kam-ming (Simon Yam Tat-wah), who believe that The Boss is set to do one last drug transaction in person before moving his entire business model online.

By the time the film has raced through a thrilling series of plot twists and reached the half-hour mark, we’ve already seen Chan kill himself while in police custody, Sau reveal himself to be a conflicted undercover policeman, and Lam confirmed as The Boss himself.