WHERE DO THE GANGSTERS COME FROM?

Victor and Nazim, who play two of the three gangsters John, Paul and Mondo, were in over the weekend to rehearse.

"Where do they come from?"

The gangsters ... how do i put it. Imagine three guys watching a movie. And as they see the movie, they think maybe they want to change stuff in the movie. So they have a chance to go in and meddle with the filmic world. But in order to go into the filmic world, they have to go in as a cinematic type as well: bruce lee style martial artist, frank sinatra style crooner, italian mob boss, the final girl in slasher films, a money-grubbing cowboy in a spaghetti western. They can't just go into a cinematic space as themselves, so these three go in as Humphrey Bogart style gangsters. Maltese Falcon. They've probably watched too much of those films.

So when they go in, they are restrained by those conventions: the hats, the suits, the cigarettes, the talk. They go in and the first thing they wanna do is have a bit of fun, so they go and seek out the girl, try to find out her name and bring her out for a harmless dance. Then they go and do what they really wanna do: kill the villain. So they go and meet the confused protagonist, give him a job and then go out of the cinematic space - perhaps back into their living room - and watch as Dev is now tasked to kill. The repurcussions are beyond their expectation - they probably wouldn't have predicted Lam Tak-Wing hijacking the gun and taking it to the supermarket.

Then again, they probably don't care. As John the gang leader says, "we're just here for a good movie".