The story of Integrity revolves around a cigarette smuggling case. Instead of a fiction created by the director and screenwriter Alan Mak, it is actually adapted from a real case took place between 1994 to 1995. The case involved HK$ 8.5 billion and was very sensational. What was even more sensational is that a tainted witness from Singapore chose to stay in the country before appearing in court but was eventually silenced by several members of a criminal organisation from Hong Kong. It was alleged that the murder of the victim was more like a “family penalty” carried out by the criminal organisation! Afterwards, the criminal mastermind fled to Mainland but was eventually arrested in 2003, convicted of murder and perverting the course of justice.
Alan Mak hits “the Tiger” (A symbol of anti-corruption)
In addition to finding a real case, Producer Felix Chong also collected data about cigarette smuggling. One of the striking findings is that the number of officially sold cigarettes in the world only accounted for 10% of the number of cigarettes produced by tobacco companies. In other words, where did the rest of the 90% go?
“Those 90% became the untaxed cigarettes, which are commonly known as illicit cigarettes,” Chong said. “Of course, there is a lot of corruption and crime involved to allow these illicit cigarettes to go in to the market!” Later on, Alan Mak had the chance to meet someone in the cigarette smuggling industry and learned that this is a big business that earns billions of dollars per year. It has a very sophisticated structure and deployment, which is of great interest to him.
Producer Felix Chong
Alan Mak and Felix Chong have worked closely together since the production of the classic Hong Kong movie series, Infernal Affairs. This time, the two old friends teamed up again to make this film about commercial crime, which is a theme that reflects the social reality. “These days, no one will go rob a bank with guns, cause that’s too much trouble. Now the crime that really involves a lot of money is usually carried out by commercial crime, such as telephone fraud, online fraud, etc. I think it’s a lot more fun to film about this,” said Mak.
With intriguing plots and a strong cast list, this crime film is going to be released during 2019 Chinese Spring Festival seasonin the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand by Tangren Cultural Film Group.
