A Guilty Conscience (2023 film)

A Guilty Conscience
File:A Guilty Conscience 2023 film.jpg Promotional poster
Directed by	Jack Ng
Produced by	Bill Kong Ivy Ho
Written by	Jack Ng Terry Lam Jay Cheung
Starring	Dayo Wong Tse Kwan-ho Louise Wong Fish Liew Bowie Lam Vincent Kok Michael Wong Dee Ho Renci Yeung Adam Pak Sheldon Lo
Music by	Liu Wing-sum Hanz Au
Cinematography	Anthony Pun
Edited by	Chan Ki-hop
Production company	Edko Films Alibaba Pictures The Film Development Fund Irresistible Beta Limited
Distributed by	Edko Films
Release dates	21 January 2023 (2023-01-21)
Running time	134 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Budget	HK$22.2 million
Box office	HK$114.2 million ($14.91 million USD)

A Guilty Conscience is a 2023 Hong Kong mystery crime comedy film written and directed by Jack Ng, in his directorial debut. It stars an ensemble cast including Dayo Wong, Louise Wong and Tse Kwan-ho. The film follows the trial of a single mother (Louise Wong) wrongly charged with the murder of her daughter. An attorney (Dayo Wong) vows to clear her name.

A Guilty Conscience was released on 21 January 2023, coinciding with Chinese New Year's Eve. It received acclaim for its screenwriting, direction and acting, particularly that of Dayo Wong, Louise Wong and Tse. The film grossed HK$114,293,675 and became the highest-grossing Chinese film in Hong Kong to date, surpassing the 2022 film Warriors of Future.

Plot

In 2002, Adrian Lam (Dayo Wong), a former barrister-turned-magistrate recently demoted by his superior for his attitude, returns to private practice at the suggestion of his friend, senior barrister T. K. Ho (Vincent Kok). Lam obtains his first case, a child abuse case, through Ho. The defendant Jolene Tsang (Louise Wong), a former model and single mother, is accused of assaulting her daughter, Elsa, who is now in coma.

Lam takes over Tsang's case as her attorney, in partner with fellow barrister Evelyn Fong (Renci Yeung) who is suggested by her mentor Ho, and legal executive Prince (Dee Ho Kai-Wah). Through the first trial in court, they examined witness Ball Chan, a security guard in Tsang's residential area. However, Fong has found a loophole in Chan's testimony. Later that night, Elsa wakes from the coma, Lam, Fong and Prince come to hospital in order to record a testimony from Elsa, but she later died from a cerebral bleed. Tsang is then charged manslaughter.

Lam found Tsang's lover, Desmond Chung (Adam Pak), and acknowledges Desmond has appeared at Tsang's residence that night. Lam enlisted Desmond as the key witness in the trial, but Fong worried about the situation of Desmond's, who is also the husband of Victoria Chung (Fish Liew), a daughter of powerful tycoon and an enemy of Tsang, which will be a threat to the case. At the final trial, due to Lam's mistake of not taking a formal testimony record, Desmond suddenly changed his testimony, which resulted in Tsang's 17 years of prison sentence. Condemned by Fong, Lam realized himself has made the biggest mistake ever and ended up in despairing himself. After his former classmate and now ICAC assistant commissioner Luk (Bowie Lam) found and encouraged him, Lam decided to move his law firm to Mong Kok to help more people in order to redeem his wrong-doings.

Two years later, Ball Chan, who went disappearance after the trial and returned to Hong Kong due to his terminal illness, has confessed himself to Lam and Prince shortly prior to his death, which he was once bribed by the Chung's couple to fabricate his testimony in order to frame Tsang up. Lam determined to initiate the reversion of Tsang's conviction, and reconciled with Fong, who initially rejected Lam but later decided to forgive him after enlightened by Ho.

The High Court approves the retrial, however, the Department of Justice (DoJ) decides to upgrade Tsang's charge to murder. The DoJ assigns senior prosecutor Kam Yuen-Shan (Tse Kwan-Ho) in the new trial for Tsang. Lam decides to revisit Tsang residence to reconstruct the case with Fong. The two realize that Victoria had visited the residence before Desmond's arrival while Tsang was asleep in the living room.

Lam decided to take a move to recording crime-committing evidence of Victoria, by sending his man to take wiretapping to the Chung's residence. Lam then used the recording to ambush the trial, which lead to Kam's objection. Meanwhile, Chungs' legal adviser and longtime friend, barrister James Tung (Michael Wong), takes a counteraction to Lam, to make him into police custody against his wiretapping action.

Lam make himself on time to arrive to court with Prince, who helped with tricks to make the police to release him. Lam made up a plan with Fong in the final trial, to make Tung and the Chungs to confess the truth. Lam also suggest a plan to Kam, after Kam is revealed to know the truth, they finally agree to allied. At the trial, both Lam and Kam made Desmond to confess that both Desmond and Victoria were the real murderers to Elsa, which Victoria had Elsa crashed to the table corner which resulted into cerebral bleeding, and Desmond then fed her with water to accelerate to her death. Tsang breaks into tears after learning the desperate truth from the confession of his lover. Tsang is cleared of her murder charges and finally get her release. The Chungs and Tung are then arrested by the ICAC, lead by Luk, and the police for their crimes.

Lam, Fong, Prince and Tsang celebrates of their victory, and Lam decided to partner with Fong and Prince to form a new law firm, which Lam continues to help more civilians in his commitment of good deeds.

Cast

• Dayo Wong as Adrian Lam, a barrister who act as attorney in Jolene Tsang's case.
• Tse Kwan-ho as Kam Yuen-Shan, a prosecutor of the Department of Justice who is assigned to charge against Tsang.
• Louise Wong as Jolene Tsang, defendant of Lam's murder case.
• Fish Liew as Victoria Chung, wife of Desmond Chung
• Adam Pak as Desmond Cheung, husband of Victoria Chung
• Michael Wong as James Tung, a retired senior barrister and a longtime friend of the Chung's family
• Dee Ho as Prince, a legal executive to Adrian Lam
• Renci Yeung as Evelyn Fong, a barrister work under T.K. Ho's law firm
• Bowie Lam as Luk Ting-Hang, an ICAC assistant commissioner and classmate of Lam during law school at university
• Vincent Kok as TK Ho, friend of Adrian and superior of Evelyn Fong
• Sheldon Lo as Ben, a solicitor and assistant of James Tung

Production

Screenwriter Jack Ng has aspired to be a director since his graduation from Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts in 2000. However, he decided to turn to screenwriting which lasted for more than 20 years. After co-writing Anita with writer/director Longman Leung, producer Bill Kong invited Ng to make his directorial debut feature. With a mid-range budget and co-funding by the Hong Kong Film Development Fund, Ng came up a theme idea of court drama, and both Ng and Kong cast Dayo Wong as the lead actor.

Filming began on May 23, 2022 and wrapped up on July 2, 2022. The court scenes were mainly filmed in North Kowloon Magistracy, which has been a historic building since it ceased operation.

External links

• A Guilty Conscience at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
• A Guilty Conscience (2023 film) at Douban
• A Guilty Conscience (2023 film) at the Mtime
• A Guilty Conscience at IMDb
• A Guilty Conscience at Rotten Tomatoes